Two things you should do to your cafe before summer arrives
If you own and run a cafe, there are a few preparatory steps you should take before summer arrives, to ensure that your business is ready for the summer season. Read on to find out what these steps are.
Check the air conditioner
It is absolutely essential to make sure that your air conditioner is fully functional before it starts to get warmer. If this piece of equipment malfunctions during the summer months, it could have a very negative impact on your business.
It could, for example, affect your employees' productivity levels, as working in an excessively-warm environment can make people feel lethargic and hinder their ability to focus. Uncomfortably warm temperatures could also result in fewer customers visiting your premises, as most people prefer not to dine in stuffy, hot cafes.
Furthermore, even customers who do decide to sit down and eat in your cafe will not be likely to linger and order a second drink, dessert or another item from the menu, if they find themselves perspiring and feeling very overheated.
As such, it's critical to have an air conditioner service specialist inspect and, if necessary, repair your air conditioning unit. Ideally, you should do this a few weeks before the summer season begins, as this will ensure that, should any spare parts need to be ordered, there will be plenty of time for them to arrive and be fitted before the temperatures outside start to rise.
Update the menu
It is important to make sure that the selection of food and drink on offer at your cafe is weather-appropriate.
Generally speaking, when the sun is blazing down and the temperatures are extremely high, most people have no interest in eating or drinking things like hot soups, warm cocoa and heavy, hearty stews. Given this, if your menu consists primarily of these types of food and drink, you may notice a reduction in sales during the warmer months.
If you want to keep your sales high throughout the summer, you should make a few changes to your current menu. For example, rather than serving rich, heavy and warm soups made with things like root vegetables and cream, you may want to provide gazpacho soup; this is a refreshingly cold dish which features tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.
Similarly, instead of offering hot chocolate, you might want to offer a selection of iced-chocolate drinks with different flavourings (like mint or orange).
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