User Journey Map - After
Key Metrics
Café Experience Design Project
Using UX principles to improve customer experience and grow sales
Project Overview
Project Type: Service Design/UX-Strategy
Industry: Hospitality
Role: Manager, Trainer, Designer
Goals: Increase rarity coffee sales, improve team workflows
Project Duration: January 2023 - May 2023
Context
At WatchHouse Hanover, I utilised UX principles to increase the customer experience of the special rarities* menu, while building confidence and workflow in the team. This led to a 118% in weekly sales, driven by the extra spend per head due to the extra cost of the ‘rarities’ menu. I worked closely with the Head of Coffee who founded the concept and the Operations Manager on the P&L, ensuring the shop remained profitable throughout this process.
*Rarities was the name given to special pour over coffees by WatchHouse, which was being tested for the first time in WatchHouse Hanover and a new concept at the time which has since been repeated by many London cafés.
The Problem
WatchHouse Hanover was opened in August 2022 in a prime central London location. The intention was that this would become the flagship store for the brand’s mission of being ‘best in class’ in speciality coffee in London. The release of the ‘rarities’ menu was launched for the first time in a London store, which saw the best coffees in the world be offered to customers for a premium price and elevated experience.
Goals
Establish the rarities menu: Increase customer knowledge of what the menu is.
Train the team: build team confidence on selling the rarities menu and deliver best in class service.
Café profitability and hitting forecasts: Ensure the café was hitting forecasted sales and boosting the bottom line.
Discovery & Research
In my first month on the project, I used a variety of research approaches to understand what the current customer and team journey flows were, how the team were engaging with customers and what the pain points were. I employed a mixed-method research approach to understand the issues deeper.
Semi-structured user interviews
I wrote a list of questions which I asked my team members individually to understand their knowledge of the rarities menu, how confident they were at up-selling and what their pain-points were in their workflow and task completion.
Key Findings
Don’t really know what these coffees are (rarities) and lacked confidence if the customer asked questions they didn’t know the answer to.
They had too many tasks to focus on already. Rarities was time consuming which was overwhelming when other orders piled up.
They had a few bad reviews from being slow, so they wanted to focus on the espresso customers and speed of service.
Lacked Confidence
Too many tasks
Time Consuming
Overwhelming
Bad reviews
Direct Observation
Each day I stood back and observed the user flow in action. I wanted to see how the team were currently working, what in their task flow was slowing them down or making them stressed or feel rushed. What key steps were being overlooked or ignored and what was the customer experience from the moment they walked in to when they left.
Quantitative Data Analysis
Through our till system (Lightspeed) I was able to chart what times were most popular for rarities sales, what hours the sites sales were highest and through our people management system (Harri) I could track what hours were the most staffed hours and when team members were on break. Through our weekly P&L reports, I was able to track daily spend per head.
Key Findings
When the customer seemed interested in the rarities, either by observing the menu, the brew-bar station, or asked the staff, they were either given a very short answer, followed by ‘what can I get you’ or ignored.
When an order came through, the baristas didn’t have a plan to manage the espresso bar and attend to the rarity order, leading to 12+ minute wait times.
Customers weren’t told to expect a longer wait which often set poor expectations and impatience from the customer, leading to the team’s stress increasing.
We were often out of stock due to poor ordering schedules and inventory management.
Key Findings
Rarities sales were highest between 16:00-18:00. The current staffing system showed we sent 2 staff members home at 16:00
Our peak sales periods were between 08:30 - 10:00 and 12:00 - 14:00, the morning and lunch rush. Breaks currently started at 12:00 and were unstructured, meaning we were always down 1-2 team members at key sales periods.
Testing and Solutions
Create a journey map for team members to use to build confidence, which in turn will help guide the customer on what the rarities menu is and what option is best for each persons taste.
Create a task hierarchy to reduce stress and empower team members to give a better service.
Employee buy-in, training and continuous iteration.
Weekly updates: empower the team on how up-selling rarities and improving spend per head can increase the staffing levels, in turn, reducing their stress and multi-tasking.
Positive reinforcement: Acknowledging when the team members successfully implemented the service standards and up-sold or spoke to the customer about rarities.
Training: Have my Head Barista spend 1-1 time with each FOH team member to build their confidence and knowledge on rarities.
User Journey Map - Before
User Journey Map - After
Results
Testing and iterating took 2 months from mid-February to mid-April. Each week I adjusted the schedule based on key trading times and the gradual increase in sales. I met with my Head Barista each week to understand where the weaknesses were in the workflow and what was and wasn’t working. Confidence gradually grew and rarities sales went from roughly 20 per week at the start, to 20-30 per day. This increased spend per head and sales consequently. The speed of service improved due to the refined task hierarchy implemented and positive reviews increased ten-fold, solving the problems outlined in the research.
Reflections
This was my first time applying UX principles in a live, non-digital setting. I learned that identifying the various users, be it the team members or customers and applying UX thinking like showing empathy to their needs and understanding their pain points and friction, I could design various systems to make the user journey more successful. Having this approach didn’t only improve the user experience, it boosted sales, which in turn met all stakeholders needs. Going forward, I will apply these principles in both digital and physical settings. It was easy in this case that I could observe users interactions, which I will have to bare in mind for future digital products, where this isn’t possible.
