Getting people through the door of a new cafe in month one

3 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A new cafe has one enormous advantage and one enormous problem. The advantage is that hundreds of potential customers walk past every day. The problem is that they have somewhere they already go, a route they already take, and no particular reason to change either.

Nearly all early trade comes from breaking that habit for people within a few hundred metres. Wider marketing before the local habit is established spends money reaching people who were never going to walk that far.

The first month is about being impossible to miss and giving people one clear reason to try you.

Getting people through the door of a new cafe begins at the pavement

The frontage is doing more work than any other thing you own.

Make it obvious you are open. An open door, lights on, chairs out, somebody visible inside. A cafe that looks closed is closed as far as passers-by are concerned. Check what it looks like from thirty metres away.

Put something on the pavement. A board with one thing on it — the coffee, the pastry, the price. Not a menu; a reason. Change it weekly so it keeps being noticed.

Let the smell out. Coffee and baking do more selling than any sign. This is not a metaphor. Prop the door where the extraction allows it.

Give people one specific reason to try you

New businesses tend to say everything and communicate nothing.

Lead with one item. The thing you are best at, named and priced. People remember a specific offer and forget a general invitation. Choose the item you can make consistently.

Do not open with a discount. Free coffee brings people who wanted free coffee. A good product at a fair price brings people who might come back. The first week sets what you are worth.

Make the first visit fast. Somebody trying you on the way to work has four minutes. If the first experience is slow, there is no second one. Time your service during the morning rush.

Work the immediate neighbourhood directly

The first hundred regulars are within walking distance.

Introduce yourself to the businesses around you. Take samples to the offices, shops and salons nearby. Those staff buy coffee daily and will decide in the first fortnight where from. Go in person rather than leaving flyers.

Offer the neighbouring workplaces something standing. A quick order, a small account, a reserved collection time. Regular trade beats occasional footfall. Ask them what would make it easy.

Be present at whatever the area does. School runs, markets, local groups. Presence in a small radius is worth more than reach.

Build the habit before you build the audience

Frequency is the whole economics of a cafe.

Get the regulars first. Twenty people visiting five times a week is better than five hundred visiting once. Aim at the small number. Twenty regulars is a realistic first target.

Learn names and orders quickly. Being recognised is the single strongest reason people return to a cafe rather than the one next door.

Use loyalty for frequency, not discounting. A stamp card changes how often somebody comes without lowering what they spend on each visit.

Conclusion

Spend the first month on the people already walking past: make it unmistakable that you are open, put one specific reason on a board outside rather than a full menu, and let the smell of coffee do the work it does better than advertising.

Lead with one named item rather than everything you sell, resist opening with discounts because they attract people who wanted the discount, and keep the first visit fast for the person with four minutes. Take samples to every business within walking distance in the first fortnight, since those staff are choosing their daily coffee right now — then concentrate on learning names and orders, because being recognised is what makes somebody a regular.