Gang-gang Cafe is a popular cafe situated in a bustling area, where students and workers alike are the main customers. The cafe makes excellent coffees and is popular all day, resulting in customers queuing during peak periods. Aside from coffee, they also sell fresh pastries, sandwiches, and salads.
Bruce, the cafe owner recently acquired the adjacent shop to expand his cafe business. He is aiming to maintain the growth of his cafe with a mobile application that he and his customers can use.
Shiela is the systems analyst of CleverApps, a start-up company that develops mobile applications for small businesses like the Gang-gang cafe. She interviewed Bruce to get an initial understanding of his business activities and requirements. Here is a transcript of the interview.
B - Bruce S - Sheila
S: Good morning, Bruce! How are you today?
B: I'm good Shiela. How about you?
S: I'm good too. On the way in, I saw that your cafe is really busy. I'm sure your business is doing well.
B: Yes, that's right. It's very demanding to run my cafe, but I can't complain. We love serving our customers. We've got home-made pastries, freshly made sandwiches and salads, and of course, our coffee.
S: Oh yes, your coffee is excellent. Your barista must be one of the best. Your staff are smiling and very friendly, so morale is high. Right?
B: As Gang-gang Cafe's owner and manager, I make sure everyone feels appreciated and happy here. I can't afford to lose them and they know our customers by name. We're pretty relaxed, though we respect each other. Our mantra is a 'Welcoming Customer Service'.
S: That's great to hear. Now, tell me why do you need a mobile app for your business?
B: I recently bought the shop next door to my cafe as I want to give more space and a better ambience for our customers. I thought of having a mobile app so my customers, especially the ones in a hurry, can order their coffee in advance. Aside from coffee, they could add muffins, sandwiches or anything else on the menu. I really don't want to store cash here at all, so I want to explore contactless payment in addition to our existing tap and go.
I'm pretty efficient in monitoring my stock and sales every day, but it would be great to have tools that automatically generate the information I need for my suppliers and accountant.
A new coffee shop just opened nearby and definitely threatens my business. I need to keep all our loyal customers and attract new ones, of course, so they will keep coming back to enjoy our friendly service. Right now we're using paper reward cards and rubber stamps. It does work, but I would like to give customers a more-up-to-date experience by having one stored in our mobile app. The rewards they earn can be used to buy coffee and other items from our cafe.
Customer feedback is also important to us. I'd like to put our customer's reviews of my cafe on our Facebook page. But I have to be careful with bogus or fake reviews you know, and sometimes even ones that swear or incite racism, hatred etc.
Oh, before I forget, I want to reach out to the many nearby students to come and enjoy our cafe. I am thinking of creating special deals, just for students, that can be redeemed on the mobile app.
I am hoping for a sophisticated app will work on different devices. I am not even sure what devices they're using. It would be good to survey and interview these students, but I am not clever enough to do it. Besides that, there's not enough time, as I spend most of my time managing this busy cafe. Can you help me with a survey and interview, so we can see how we might include more clever stuff in that app. I'd be happy to pay a bit extra if you can dothis for me.
S: No problem Bruce, I'm confident we can help you with that. I won't take more of your time now, you're a busy guy. I will let you know if I need more info before I report back to you.
B: Great! Just give to me your initial app design, and I hope to find out more about that student survey and interview next time we get together. Give me a ring or emailMe if you need more help.
Okay, will do. Have a great day!