Weekly Sales
+118%
Rarity orders
Before: 20-30/week
After: 30-40/day
Spend Per Head
Before: ~£3.50
After: ~£7.00-16.00
Staff Engagement/Knowledge
Before: Low
After: High, (confidence & clarity grew)
Key Metrics
Café Experience Design Project
Using UX principles to improve customer experience and grow sales
Portfolio Overview
Project Type: Service Design/UX Strategy
Role: Manager, Trainer, Designer
Project Duration: January 2023 - May 2023
Industry: Hospitality
Goals: Increase rarity coffee sales, improve team workflows
Context
At WatchHouse Hanover, I utilised UX principles to increase the customer experience of the special rarities* menu, while building confidence and workflow in the team. This led to a 118% in weekly sales, driven by the extra spend per head due to the extra cost of the ‘rarities’ menu. I worked closely with the Head of Coffee who founded the concept and the Operations Manager on the P&L, ensuring the shop remained profitable throughout this process.
*Rarities was the name given to special pour over coffees by WatchHouse, which was being tested for the first time in WatchHouse Hanover and a new concept at the time which has since been repeated by many London cafés.
The Problem
WatchHouse Hanover was opened in August 2022 in a prime central London location. The intention was that this would become the flagship store for the brand’s mission of being ‘best in class’ in speciality coffee in London. The release of the ‘rarities’ menu was launched for the first time in a London store, which saw the best coffees in the world be offered to customers for a premium price and elevated experience.
Goals
Establish the rarities menu: Increase customer knowledge of what the menu is.
Train the team: build team confidence on selling the rarities menu and deliver best in class service.
Café profitability and hitting forecasts: Ensure the café was hitting forecasted sales and boosting the bottom line.
Discovery & Research
In my first month on the project, I used a variety of research approaches to understand what the current customer and team journey flows were, how the team were engaging with customers and what the pain points were. I employed a mixed-method research approach to understand the issues deeper.
Semi-structured user interviews
I wrote a list of questions which I asked my team members individually to understand their knowledge of the rarities menu, how confident they were at up-selling and what their pain-points were in their workflow and task completion.
Key Findings
Don’t really know what these coffees are (rarities) and lacked confidence if the customer asked questions they didn’t know the answer to.
They had too many tasks to focus on already. Rarities was time consuming which was overwhelming when other orders piled up.
They had a few bad reviews from being slow, so they wanted to focus on the espresso customers and speed of service.
Lacked Confidence
Too many tasks
Time Consuming
Direct Observation
Each day I stood back and observed the user flow in action. I wanted to see how the team were currently working, what in their task flow was slowing them down or making them stressed or feel rushed. What key steps were being overlooked or ignored and what was the customer experience from the moment they walked in to when they left.
Key Findings
When the customer seemed interested in the rarities, either by observing the menu, the brew-bar station, or asked the staff, they were either given a very short answer, followed by ‘what can I get you’ or ignored.
When an order came through, the baristas didn’t have a plan to manage the espresso bar and attend to the rarity order, leading to 12+ minute wait times.
Customers weren’t told to expect a longer wait which often set poor expectations and impatience from the customer, leading to the team’s stress increasing.
We were often out of stock due to poor ordering schedules and inventory management.
Quantitative Data Analysis
Through our till system (Lightspeed) I was able to chart what times were most popular for rarities sales, what hours the sites sales were highest and through our people management system (Harri) I could track what hours were the most staffed hours and when team members were on break. Through our weekly P&L reports, I was able to track daily spend per head.
Key Findings
Rarities sales were highest between 16:00-18:00. The current staffing system showed we sent 2 staff members home at 16:00
Our peak sales periods were between 08:30 - 10:00 and 12:00 - 14:00, the morning and lunch rush. Breaks currently started at 12:00 and were unstructured, meaning we were always down 1-2 team members at key sales periods.
Testing and Solutions
Create a journey map for team members to use to build confidence, which in turn will help guide the customer on what the rarities menu is and what option is best for each persons taste.
Create a task hierarchy to reduce stress and empower team members to give a better service.
Overwhelming
Bad reviews
Employee buy-in, training and continuous iteration.
Weekly updates: empower the team on how up-selling rarities and improving spend per head can increase the staffing levels, in turn, reducing their stress and multi-tasking.
Positive reinforcement: Acknowledging when the team members successfully implemented the service standards and up-sold or spoke to the customer about rarities.
Training: Have my Head Barista spend 1-1 time with each FOH team member to build their confidence and knowledge on rarities.
User Journey Map - Before
User Journey Map - After
Results
Testing and iterating took 2 months from mid-February to mid-April. Each week I adjusted the schedule based on key trading times and the gradual increase in sales. I met with my Head Barista each week to understand where the weaknesses were in the workflow and what was and wasn’t working. Confidence gradually grew and rarities sales went from roughly 20 per week at the start, to 20-30 per day. This increased spend per head and sales consequently. The speed of service improved due to the refined task hierarchy implemented and positive reviews increased ten-fold, solving the problems outlined in the research.
Key Metrics
Weekly Sales
+118%
Rarity orders
Before: 20-30/week
After: 30-40/day
Reflections
This was my first time applying UX principles in a live, non-digital setting. I learned that identifying the various users, be it the team members or customers and applying UX thinking like showing empathy to their needs and understanding their pain points and friction, I could design various systems to make the user journey more successful. Having this approach didn’t only improve the user experience, it boosted sales, which in turn met all stakeholders needs. Going forward, I will apply these principles in both digital and physical settings. It was easy in this case that I could observe users interactions, which I will have to bare in mind for future digital products, where this isn’t possible.
Spend Per Head
Before: ~£3.50
After: ~£7.00-16.00
Staff Engagement/Knowledge
Before: Low
After: High, (confidence & clarity grew)