Good Coffee, Surfing and Your Bottom Line

I'm sure you agree that it's hard to judge the quality of some services until we experience them. Quite often the only basis for our choice is the conversation with the service provider, Sometimes the look and feel of the business place and quality of their printed materials. If we're are lucky we can review testimonials and if we are very lucky someone we know and trust refers us to that business.

But most of the time we still experience anxiety when making a decision to buy from someone for the first time. We wish we could have more reasons to be confident, don't you agree?

It is oh-so-important to remember all of this when we sell our own services. Because no matter how great our expertise and no matter how wonderful our marketing materials are, the prospects don't *KNOW* how good we are until they *experience* what we really do for them. So, they are *entitled* to be skeptical, distrustful, reserved and thinking about hiring someone else instead us. It is natural.

I used to conduct business in a very busy real estate office. The only coffee you could get there was served in styrofoam cups, with plastic stirrers and powdered creamer. Coffee wasn't that good either. It bothered me because I love good coffee experience.

So, I brought my own coffee machine, my own demitasse cups and saucers. My own little spoons and my own special blend of coffee. When I was meeting with prospects or clients I served them my kind of coffee. It took me a while to realize the big impact it had on my business.

You see, by serving prospective clients a good cup of coffee I'd create a lasting impression that I'm creative, resourceful and detail oriented. And that I care more about quality than just about my convenience.

By serving a superb cup of coffee in a pretty demitasse with a cute little teaspoon I planted in their subconscious a thought that if I pay so much attention to serving a nice cup of coffee, chances are great that I pay attention to my work. Which, of course, was true. People loved my coffee and it was one of the reasons they loved to do business with me.

What that has to do with YOUR bottom line?
Everything.

Please remember that at the beginning of the relationship, your prospects are skeptical, distrustful, reserved and thinking about hiring someone else. Understand, that from lack of other references they often base their decisions not on the quality of your work -- which they cannot understand -- but on the way you talk, walk, and dress. They judge you by the little things. Your handshake and your eye contact (ingredients vary from culture to culture). They judge the level of your enthusiasm, your generosity, your ability to listen, your attitude. All of those little things score for you extra points... or not.

On the Internet people judge us by the look and content of our web sites. If you make their surfing experience satisfying and pleasurable they remember us fondly and it helps to gain their trust. if we subject them to frustration -- our actions go down, no matter how terrific our service or product might be.

Shameless Plug
If you would like to make sure that visitors have a great experience when visiting your web pages AND to make sure that you make money in the process this might help ...

A good coffee maker with fluted, melita style filters - in the average all-American coffee maker water drips far too fast!. You can get a superb coffee maker for FREE from Gevalia Coffee, all you need to do is sign up for a $10 trial shipment of their great coffee beans.... 

.... which is the second thing you need: good quality freshly ground (or almost freshly ground) coffee beans - ground specifically for those cone-shaped melita filters. Fine ground but not as fine as for espresso. 

Now, add the flavor. 
Get a specially flavored coffee. From your gourmet store, or from on-line catalog ( like this one - no, I am not involved with them) - I suggest a simple chocolate flavor - and mix half and half with some regular coffee. You will end up with just a little taste of something divine instead of killing a true coffee flavor. (I also mix a regular coffee with decaf, because I don't want to get hyper after a few cups). Use 1-2 heaped teaspoon of coffee per cup of water. Be generous!

And here comes my secret!
After you pour water to your coffee maker, pour the same amount of milk to your glass carafe - the one that coffee will drip into and turn on your machine. While the coffee drips, the content of the carafe is being warmed by the hot plate on the bottom - so, you don't have to dilute coffee with cold milk or mix in that horrible powdered coffee creamer. But remember to be generous and put enough coffee in the filter!

And that's it. It is that simple. Just make sure to serve it in demitasse cups - not in mugs or in a paper cups! Serving an extraordinary cup of coffee is far easier (and less expensive) than printing a stack of glossy, colorful brochures - yet it creates more lasting impressions. Try it! You will be amazed how this little thing (of course coupled with your other customer service efforts) can lead establishing more rapport, more trust, more clients - and more success in your business.