Axum Coffee, in Winter Garden FL, declares its mission right in its name. That’s because the business was founded on the idea of using coffee as a means to do philanthropy locally and internationally. Any bottom line profits at the end of the year support causes near and far, including helping the town of Axum, Ethiopia, from where the shop’s owner adopted 4 children. Shop founder & manager Suzanne Bernal explained how they’ve realized their mission since opening in 2010, with the help of Coffee Shop Manager point-of-sale software.
“We’re in central Florida, which has not traditionally had a lot of great coffee places,” Suzanne explained. “And we’re in the historic downtown, not on anyone’s commute, so we really are creating more of a gathering place. Also, we are introducing the pour-over method to our customers so we do a lot of education.”
“When we started the shop, we purchased Coffee Shop Manager because I felt the software was really ahead of the rest in terms of the way our customer rewards program is integrated. This is a really important feature for us because the old saying is so true – 80% of our business does come from 20% of our customers. Our regulars are the most important aspect of our success and Coffee Shop Manager makes it so simple and easy to reward them. We have a “Buy 15 get 1 free” program and Coffee Shop Manager gives us the option to print the reward on the receipt, so the customer brings it back in to redeem it, or to just prompt us that a reward is available in the POS software.
“Because of the reward program, we can really track our customer spending and know exactly who our top customers are. It’s great to incorporate them and honor them as ambassadors to our business.
“The reports in CSM are another essential feature and they are really good. All the reports are very self-explanatory. Now that we’ve been in business a while, I love the year-over-year analysis we get so we can see how the business is growing, and the Flash report gives me an instant idea of where we are at for the day. We’ve used the Sales by Hour report to analyze and change our business hours and the Sales by Item to track what we are actually selling and what we can eliminate.
“I don’t know how a shop with any sort of volume can survive without a POS system! We have a very long bar with a column that separates the cashier from the barista, so having a printer right next to the barista which prints the orders is essential to us.
“If you are looking for a POS system, you’ll find that CSM has a very simple, easy to understand user interface for your employees, as well as super valuable information at the touch of a finger for management. It is so easy to look at your numbers from many different views. The ease of it is a life saver – simplicity with the depth and breadth of knowing everything you need to know about your business.”
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