Undersell, Over Deliver. Crafting an Unfolding Experience

Happy Thursday! I’m writing this on the morning of a tropical storm here at the shop! Drinking one of the last pumpkin spiced lattes I’ll be making this year and listening to Kaytranadas first album, which is kind of a dancy spacey electronic hodgepodge. We’re planning to wrap on fall drinks this weekend so i’m getting it while I got it. A couple of months ago we had a hurricane that required us to close, today hasn’t been so bad; I’m hoping for some more business actually with kids out of school, but we’ll see how it goes. That would be awesome, after the storm last time we had cold weather that was perfect for launching a new menu. Here we are again. I love thinking about guest perception.

This blog will define my current philosophy on guest experience. I believe ideas should be simple and impactful. They should be easy to pick up and play like Tetherball. They should speak for themselves once people choose to interact at a deeper level.

Putting up the Pole

I think it was the book “The VIsual MBA” that described a new business idea as a dance party. You start the party and at first no one is dancing, you need some brave or confident people who are so stoked on your idea that they’re willing to dance alone. Once the party gets going, everyone wants to dance. Our espresso machine repair service man put it more bluntly, “the hardest part is getting people in the door, once they’re in they’ll buy something.” Getting that party started, getting people in the door, that’s important. But we’re not pushing people in the door, not directly. To grow naturally and execute on my vision every time, I want to undersell.

To Undersell here refers to not pushing people with an overcomplicated idea, not giving them all the information at once. Make approaching the shop super simple and easy to understand, make it something anyone can get behind without much effort on their part. We sell “COFFEE” like the sign says, great. They want coffee, that’s their idea come on in and try ours. Then we can blow minds.

Once people begin playing

You can operate inside your space with all you’ve got. Play the defense and build something undeniable. This happens at the micro and macro level. At the micro level we’re having individual new guest experiences. At the macro level we’re building a culture on social media and through word of mouth.

We’re there to hit it back

I won’t pretend that every interaction is the same, it’s not that easy. Weekend mornings for example are a bit different since we have louder more upbeat music and two people to carry conversations a bit faster, we’re pushing people a little more so that we can crush that quick trip drip! And maybe that’s all we need to do! We don’t have 5 minutes for every guest if we’re super busy! But! If we’re having fun we’re still delivering a good time by existing. The core broad strokes are there. We’re ready for anything. We Undersell and Over Deliver where we can. The sign on the store says “coffee,” our menu is small, we speak simply and genuinely. This is to give people the softest simplest expectations, the smallest stairs to climb and the most approachable space going in. Tetherball is a sporty shop, but tetherball is an easy pick up and play sport; You can get up and hit the ball, and you’re playing tetherball.

To Over Deliver here when we do have the time is to give people a drink that goes well beyond expectations, or a conversation that goes well beyond the transaction. Our menu says “espresso, latte, regula’ drip.” When the guest receives an espresso that’s well balanced and served with seltzer and a spoon, homemade vanilla and beautiful latte art with perfect texture on their plain latte, or an interesting and memorable black coffee that’s not too hot or burnt to heck. It’s impactful. We don’t look super unique on the face of it, but we deliver. Talking to someone about their day or their week over multiple trips, asking them what’s next for their family or following up on their coffee from todayh or last week. The best thing you can give someone in my opinion is an unfolding experience, where every step of the process is seamless and amazing.

I think of an older woman who ordered a sugar free decaf vanilla latte, who was amazed we had unsweetened organic kosher almond milk. We walked it to her table with latte art and a napkin, and she again was amazed at the temperature, flavor and speed of our delivery. We followed up a few minutes later to check in, and let her borrow a phone charger when we found out her phone was about to die and she was waiting on a call. This started with a basic latte order.

The most amazing thing about orders like this, is they can start off seeming “rude.” Some of my favorite guests were pretty cold on the first visit. Once they came in and found out we were really nice and made decent coffee, they were pretty personable on the next trip, and maybe even brought friends the time after that. I have to remind myself and my employee to keep putting yourself out there, for over and under-enthusiastic people. Over time it’ll work out. The great thing about underselling is you’re not being fake by doing this, you don’t have to be on 110% for every person, just be yourself and be happy to be there. That’s enough. Your vibe attracts your tribe.

Online and Outside

To reiterate on simple and impactful, I try to keep social media posts interesting. Nothing drives me more nuts than seeing other cafes or businesses, post a picture of a latte with a single sentence. You’re not actually excited to see what they post next! What’s the point in that! We post once or twice a week, with a few good pics and a few good paragraphs on what’s going on. I try to keep my images exciting at a glance too! easy to read at a glance visually and click on, better to actually scroll through and give some time. I love it when i’m following a new cafe or one that’s been doing exciting things worth following, and I can actually check in on them for an update or see a new post I want to read about! There are exciting things happening every day in every cafe, there are people walking through the door with things going on. There are things worth talking about!

I’ve finally heard about tetherball in the wild, and i’ve had other people tell me about it too. It’s always been really nice stuff, hearing strangers say “the music is cool” or “it’s super clean” makes me feel like we’re over-delivering for those people, since those are things that take work! I heard “he must really love his job” this week too which is sick, I do. That’s another one that makes me feel like we’re doing a good job on connecting once we make contact. Ultimately I can’t control every interaction in the wild, but by nailing it here I can ensure that we’re skewing positive.

So what’s different about that?

Well at a glance we’ve got a “minimalist” look, and that’s some of it. In our business plan we wrote we’d make weird drinks more acessible, and one way we do that is by naming our milk tea “go fish” to convince the southern guy with sports shades try a boba shop style drink. Other shops might try and overexplain it rather than letting the drink be there with a strong role, and speak for itself when the time is right. We have dedicated regulars for every drink on our menu, and as someone who wrote the menu that feels awesome.

That minimalist look is not immediate mass appeal, and i’m not posting everything everywhere all the time, hoping i’ll hit my mark. Restraint is endearing, and I’m willing to take my time with what we do well, and put that out there consistently. I’m not selling every type of merch and knick knack on our shelves right away. I’m not putting pictures of our drinks on the windows or on the road, i’m not paying for yelp adverstistements no matter how often they call me. I’m cool with what we have and what we’re doing.

I’m happy to grow with and continue to build on this philosophy. I believe it will build a strong brand through great experiences. We’ll see how it goes : )