Challenge the Pros: Tim Arpin discusses emphasizing the customer experience

"How do you emphasize the customer experience when working with franchise leads and prospects?"

Tim Arpin

Chief Sales Officer

Scooter’s Coffee

At Scooter’s Coffee, we can teach our franchisees how to run a successful business, but we can’t teach them how to care about people. This is a fundamental trait that franchisees must bring to the table as owners in our brand. A customer-centric mentality is the cornerstone of any great loyalty-driven business like Scooter’s Coffee.

In many businesses, you may see your customer very sporadically. In the restaurant space, although customer visits are more frequent, you will still see your best customers only once or twice a week. On the other hand, coffee is a part of the daily ritual of many peoples’ lives. The first order of business for many Americans is to get their daily cup of coffee or espresso-based drink. When we create loyalty through exceptional customer service via the drive-thru experience, we create a customer base that we will often see every day, sometimes even more than once a day. In this way, Scooter’s Coffee becomes a part of the fabric of our customers’ lives. We become part of who they are just as much as they are a part of who we are.

During the discovery process, we look for prospective franchisees who have experience in the customer service industry as well as people who have managed teams, especially in the retail sector. We discuss specific times when they have gone above and beyond for a customer or an employee, which are important factors when selecting our franchisee partners. These are the people who will build and lead teams of baristas who care about customers in the way we expect. 

Our mission at Scooters Coffee is to create an amazing experience for each life we touch. This starts at the leadership level of our brand and flows through to the customer at the window. Each of us must carry this responsibility in our decision-making and in how we treat others around us. With this level of customer focus, we create something much bigger than a brand or a product. We create community.