Coffee Customer Behavior (12A)

I love how there are so many types of customers who come into coffee shops! It implies that there are a lot of people who need and enjoy coffee and the culture surrounding it, which makes my heart happy.

Before sketching out and defining my market segments, I decided to conduct a little online research on typical categories of coffee customers and honestly, HAD A BLAST. Some of these segments are purely hilarious and others scary realistic. In some of the goofy videos I watched, I found the barista in me triggered by some of the customer behaviors that I am all too familiar with: the cheap customer, the person who is on a diet but orders a peppermint mocha, the persons name I can NEVER understand, I could go on and ON. If you’re down for a good laugh, please go check out this hilarious video: https://youtu.be/wjzhu1Iwpz4

But anyways, fun and serious research in all, I composed a few market segments (differing customers) that may exist in the creation of The Mount Coffeehouse. In choosing segments, I drew out a couple of options including:

1. Studious Students

2. Business Peeps

3. The Socializers

4. The Bible Studies/Group Projecters

5. The General Hipster

[*disclaimer* - this is not ALL types of customers. Sorry if I excluded you. Please still come to The Mount. k thanks]

For this assignment, I am going to focus on students who come to The Mount Coffeehouse to study because this the primary reason for the two-tier volume elevated control system that will be so crucial to my coffee space.

In my interviews, I interviewed three studying students in Pascal’s Coffeehouse who were particularly hard at work. Unfortunately for them, but necessary for me, I interrupted their studying time (though obviously with their consent) to ask each of them the following questions:

1. What is the main reason you came to _____ coffee shop today?

2. What times do you usually come to study in this space?

3. How productive would you say you are when you come to a coffee shop to study?

4. Do people talking around you or loud music annoy you or help you focus?

5. What would you say the difference between white noise and distractions is?

Those questions and following conversations brought me to these findings:

Their answers helped me identify further opportunities to exploit within my coffee house and made me more aware of problems faced by this segment of customers. For example, Philip mentioned that when he really wants to “hunker down” studying wise, he will go to Starbucks off campus because he knows he won’t see as many people he knows. But, when he is wanting to do more casual, “loose” work, he’ll come to Pascal’s, usually see someone he knows, and be able to talk a little and then get work done. I encountered a similar experience with my friend Sycora who said that she enjoys studying with others around her and appreciates the white noise. Lastly, I talked with my friend Sophia who said that the people around her, if the space is more crowded, can be sometimes louder and therefore hard to tune out while studying. However, she did specify that this issue mostly occurs in the afternoon hours.

This information helps expand my perspective beyond my own which is helpful because although my desires and ideas for the space are important, I will ultimately need the customers to be comfortable and pleased with the space and the unique services it offers.

After talking with these individuals, I know that there are students out there who would appreciate a space like this. I am now even thinking about for the study space area having certain hours of the day that are quieter than others. I am not sure YET on how I would encourage that but maybe that’s for a later post! Implementing these ideas correctly will take more research on the best ways to establish the two-tier system without being restrictive to customers. I want my coffee house to be intentional with its use of space and would never want customers to feel like they don’t belong. However, by including two different types of areas, the socializing first floor, and the studying second floor I feel like customers can find just the right niche.