Now that you are offering more types of cold brew than ever before, give people a way to buy more than one serving. One of the defining characteristics of cold brew coffee is its stability over time. Where espresso is best within minutes and batch brewed coffee is best within hours, cold brew has the potential to make it days before any noticeable decline in quality if it is brewed and stored correctly. This means that cold brew is one of the only ways that a customer can buy prepared coffee from their favorite coffee shop, take it home and enjoy over the next few days. It may be difficult for certain customers to make it in every morning but that shouldn’t keep them from having your coffee every day.
The growler is a 32 or 64oz glass jug that home beer brewers and craft breweries have used for decades to transport their favorite drink home. While it was never needed in the coffee shop before, cold brew is the perfect beverage to put in a growler and take anywhere. Grandstand is a website that a lot of coffee shops use but there are a ton of options online.
The average ticket price explodes if even 1 out of every 20 customers fills a growler to take to work, to take home for days that they cannot come in or to share with people who could not make it down the the shop. Refer to Step 2 where flights can help people make a decision about what to take home. Step 4 also provides the option to fill growlers with nitro cold brew or craft cold brew mocktails at even more premium pricing.
Branded growlers with a growler loyalty program will also encourage customers to make growler purchases a habit as opposed to a one-time purchase. How hard is it to set up a “growler program”? Pretty easy. There are several custom printed growler websites online with great prices and super low minimum orders. Once you have the growlers, it’s simply a matter of adding it to the menu with pricing that makes sense. We recommend a higher price for the first order (including the growler) and a reduced price for refills in your branded growlers. It would be up to you if you want to fill outside growlers at your shop and if that would be reflected in the pricing.
It is easy to pick up a growler on the way into work for the week, any day after work to enjoy the rest of the week, or heading into the weekend or a long trip where good cold brew will be required. Customers would be stoked to know that they can take their favorite coffee at work, at home and on the road in a way that was never previously available.
In addition to being easy to transport, increasing average ticket prices, and expanding the availability of your coffee to existing customers; growler programs help get your name and coffee out in front of people who have never made it into your shop. Imagine the jealous co-workers seeing someone bring in a growler of good cold brew to a workplace littered with bad coffee or the smiles on friends faces when they see that someone brought a growler of specialty cold brew on that picnic, beach day, or camping trip.
Build brand loyalty, improve customer satisfaction, expand your reach and share your brand by starting a growler program with your new specialty cold brew.
Read Step 7.
Go back to the Full List of Steps.
