FISH! In a coffeehouse?

Our coffee house manager, Steve

I know what you’re thinking, FISH? In a coffeehouse?  I don’t think that would pair very well with a latte.  Cod and a cappuccino anyone?  What I’m referring to is a video and teaching program called FISH!: Catch the Energy, Release the Potential. One of my first training experiences with Crimson Cup was to sit down and watch this video.  It’s based on the work experiences of fishmongers in a fish market called Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle.  The fishmongers in this market live by four main tenants: Be there, Play, Make their day, and Choose your attitude.  I’ve learned to embrace these tenants as well.  Lets take a look at each of these tenants individually.

Be there. This is referring to mentally being at work.  It means setting aside your personal life when you walk through the door, and focusing solely on what needs done at work.  This can be pretty hard sometimes.  Life has a way of intruding on work.  I have had some challenges with this lately.  I recently became a first time homeowner and the stresses of everything involved have been pretty intense!  The dishwasher is broken, the porch needs rebuilt, our old rental house still needs cleaned up.  These are all the things lurking in the back of my head on a daily basis.  The important thing is I realize this, and I’ve learned to set these things aside when I walk through the door of the coffee house each morning.  It’s hard, but it is a skill I’ve had to learn in order to do the best possible job I can while at work.

Play. This is so simple, but so many of us forget how to have fun at work!  Joke around with each other and your customers, sing along to a song on the radio, or do a silly dance. Anything that brings a smile to your face can be considered play.  It leaves you feeling better, and it shows your customers you’re providing them a fun place to come for their daily dose of caffeine.  Given the choice of a place with a bunch of drab employees or a place where everyone is having a good time, which would you choose?

Make their day. This is going the extra mile, or as we call it at The Cup, “the plus 1.”  Just a couple of days ago, during a heavy rain fall, one of my employees noticed a woman pull into our parking lot.  She appeared to be waiting in her car for the rain to stop.  Rather than let her sit out there for ten minutes, a half hour, or maybe even more, this employee grabbed his own umbrella and ran out to her car to escort her in through the rain.  A customer service experience like that is not one she’ll soon forget.  Have you ever had a customer pull up to your drive-thru who forgot their wallet?  Let them drive off with a drink in hand anyway.  They’ll be back, and they’ll remember your kindness in the future.

Choose your attitude. This concept relates to the previous three.  It involves making a conscious choice to Be There, Play, and Make Their Day.  It means you walk through the door and are determined to have a good day, no matter what.  If you head to work thinking its going to be a bad day, it quite often becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  You have to make yourself have a good day.  Smile, leave your personal problems at the door when you walk through it.  Don’t worry, they’ll still be there when you get back.  If you Choose your Attitude, it will rub off on your customers.  Greg Ubert, our Founder and President, was working the drive thru during our recent 18th Anniversary Celebration.  He was able to speak with many of our customers, and heard a great story from one of them.  She related to him that she is one of our regulars who comes through early each morning on her way to work.  She noticed how each of our employees seemed so upbeat and positive every single morning, despite the early hour.  She made a conscious decision be more positive each morning, because if we can do it, she can too.

This video program had a tremendous impact on how I conduct myself each day at The Cup, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to make a positive culture change at their place of business.

Thanks,
Steve

50’s Inspired Dream Cup Coffee Renovates

Recently, one of our unique coffee house partners completed a major renovation. Dream Cup Coffee in Springfield, Ohio is located in an old gas station.  Previously, they operated the business using a drive-thru and a small portion of the original gas station. This spring they expanded, renovating the old service bay area into an awesome dining room area! With the renovation, they now have a stage and are having open mic on Friday nights and local bands performing on Saturdays.

Dream Cup Coffee

The inside is very unique!! Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Buddy Holly James Dean are all part of the decor. Neon lines the entire room. The dining area is approx. 1000 sq.ft. With the extra space, the summer will be lots of fun.  They will be hosting classic car cruise ins, grillin burgers and brats and playing lots of 1950’s music. This fall on Thursday evenings there will be a live radio broadcast from their new dining area featuring pre-game interviews with some of the Ohio State Football players and well as some players and coaches from Wittenberg University.

If you get the chance, come on down for one of the Dream Cup cruise ins this summer. I’m sure they will be lots of fun. Oh, one more thing…when they do these cruise ins, the baristas wear full 50’s attire and travel around on rollar skates taking customer’s orders! Click here for customer reviews and contact information.

What Is This Passion Thing All About?

Bryan Hairston

We have been having discussions about what drives and motivates us here at The Cup and it has led me to wonder about this passion thing.  I can truly say it is intangible and, for all intents and purposes, immeasurable…or is it?  While talking about we are passionate about, we have also started to identify things that “kill” our passion.  What’s even better is many of these issues have been addressed and for the most part no longer exist.  I still come back to the notion that a definition of passion is both personal and hard to explain.  We are able to passionately love or hate.  We are able to have a passion for good food, for excellent coffee, for fine art, for our families, etc.  We can have a passion so strong nothing else matters, and the same passion can make us meticulous to the point of being obsessive.  Interesting how a word or notion can take on so much meaning to so many of us.

