What customers actually value.

What the first People’s Choice Coffee Awards taught me after reading hundreds of customer comments

I’ve tried my best to post a newsletter every week. Last week I didn’t.

I was finishing the first People’s Choice Coffee Awards.

And it turned into a much bigger job than I expected to be. Every vote had to be reviewed. Coffee shop names had to be checked. Businesses had to be verified. And all the comments had to be read. The hundreds of comments.

Somewhere along the way, I realised the awards weren’t just revealing people’s favourite coffee shops. They were showing what people actually value.

Why I started the People’s Choice Coffee Awards

Specialty coffee has plenty of awards. The World Barista Championship celebrates exceptional baristas. Roasting competitions reward great roasters. Latte art competitions recognise creativity. Coffee shop rankings highlight businesses doing great work.

I think those awards have an important place in our industry. They’ve undoubtedly pushed it forward.

But they’re judged by coffee professionals. And I wanted to know what customers thought.

So I created the People’s Choice Coffee Awards.

The first campaign

The campaign attracted coffee drinkers from 45 countries. The final Top 20 included coffee shops from 12 countries. Canada, the United States and Singapore each placed more than one coffee shop in the Top 20.

People from around the world joined in, and despite coming from different places and different coffee cultures, they often said the same things.

The inaugural People’s Choice Coffee Award went to Roasti Coffee Co. in Sherwood Park, Canada. I’ll be sharing an interview with the founders soon. After reading what their customers wrote, I wanted to hear their side of the story.

Although the rankings were interesting, the comments held the real value.

What customers actually value

I was surprised how many people added comments to their votes. Some wrote a sentence. Others wrote a lot more.

The themes were common.

Coffee came first. That wasn’t a surprise. Nobody gets into this game planning to serve bad coffee.

But after that, people talked about the staff. Consistency. Atmosphere. Service. And community. Yes, people described what they drank. But a lot more described how a place made them feel.

We spend a lot of time in specialty coffee talking about grinders, recipes, extraction and equipment. Turns out our customers spend far more time talking about people.

My takeaway

My takeaway from the first ever People’s Choice Coffee Awards?

Good coffee is expected. It’s the ticket to the game. After that, people remember how they’re treated. They remember the person behind the bar who greeted them, helped them choose a coffee or simply made them feel welcome.

Consistency came up many times. People notice when a café delivers the same experience every visit.

Community wasn’t something customers talked about as a quaint marketing idea. They talked about it because they genuinely felt it.

Technical excellence still matters. But so does hospitality. So does consistency. So does creating a place people enjoy being in.

When’s the next PCCA campaign?

I’ve already started planning for the next People’s Choice Coffee Awards. There’ll be small tweaks to make things more efficient. For me. But mostly for you.

If you’d like your coffee shop to be part of the next campaign, registration is now open.

I’d love to see what your customers have to say.