October is Fair-Trade month and is a perfect time to take a look at offering Fair-Trade Certified coffees to your customers. In the spirit of the month, we’re introducing a 3-part blog on Fair-Trade Certified coffees and how they matter to you and your business.

What’s this Fair-Trade stuff all about?

Talking about Fair-Trade Certified coffees can become very confusing, very quickly. What exactly is Fair-Trade Certified? What about Free Trade or Fairly Traded or even Direct Trade? What’s the difference, if they’re not all the same thing?

• Free Trade is an entirely different animal that you’d be hard-pressed to find any non-politically biased information on. In its most basic form, Free Trade is a trade policy that allows traders to act and trade without interference from the government. This means there are no certifying agencies and middleman regulated tariffs or taxes. There are no checks and balances, no one to watch where monies are going or how it is spent. There’s no standard on who decides or defines what “free trade” is.
• Direct Trade & Fairly Traded are very similar. The principles of Fair-Trade Certified are somewhat represented. Coffee roasters purchase direct from farmers without utilizing middlemen or any outside certification. The roasters create the standards and determine what is fair. However, most of the standards are not across the board and can differ from coffee region to coffee region. There is an overall, albeit flexible, approach to labor and environmental issues. The main concern tends to be for the economic sustainability of all parties involved. The biggest difference is the lack of a 3rd party organization, like TransFair USA. This means that the only people making sure the practices are Direct or Fair are the roasters themselves. The question that remains is whether or not consumers feel able to trust an individual business’ judgment, over an independent 3rd party organization, dedicated to assure criterias are met with an unbiased agenda.
• Fair-Trade Certified coffee is an organized social movement and economic-based approach that aspires to help producers in developing countries promote sustainability by paying close attention to the details in trade and cutting out the middle man.

  This means that:

  • The farmers are being paid fairly for their work
  • The living and working conditions are safer
  • The producers have direct access to international markets, thereby cutting out the middle man and extra costs
  • And there is an independent organization that is making sure these guidelines are met.

Fair-Trade Certified also has a very specific vision for the health and well-being of the farmers. Certification, which is received from independent 3rd party organizations, makes sure that working conditions are safe, that child labor is not happening and that money is being put back into these impoverished coffee producing communities to stimulate growth out of poverty.

In today’s society of social responsibility our cars are becoming gas sippers as opposed to gas guzzlers, our papers and plastics are becoming more recyclable and our homes are becoming greener. It’s fashionable to care about more than just what affects us and us alone. Fair-Trade Certified has been on the rise for the past decade or so and fits perfectly in with the idea to be more socially conscious and aware of the impact we have with our choices and money.

In addition to the social responsibility, there’s also the health aspect. With the world searching for ways to lead a healthy and long life, the organic market keeps growing and growing. Currently, according to TransFair USA, 60% of Fair-Trade Certified certified coffees in the U.S. are also certified organic.

100% of Kaffe Magnum Opus’s Fair-Trade Certified coffees are certified Organic.

Stay tuned for Vol. II — Am I made for Fair-Trade Certified?

 

Make them hear you…employee training

  Providing your staff with all the knowledge you can when training them will provide a bounty of dividends in the future. A well trained employee is worth their weight in gold, both to the business and to the customer. Make sure that your employees are prepared for anything, from how you want your place to look to how you want them to handle unusual inquiries. Otherwise they’ll learn in front of your customer, which is considered the worst place for them to learn.                                                       

• TRAIN AS IF YOUR STAFF WROTE YOUR PAYCHECK.

  You wouldn’t go away for several days & leave teenagers home alone without rules. You would give then boundaries and rules you’d expect them to follow & things you’d expect them to do. You’d leave them with a definite idea of what is accepted and what is not. Extend the same principal to your employees.

   If you don’t train your employees they will have no context for their actions. If they say the wrong things, or act inappropriately, your customers may get bad information or not information. This may diminish their chances of buying from you. Even if only one employee out of the whole crew gives bad service, you end up with all your customers’ experience being at risk. You must give a structure so every customer gets the same message. Scripts do this.

• UTILIZE SCRIPTS TO ENSURE QUALITY.

   If a customer asks “I was wondering if your company did favor’s for parties, my sister is getting married and she wants 2oz. coffee packs to give to her guests.”

Your employee, if trained properly will either know this answer or will be able to say “I’m sorry our Manger isn’t here today but he does work tomorrow in the morning if you wanted to reach him then or I can leave him your information.” 

   A script would have put them in charge of the situation, instead of flustered or telling the customer “No we don’t do that” when really you do.

   When a script is consistently well-presented, it forms the framework of interactions between people, like your employees and customers. When done well, it sounds quite natural. Writing a script for an untrained person allows them to go through the sale or answer questions with confidence. It leaves no room for error which is good for your business and for the customer because they are getting the proper information.

 

For more information visit http://www.kmocoffee.com/ and for more ideas visit http://www.improveyourprofits.com/ , for up-to-date information on Kaffe Magnum Opus visit www.twitter.com/KMOcoffee or to contact me directly at Ciara@KMOcoffee.com

When a customer walks through your door does your staff greet them warmly and sincerely, do they make sure that the customer feel’s truly welcome and appreciated for walking into your establishment?

So what are the elements of a good greeting?

1. Immediate recognition. Don’t wait even a couple of minutes to acknowledge your customer. If you are anywhere in proximity of your customer say hello.

For example:

• Whenever you walk into Moe’s Southwest Grill the staff yells “Welcome to Moe’s”
• At Cold Stone Creamery as soon as you walk in a staff member will say “Welcome to Coldstone”
• Or you can say “Welcome to Bob’s Java, my names John, what can I make for you today?”

2. Avoid “How may I help you?” this question allows the customer (in a sales situation) to say “just looking”. Start off with “How are you?” or comment on something they are wearing “great glasses, where did you get them?” Size them up as soon as they walk in the door.

• For example a middle aged woman walks in with two small kids, she seems a bit rattled and she is wearing a Soccer Mom T-shirt. As she approaches the counter, a conversation might begin like “Welcome to Bob’s Java. Looks like you have your hands full. Did you just come from practice or a game?” and she says “Oh no! Thank God, soccer ended last month.” (”You Can Compete” by Bob Phibbs) 

A response back might be:

• “My sister said that very thing when her kids were done with soccer for the season”
• ” My neighbor has 3 boys who all play soccer, I bet she would have to agree with you”

3. Understand them. Begin your relationship with the true goal of finding out their unknown wants, needs and desires and making sure that you fulfill them.

Having a proper greeting and a proper salutation as they leave are important steps in getting your customers to return. Go over with your staff some examples of everyday of “Goodbye Greetings”. That will be the last thing the customer remembers and it should definitely leave a good impression. For example:

• “Have a nice day, hope to see ya again soon”
• “See ya later Joe”
• “Thanks for stopping in, have a great day”

For more information visit www.kmocoffee.com and for more ideas visit www.improveyourprofits.com, for up-to-date information on Kaffe Magnum Opus visit www.twitter.com/KMOcoffee or you can contact me directly at Ciara@KMOcoffee.com or at 1-800-652-5282