I looked up the word passion on dictionary.com and here is what I found.  “Passion is any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate; a strong or extravagant fondness or desire.” When I read this, and believe me there were more definitions, I couldn’t help but to go back to the idea that passion is intangible.  This intangible thing is the driving force in one’s very soul, and it seems to make one do what has to be done to make sure the result is nothing less than stellar.  There is however an emotional part to this that becomes obvious when we think of someone who is very passionate about something. Not to mention what they will give up for what they truly care about.  Interesting.  Is this passion thing is visceral or emotional then? The good feeling one gets when the art they have been working on is applauded, the Chef who watches as the diners lick the plates, the look on a person’s face when they have tasted an espresso based drink and cannot believe how good it is…that is rewarding.  We all want some kind of affirmation and I think this is tied into ones passion, at least a little bit.  To be honest we may not know how many lives we have changed, we may only see one or two that seem to be affected, but this is enough to fuel the fire.  We think, “Wow, look at what these people think of me.”

For all my purposes, passion is the driving force in me, which makes me get up at 5 am every morning and come to work.  It makes me put up with all the weirdness because deep down I know I am accomplishing something and, for the good of my wife and kids, I need to trudge on.  What are the rewards?  Clients being taken care of, getting the job done, helping where I can and maybe making a friend if I’m not careful!  We all have passions.  Some of them rule us and lead us into what it is we want, and maybe others keep us doing things we may not want to do, but we keep going because it is for the greater good. Whatever inspires you, it is yours to find and keep.  Who knows where it will lead you.  You need to find it though and that may be the hard part.  Once that’s done, the rest becomes clear.

…that’s the b side.

Definition of Good

Director of Operations, Brian Gould

Be good. Have you ever heard someone say that to you?  What do they mean?  It always catches my attention because these days there are so many different meanings to words. There are so many different ways to say good: cool, rad, sweet, awesome, even the work bad is used to express good — depending on who you “hang” with.  It is also interesting to me how good is defined.  It seems there is a sliding scale of good and each individual decides what it means.  It leads me to ask: “How does one define good?”

There may be as many answers as there are people.  Rregardless of your answer, what keeps surfacing for me here at Crimson Cup is the fact that we want to better human beings today than we were yesterday.  We define good by caring about those we meet and work with, and considerate enough to put aside our personal desires to better the group as a whole.  I really believe in our business mantra: the business we are really in is ‘Leaving People Feeling Better’. Does it mean we don’t want to compete and win?  NO!  It just means we want to compete fairly with integrity, keeping our word and meeting the expectations of those we make promises to.  This includes those who consume our awesome (best in the market) products, to those who partner with us in the supply chain . . . and, well, everyone with whom we come into contact.  Certainly a lofty goal but we figure if we operate this way on a daily basis and engage others who do as well, we will have a viable, sustainable business and have a lot of fun on the journey!

Be good!

- BG

Crimson Cup Sales Department Update

June is an exciting month for the sales department at Crimson Cup. For starters, we are kicking off our new monthly promotions program, starting with Frozen Hot Chocolate. As part of this promotion, we’re offering our wholesale customers a special: buy 2 cases of Frozen Hot Chocolate  and get an additional FREE case. It is a  great way to start off the summer with a new product for those frozen drink customers. We will be running a different promotion each month. Stay tuned for the next big savings in July!
We also have a new Cupper starting on June 15th.  Ryan Dickson will be the newest member of the family. Ryan will be in a recently created sales position selling our awesome products. He will focus on signing up new accounts outside the state of Ohio.

That’s all for now.  We have a lot of exciting new customers and events coming up this summer, so make sure you keep reading!

Upcoming Events!

Hi Everyone!

Since our 18th anniversary celebration, we’ve been workin away at The Cup.  Here are two awesome events we’re hosting.  I hope to see you at one or both of these celebrations!

Tomorrow, June 5th, from 6:30 AM – 7:00 PM we’ll giving away FREE 12oz bags of coffee when you purchase a regular or large drink from the Crimson Cup Coffee Bar in the Gahanna Stoneridge Kroger. Come on by, have a drink, say hi, and get your FREE coffee. The special is while supplies last, so make sure you get there early!

Wednesday, June 10th, from 5:30-7:30 PM we’re hosting a kick off to summer Tweet Up at Crimson Cup Coffee House in the Clintonville. We’ll be offering FREE samples of our Frozen Hot Chocolate and we’ll have activities for the kids. The Frozen Hot Chocolate drink is coffee free and made with a special mix of several different types of chocolates.  To RSVP for the event, go here —> http://cli.gs/7upYeD

Here’s some customers describing how the Frozen Hot Chocolate tastes:

Sincerity and Honesty in Customer Service

Me Working OSU Freshman Move-In at 5 AM!!!

