The culture of drinking coffee among Cambodians is incredibly growing in Phnom Penh. With this surging number of coffee consumers, it is unsurprising that there are brand-new coffee shops opening up next to you almost every day. The capital city is blooming with many different kinds of small coffee businesses. There we have small coffee shops, coffee carts, coffee corners as well as mobile coffee and more which are more convenient and cheaper for consumers. It is not just about the drink that attracts coffee consumers but it is the service quality, space, and environment that small coffee businesses provide where people can meet up to socialise, work, meet, and make any business deal. Since the demand for coffee businesses is high, how to improve your small coffee business in Phnom Penh to provide a better experience for your customers?

1. Environment Improvement

Every coffee business owner is aware that having the right location where shopping malls, universities, and nearby business districts is one of the keys to the success of your small coffee business. Opening the coffee business next to these kinds of places helps with visibility and would eventually attract foot and car traffic. Along with having an ideal location, it is also important for your coffee business to have a good environment and atmosphere. Not many coffee business owners realize that the environment and atmosphere play a crucial role in providing a unique experience to your customers. The right and ideal decoration will help people remember your business and may encourage similar and new faces to visit your shop again and again. Thus, how do you decorate your coffee business to bring the best and unique atmosphere for your loyal and potential customers?

First thing first, you have to decide your coffee shop’s design concept. However, you must know who your target audience is because your coffee shop’s concept largely depends on your target audience. By knowing your target audience, you can decide whether to go for vintage, retro, natural concept, or else. Since you are running a small coffee business where limited space is provided, we recommend you to opt for simplicity and a minimalist concept. Minimalist concept is taking over the world and it is suitable for either large or small coffee businesses.

In addition to this, the music playlist should also go along with decoration as well. A famous quote states that music is the therapy of the soul. Therefore, be careful and be aware of your music playlist selection because similar to decoration, music helps to bring pleasure for customers to stay and keep them coming back. On top of having the right location with a unique atmosphere that suits well with your music playlist, don’t forget about cleanliness. Hygiene and sanitation are extremely important not only for the coffee business but for every business, workplace, household, and overall aspect of life.

2. Drink Quality

To improve your small coffee business, you cannot just overlook the quality of your drinks. No matter how great and beautiful your decoration and environment are, your customers cannot afford to support your business if your drinks do not taste good. Your customers want more than just a cup of instant tea/coffee and they know the difference between coffee and good coffee. If you want to attract loyal customers and want them to spread positive word of mouth about your business, the first thing to start with is the quality of your coffee bean. High-quality coffee beans result in the coffee with good flavor and experience. However, the thing is that people have different preferences so as to their coffee bean choice. Then, how do you choose the right coffee bean to fit with your target audience? There are two broad categories of commercial coffee beans out there on the market today namely Arabic and Robusta. If you want your coffee to be slightly acidic and smooth taste, you can opt for Arabic. Meanwhile, go for Robusta if you prefer your final product of coffee to have a strong and bitter taste.

Moreover, the taste of coffee also depends on how it is roasted. There are quite many types of roasted beans such as light, medium and dark roasts. Keep in mind that each of them comes with dozens of various names. As of light roasts, people might call it as light city/ half city, Cinnamon, Blond, and New England. With medium roasts, it is also commonly known as American, Breakfast/After Dinner, City⁺, and Full City. Lastly, here are some associated names with Dark Roasts including Viennese, New Orleans, French, Italian, Neapolitan/Spanish, you name it. All in all, it is up to your decision to choose the type of coffee bean and how it is roasted.

Besides having good coffee, you cannot neglect the other drinks. Try updating your drink menus by including more drink choices that fit your country’s tastes and seasons. Cambodia as one of the countries in Southeast Asia, ice drinks and ice blend menus like ice lemonade, ice green tea, ice hibiscus tea, and more should be included. Season drinks are another strategy to increase your sales. As Cambodia has two seasons, your menus should also include two types of season drinks such as summer and rainy drinks menus. In addition, having your own signature drinks helps you to stand out from other coffee shops. The chance is that you are going to attract more foot and car traffic which would eventually boost your sales if your signature drink looks and tastes great. If you have little idea on how to create your signature drink, check this article out: (https://www.gbs.com.kh/create-your-own-specialized-drink/)

Not to mention that designing your coffee materials such as cups and straws is another key to attracting more customers for your small business coffee. Isn’t it ideal to make your cup of coffee Instragramable? More people will get to know your brand eventually!

You might also want to know on How Technology Helps With Fresh Coffee

3. Service Quality 

By improving your small coffee business, it is about upgrading your service to the next level. One way of improving service quality is by opting for good quality coffee machines in order to serve faster. Having an expensive coffee machine does not mean you are going to produce great coffee but owning the right and quality coffee machine results in a good quality cup of coffee, productivity, as well as boosting your sales. It would be hard to find the right coffee machine that is of high quality at a reasonable price. Therefore, we have prepared for you the three popular coffee machines in Phnom Penh namely, Victoria Arduino, Nuova Simonelli, and Iberital which are imported by GBS. We highly recommend these three brands because they have been recognized locally and internationally and used in many huge local coffee shops in Phnom Penh. For more details, check out the three popular machine brands in Phnom Penh.

However, having the right coffee machine is not enough if your baristas lack skills needed in brewing coffee. As a matter of fact, not many coffee businesses in Phnom Penh have employees who are skilful and seasoned at barista skills. It is a big deal for you as a small coffee business owner to have seasoned and experienced baristas who have a vast knowledge of brewing coffee, decoration, and serving. That is not the end of the world if you do not because your baristas can be upskilled by joining training program at B-Hub under GBS. Check out: Barista Training in Phnom Penh

Last point about improving your service is by adding options of foods and snacks into your menu list. Nowadays, it is quite common for people to have breakfast and coffee at a café since it is convenient for those with busy lifestyles. They can just quickly have their easy and quick breakfast like sandwich, hot dog, bread, or pancake with their morning coffee and they are ready to start their day. Moreover, including snacks such as cookies, a variety of cakes, French fries and pasta would be even better because those who work or study at the café might need them for their craving time. By having many options for customers to choose, it is going to accelerate your revenue.

4. Delivery Service Offers 

Due to social distancing practices, food delivery services have grown rapidly and have been used widely. Try making your food and drink products accessible to customers everywhere through popular food delivery apps in Phnom Penh such as Muuve, Nham24, Foodpanda, E-Get, Bloc, and a few others. Sometimes, you can offer free delivery or some discount so that your coffee shop will stand out among the rest of the coffee business on the app. There is a tendency that people are going to order from your shop since they can save up from free delivery services or some discounts. Alternatively, you can also offer your own free delivery service by having your customer order five or more cups of drinks. This will save you some pennies from having to pay for your app delivery services partners as well.

Want to understand more about your customers, make sure to read about How Millennials’ Preference of Coffee is Changing In Phnom Penh?

Small coffee business is everywhere in Phnom Penh right now. It is time to step up your business and set strategies that go ahead of your competitors. When it comes to improving small coffee business, it is not that hard as you can see from above. This article has listed down almost all tips and guides in detail from environment improvement, drink quality, and service quality to delivery services quality that you could give them a try. Just trust our guidance and supervision while continue working hard and be patient in your journey in the coffee business, you are going to move your small business coffee into the next level.