The world of office coffee is full of choices, which can make it difficult when you are given the opportunity to bring the best office coffee service into your New Jersey office.
Knowing which office coffee companies offer the best service, what office coffee products your staff will enjoy most and figuring out who provides the service that best meets your needs – and budget – as a company can be a daunting task.
But have no fear, the coffee heroes at Corporate Essentials have almost two decades of experience in meeting the diverse needs of businesses like yours, and today we are sharing a six-step action plan that will help you bring the best possible coffee to your New Jersey office.
Research your area
First things first, know where you are. This sounds simple enough but it is about more than your street address. Know what is available in your local area, know where your employees slink off to when they’re taking a morning or afternoon break – are there particular coffee shops or products they consistently seek out? In a similar vein, know what sort of office coffee products your colleagues enjoy.
Next, have a look around other businesses in your area – do they have regular deliveries from a coffee service company? We will talk more about recommendations in the next step, but while you are getting to know your area it is well worth taking the time to ask your colleagues at similarly sized businesses in the area whether they have found an office coffee service in the area that offers connections to local roasters and bakers as well as a broad portfolio of popular coffee products.
It is also incredibly important to know what your staff expectations of an in-house coffee service might be. Take the opportunity to get to know people in other departments, do a quick break room survey and solicit input from people on teams across the company. This will come in handy when you are narrowing the field to find the best office coffee service on your list.
Ask for recommendations
Recommendations are one of the best ways to find good office coffee. When you are on the prowl for the best office coffee service for your NJ office, getting recommendations from your business neighbors is a great place to start. Although those are important, it is more important to get personal recommendations from coworkers who have experience working in other firms, colleagues at businesses you work with regularly, friends and even your family.
Take these recommendations, compare them with information and reviews you can find easily online and, specifically review information and reviews on the sites of the companies themselves. The combined reviews and recommendations should help you weed out iffy options.
Eliminate companies with poor reputations and instead focus on office coffee distributors who:
- Offer a wide variety of office coffee and other break room products.
- Offer taste tests and equipment trials.
- Provide a reliable delivery service.
- Have flexible ordering policies.
- Include maintenance and repair services as part of their standard agreements.
Don’t leave any questions unasked
The next step in your journey to getting the best office coffee service for your business is to interview the potential coffee delivery companies you learned about earlier. You have to consider the selection of an office coffee service the same way you choose any other mission-critical service for your firm – research and recommendations are one thing, but you have to do your due diligence first hand.
But what should you ask? Obviously there are certain things that are unique to your workplace, but in general, questions you should get answers to from potential office coffee providers include:
- How often does your product portfolio change?
- What are the rules of placing (and changing) orders?
- What is your guarantee regarding delivery?
- Will your team train our staff in use and basic maintenance of the equipment supplied?
- What happens if the equipment breaks down?
- What if we don’t like the coffee?
Compare and contrast
Evaluating the responses you receive from the potential vendors and weighing those answers with the research you have already compiled can turn into a mammoth task. The good news is you are officially entering the home stretch, as the process of measuring how the various office coffee vendors stack up to the expectations of your New Jersey office crew will make it easy to eliminate the less-worthy operations.
This is the moment when that seemingly inconvenient coffee survey you did comes in handy – call upon the people who were most interested in the opportunity to provide feedback in the beginning, and invite them to review some of the options you are considering. This will help you trim the short list into a few final choices which are likely to deliver the best office coffee for your teams.
Test the products and services
Step five is the most fun part of evaluating office coffee services – the part where you sample the signature offerings from your most likely contenders. Generally, a reputable office coffee service will be happy to provide you a trial run of the equipment and products your office is most likely to order. This is good business for any office coffee vendor – because it gives them the opportunity to prove that they really do offer the best office coffee in the area.
It is also a great opportunity for you to persuade those who are less convinced that an office coffee service can make a difference to the workplace atmosphere.
An in-office trial allows your top choices to prove their value in terms of easy-of-use, product offerings, equipment efficiency and, of course, deliciousness. For many companies, the taste test and evaluation is the thing that really seals the deal on who is the best fit for your firm.
Choose the best candidate
When you have taken the time to get to know the office coffee service suppliers in your area, had the opportunity to savor the local flavors available and given it all a little time to sink in, the champion in your hunt for the best office coffee service should become clear. You should hope to find an office coffee distributor that:
- Has a wide offering of quality products.
- Provides a respected, reliable delivery service.
- Offers a flexible ordering process that allows you to include variations for popular seasonal products or special events.
- Includes training, maintenance and repair for the office coffee makers you will be using.
If you are ready to bring the best office coffee service to your New Jersey team, reach out to one of the coffee experts at Corporate Essentials. With close to twenty years in the office coffee service industry, our team is well equipped to meet your needs.