As I was thinking about a blog subject, I decided to make a phone call to a customer to see if I could find some inspiration. I do this often, and in this case I was on the phone for a good half hour. I know some people in customer service like to make it short and sweet. I don’t see my job like that. When a customer calls (or anyone for that matter) I let them run the show. I can not have a meaningful conversation with a time limit, and I gain so much from these calls.

Independent coffee house owners have taught me more about how to run a business (and also some random stuff) then I would learn anywhere else. My weekly customers are some of my favorite people to talk to and I even tell my family about them. One evening after talking about Jenny from Morning Glory in Webster City, IA, my husband will said “Nickole is that one of your phone friends at work?” His comment was an AH-HA for me. Not only am I helping our customers, but they leave enough of an impact on me that I think of them as friends. Isn’t this was you want when have a vendor-customer relationship?I love the fact that I can call most of our customers and they know who I am before I even tell them.

These relationships are something I have to work at and put a lot of my own time into, but it pays off. I make mistakes just like a normal person but bacause I have a good relationship with the person I sent the wrong thing product to, it’s not a big deal. They know I will jump over the moon to fix it even if it is not my error. In the beginning I made more mistakes than I do now, but customers were less forgiving because they didn’t know me. The moral of this story–sincerity and honesty in any line of work will take you places you never imagined!

Crimson Cup Coffee House Events

Hello Everyone,

Here’s some information on what’s happening at Crimson Cup Coffee House this weekend and coming week!

• Stop by the coffee house tonight for live music from 7-9 PM! This week’s performer will be local singer/songwriter Josh Coy!
• We’d like to give another big THANK YOU to everyone who came to the coffee house for Crimson Cup’s 18th Anniversary Celebration on Tuesday! We had a lot of fun…check out our post from yesterday about the event.
• Coming Soon…photography by Judy Fettman will be on display through June 4th

Store Hours:
Monday-Thursday     6 AM – 8 PM
Friday                           6 AM – 9 PM
Saturday                      7 AM – 9 PM
Sunday                         7 AM – 8 PM

Location:
4541 N. High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43214

Phone:
614-262-6212.

Thanks for Celebrating Crimson Cup’s 18th!

On Tuesday we celebrated our 18th birthday with a celebration at our coffee house.  The day went really well, and we want to say THANK YOU for coming out and celebrating with us. In total we served around 1500 drinks, which is A LOT!

I want to especially thank those of you who came by around 2:30-5 PM.  The wait times in the drive thru and inside were long. We had lines of people out the door and lines of cars out into the street.  Thanks so much for being patient while we made your drinks.  We hope you enjoyed them!

Greg & Steve Talking to Customers Waiting in the Drive Thru Line

Here are some more pictures from the day, in case you missed it.

Customers enjoying their $1 drinks!

@b_moore and Me Chillin in the Freebie Tent.

Libby as The Cat in the Hat

Crimson Cup Regulars Janelle (rockin the hat) and Karl

Janie as the Cat in the Hat. Thanks @kellygingery for the pic!

Mistakes Move Focus to Strengths

Greg getting his coffee on....

How many times have we heard that we learn the most from our own mistakes?  Remember the last time you fell short of your own expectations?  I do.   Last week.
I was given the simple task of introducing a friend and speaking about his accolades in front of an audience of 200 suits with whom I meet with almost every week for lunch.  While some people prefer to die than speak in public, I don’t mind it. I regularly speak to much greater numbers and consistently receive solid praise.  The result for me this time, unfortunately, was an extremely sub-par performance.
Why did this happen?  I’m not sure, but choosing excuses over choosing action always leaves me feeling empty.  Of course, I felt awful that I had not given my friend the great introduction he deserved.
During my moment of emotional pain, I knew exactly what I wanted to do . . . talk with customers at our coffee house.   I love talking to our customers and I find I always gain important insights, plus I’m good at talking to customers and I needed to rebuild my confidence after my earlier performance.  The rest of the afternoon was amazing.  Each conversation I thought might take a couple minutes lasted twenty, time flew by, and I learned a lot!  As the day progressed, I couldn’t help but wonder why I am not doing more of this, which is what I love to do.   As Crimson Cup continues to grow, the business certainly demands more attention attention at the “home office”, but do I have to be the one giving it more attention?
Therefore, the question for me is what do I need to do to get me more wholly focused on my strengths?  It seems clear to me I need to get back to doing the things I love to do and the things I am best suited at doing.  After all, I encourage all Cuppers to pursue their passion because I’ve learned that a focused, passionate person delivers the best results for the team and the business.