CoCo Reflections from Silken Buska:
This Week’s CoCo: Take Risks
Taking risks is such a great way to stretch ourselves and see growth. Sometimes these risks can be iffy so when taking a risk you have to weigh the benefit against it to see if it’s a healthy risk or one that could be damaging. It’s fun to take small risks in cafe to help build this risk taking muscle. Like when you start a shot but look in your fridge and need milk so you run to the back room to get more while counting in your head to see if you can stop the shot in time…. Or starting a shot and icing a drink and trying to make it back in time. Less far to move but a task to accomplish to keep the rush moving forward nonetheless. Or when bringing milk from the back room and trying to add just one more gallon or alternative milk to your arm and see if you can actually make it to the counter out front. Obviously, these risks are small and non threatening but it’s nice to have smaller ones to help build up the courage for larger ones. It can also help you evaluate the weight of the risk. It’s no coincidence that take risks follows speak to the future not the past because when you’re going to take larger risks, sometimes harder risks may not go well. Evaluating the risk and assessing what could happen is all part of the process. When the risks don’t go as well as planned, we move forward and that is all part of growing. We have to learn from the past to make the next step easier to #takerisks.
Next Week’s CoCo: Be Urgent to the Customer
When a customer enters our space, urgency in cafes starts with a hello. It’s important to let our guests know that we care they are in our space and if we aren’t able to take care of them at that moment, acknowledging them and letting them know we will be with them shortly. This helps ease the mind so they don’t have to wonder if we’ve seen them or not. When someone is looking around, asking if we can help or answer any questions helps them feel encouraged to ask rather than like they are disturbing us. After all, without our customers we don’t have a job! This also looks like dropping tasks that are not as important to take care of our customers right away. If brewing coffee or making someone’s drink, that is the important task at the moment and a way we show urgency in a different way. And then when that’s done, we hop right to the next person to take orders or answer questions to make sure they feel valued. Other non traditional ways to show urgency is by washing blenders or dishes that you use often ASAP! When there are only so many blenders/dishes to use, these tasks are creating urgency before someone even has ordered! (Shoutout Mercy for being a boss at this last Saturday). It’s a great way to anticipate what a custie might need. Another easy way that we do this is by asking if someone needs room for cream in the coffee (or tea). Super simple, but shows we care about how they may enjoy their beverage and means we don’t have to fix our mistake later. When we pause conversations, ask someone if they want food, brew coffee right away so no one has to wait, it’s being one step ahead of the customer to show they matter. Let us all treat our custies the way we would like to be treated in a cafe space and help us #beurgenttothecustomer.
CoCo Heroes:
- Take Risks: This Core Commitment Hero comes from the Oconomowoc Cafe Team – Payson! Payson has displayed a spirit of take risks through his craft development work with the team as a Master Barista and continues to display that spirit in his Cafe Ops Specialist training. Keep up the great work, Payson!
- Be Urgent to the Customer: This Core Commitment Hero comes from the Glendale Cafe Team – Claire Gorman and Justin Miller! These two are both amazing examples of how to make sure the customer is our #1 priority. From crushing checklist tasks to making sure we’re always stocked and ready for rushes, to making sure as soon as someone walks in to cafe we’re greeting them and grabbing their order. Their urgency helps Glendale run smoothly and efficiently. Shout out to Justin and Claire! Thanks for all you do!
Going-Ons:
Company Update: Check out our latest Company Update here.
March P&Ps: Our next cycle of Pay & Performance reviews will be scheduled in March. Your Team Leaders will be reaching out to get yours scheduled before the end of March.
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Birthdays:
- 3/19 – Manning Steinke
- 3/20 – Christopher Sturm
- 3/20 – Dean Wnuk
- 3/21 – Zoe Brown
- 3/28 – Kaylee Pikula
- 3/30 – Adelie Content
Anniversaries:
- Eric Catalan – 1 year!
- Cameron Maas – 1 year!
- Joshua Matthews – 1 year!
- Celeste Mitschke – 2 years!
- Anna Oelerich – 11 years!
- Rachel Perik – 6 years!
- Alex Plyer – 5 years!
- Rachel Shea – 2 years!
Welcomes:
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Judah Hatton – WFB Barista
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Lily Kraus – Baker
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Sadie Sielski – Baker
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Meah Mora – Baker
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Andie Zei – WFB Barista
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