The café is a place where friends, couples and families gather and enjoy each other’s company over food or coffee. It is a place that should set provoke positive feelings in every customer, the moment they walk through the door. These days, people don’t just judge a food establishment based on the food and beverages. They want the full experience. Although the menu plays a significant role in the business, what will truly make a café stand out from its competitors is its exceptional ambience, good interior and service. One of the factors that keep customers coming back for more is the unique and alluring environment that your venue presents.
Choose a good location
Before designing your coffee shop, you must first ask yourself the question: “Where do my target customers reside?” “Is there competitive businesses in the area, and if not, why not?” You must consider locating your café in a place where it is very accessible to your target customers. Finding a location in which there is no competition is not necessarily a good thing. Investigate the area, find out if cafes have opened and closed before, and if so why.
Craft an excellent exterior
The exterior of your building provides a customers first impression of your venue. How this looks can have a major impact on whether you get their business, or they go next door. If your exterior is truly captivating, then most customers will not have any second thoughts about entering your doors. The exterior must reflect your theme and provide a glimpse of what to expect inside. Invest in a good logo and storefront that will not only catch attention, and make your brand recognizable to consumers. Make sure that you stay consistent with your brand’s personality as well. For example, if your brand is modern, you shouldn’t use an old-fashioned style for the exterior. You might also want to consider installing glass windows or having an open flow through from interior to sidewalk dining, so people can see how well decorated your interior is.
Design an interior that gives a great customer experience
Your lighting should not only set the mood, but also highlight the design and features of your interior. You wouldn’t want a glaring pendant light to give headaches to your customers or ruin their perfect moment for a selfie. Use bright and breezy lighting to promote a friendly vibe or dim the lights to provide a more romantic or intimate environment.
You should create your interior aesthetic by choosing a great combination of colour and material schemes. Your café should provide beautiful visuals that will capture the attention of your customers.
Another thing that will provide a great experience to your customers is the furniture. You might want to choose furniture wisely by making sure that they have stylish profiles, high quality and amazing functionality. Furnlink has a huge variety of furniture that you can choose from, depending on your café’s design.
Balance your layout with your function and aesthetics
The outcome of designing your layout, function and aesthetics is your café’s ambience. There always must be a fine balance between the three. Wooden chairs, small tables and bar stools are the most common furnishings used within cafés and restaurants. Ensuring the furniture used reflects how you want your patrons to feel within your environment is key. Hard, uncomfortable furniture may be used to increase patron turn over in a venue where as lounges and paddings could be used to create a relaxed and comfortable environment, designed to keep the patrons at the venue longer. Additionally, shape and positioning of tables and chairs can also influence ambience. An intimate environment is not produced by crowding your floor space with furniture. On the flipside you don’t want an “empty looking” dining area. Your dining area should be easy to navigate through with table settings spaced at comfortable distances apart. If two people sitting back to back can get out of their seats without knocking each other over, then this is ideal.
Stimulating positive vibes and appetite through music
Music can subtly affect the appetite of your customers too. It is one of the most important elements that sets the vibe of your café. Make sure that your music complements your colour scheme and aesthetics well, so that customers will enjoy their dining experience even more.
In a 2003 study by Stephanie Wilson from the University of New South Wales it was found that upbeat music like jazz and pop encourages patrons to spend more time and money within a restaurant. It was also found by George Prochnik, author of In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise, that loud music draws people in by giving the impression of a lively and successful venue.
