Helpful Tips for Planning the Design of Your Coffee Shop
It’s not always easy to design a coffee shop. Sure, it might sound like fun to start with, but once the project gets underway, you’ll soon have a different perspective on it all! Well, we have been there and done that, on numerous occasions, and we have a few tips to help you to get it right. We won’t be describing the entire process – that’s for another, longer, article. Instead, we’re going to look at just a few tips that we have found useful over the years. Here goes…
Do you need a high turnover of clientele?
If you’re selling coffee and muffins, and nothing much else, then it’s unlikely that you’ll make much money unless you have a high turnover of customers. They come in, order, sit down, eat/drink, and leave. In this case, you don’t want to make the furniture too comfortable. Make it appear comfortable, but don’t actually make it comfortable. For example, have harder fabric sofas or cushions on wooden chairs that are a little too thin. It’s important that you don’t make your customers too comfortable, otherwise, they might stay too long, and you will find it difficult to turn a profit.
On the other hand, you might be the type of coffee shop that wants its customers to stay longer, and spend more. In this case, you do the opposite of the above: you make everything extra comfortable. You set mood lighting, not too dim and not too bright. All those little tricks that will make people want to stay.
Often, coffee shop design for city centre cafes (where they want a high turnover of customer because they can get a lot of profit), is less comfortable than the design in coffee shops that are in quieter locations.
Cater to two types of customer: extravert and introvert.
The best coffee shops have something for everyone. Extraverts gain their energy from the hustle and bustle, so for them, provide some tables in the middle of the room. Here, they can gain energy from the people milling around them.
For the introverts, have a few tables peppered around the outside of the room, in little corners and nooks and crannies. Believe me, they will appreciate it greatly.
Create a social hub.
Even if you opt for a coffee shop design that provides more for a high turnover of customer, you should still try to make the shop sociable. People love to go to coffee shops to grab a drink and have a natter, whether it’s a ten-minute natter or an hour-long natter, they like to socialise.
To make your coffee shop socialising-friendly, include things like round tables. It’s no coincidence that the Knights of the Round Table sat around a, well, a round table: it’s democratic; it’s sociable; and it creates a feeling of camaraderie: the perfect atmosphere for any coffee shop!
