Running an Office Café with a Barista in Your Office

Wondering how to operate your in-office cafe given all the changes brought on by COVID-19? Well, look no further! If you're operating a barista-staffed cafe in your office, there are some great improvements you can make to your operations to keep everyone safe and caffeinated!

Experts recognize that your in-office cafe is already safer than most self-service coffee stations. Recently, Gensler asserted this point, and we can’t help but agree! We are approaching each of our in-office cafes with new technology-driven improvements as well as physical and operational changes to keep them operating as safely as ever!

Technology

Barista service and cafes fit well into the future of the office. The future is now, and instead of flying cars, we’re investing in cafe safety! How can we empower our employees to experience virtual browsing of their cafes menu options? Not only should they be able to see the menu, but they should be able to filter across critical dietary restrictions and taste preferences on their mobile devices.

"It’s 2020 and we want our oat milk."

Every millennial ever

Why can’t our employees pre-order their drink or food items so that it’s placed in a socially distanced pickup area for them to retrieve their drink in a safe, contactless way? Well, with the proper technology, they can!

Whether they are ordering from the train on the way into work or they are ordering as their last meeting wraps up, saving time and contactless pickup are important features of the modern cafe experience. They can even thank their barista with a contactless, non-creepy wink! Everyone wins.

Shouldn’t your employees be able to make a mobile payment for their drink or food items? Yes! That touch-screen-enabled Point-of-sale system is now a high-risk component of the payment process. Payment should be processed entirely from their mobile device or computer, and if you are seeking to apply a daily subsidy or a subsidy to every order, that should be applied no problemo.

Operations

Technology is one piece of the puzzle, and the other piece is operations.

This is, of course your classic, 2-piece puzzle. Very different from the thousand-piece puzzles completed in quarantine. Here are some of the operational changes we’re making at our in-office cafes in response to the new return-to-work environment:

• Discontinuing use of personal tumblers
• Installing plexiglass to shield cafe service counter
• Requiring baristas to place lids on all drinks for employees
• Keeping condiments (e.g., sugar, milk, ketchup -- we don’t judge) behind the bar and requiring that our baristas add these items to drinks upon employee request
• Placing visual cues such as floor decals, colored tape, or signs to indicate to customers where they should stand during check out

These changes are super doable! If you have a vendor running your cafe, send them this lovely list, and if you're managing your cafe internally and are looking for some help on how to bring these recommendations to life, give us a holler. We're happy to help :)

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