5THWAVE - The Business of Coffee and Hospitality
Aug 3, 2026 · 41 min · 8 segments
In today’s episode, we’re exploring how coffee businesses can better understand their customers – from purchasing behaviour and evolving preferences to anticipating future trends and demand. How can…
Jonathan RubinsteinGuestLucy MavlianGuest
Geoffrey YoungHost
The topic of understanding the customer, um, speaking just philosophically, you know, what does that really mean? Uh, you know, what, what, what's the main objective?
It's a funny one, right? Because there's so many different types of customers, and everybody's looking to provide a product and a service and an experience that will capture the majority of the people out there that are willing to spend their money.
But I think it starts with the business really understanding what they are and what they want to give to a customer.
Because if you can get that right, and you can, you know, really drill down into what it is that you're going to be giving to your customer, then you can capture the right type of person and give them what it is that they're looking for.
So if you're trying to do everything for everyone, I, I think that's too much, and I think you really need to sort of drill down and say, "Do I want to be specialty coffee or do I wanna be commodity coffee? Do I want to have a big, beautiful space where people can come and sit and chat with each other and have a, a meeting with a friend or a colleague, or do I wanna have no seats because I am a turn and burn type of cafe and I really wanna make the most out of my square footage?" And once you can pinpoint those particular things, then I think you can really start to identify what it is that your customer is looking for and tailor to them, and then get more precise on those points as well.
Who, who is the customer i- is a question for every business to answer, but it has to start with, what is my offering?
Don't say, "I just wanna be a, a specialty coffee shop." You should have something that makes you unique in your business, and then that is how you can start to tailor things to your customer.
And I think more than ever today, people want an experience, and maybe that experience is fast grab and go, or maybe that experience is having a chat with somebody because this might be the only time I have a chat with somebody during the day, or bringing somebody to a coffee shop because I want them to discover what I've discovered.
It's interesting what, uh, the experiences are that people are looking for, but there is always something [laughs] that a customer is looking for.
You know, are you gonna have a really cool interior that's, like, modern and funky, or are you gonna be very stark and spend nothing on your build-out [laughs] and just make it sort of very totalitarian, like, you know, Blank Street when they first opened, and, and they built everything very starkly.
Their customer just wanted to come in and grab these beautiful drinks that they could then take with them on the go, and, and they didn't need to be anything more than that.
The topic of understanding the customer, um, speaking just philosophically, you know, what does that really mean? Uh, you know, what, what, what's the main objective?
It's a funny one, right? Because there's so many different types of customers, and everybody's looking to provide a product and a service and an experience that will capture the majority of the people out there that are willing to spend their money.
But I think it starts with the business really understanding what they are and what they want to give to a customer.
Because if you can get that right, and you can, you know, really drill down into what it is that you're going to be giving to your customer, then you can capture the right type of person and give them what it is that they're looking for.
So if you're trying to do everything for everyone, I, I think that's too much, and I think you really need to sort of drill down and say, "Do I want to be specialty coffee or do I wanna be commodity coffee? Do I want to have a big, beautiful space where people can come and sit and chat with each other and have a, a meeting with a friend or a colleague, or do I wanna have no seats because I am a turn and burn type of cafe and I really wanna make the most out of my square footage?" And once you can pinpoint those particular things, then I think you can really start to identify what it is that your customer is looking for and tailor to them, and then get more precise on those points as well.
Who, who is the customer i- is a question for every business to answer, but it has to start with, what is my offering?
Don't say, "I just wanna be a, a specialty coffee shop." You should have something that makes you unique in your business, and then that is how you can start to tailor things to your customer.
And I think more than ever today, people want an experience, and maybe that experience is fast grab and go, or maybe that experience is having a chat with somebody because this might be the only time I have a chat with somebody during the day, or bringing somebody to a coffee shop because I want them to discover what I've discovered.
It's interesting what, uh, the experiences are that people are looking for, but there is always something [laughs] that a customer is looking for.
You know, are you gonna have a really cool interior that's, like, modern and funky, or are you gonna be very stark and spend nothing on your build-out [laughs] and just make it sort of very totalitarian, like, you know, Blank Street when they first opened, and, and they built everything very starkly.
Their customer just wanted to come in and grab these beautiful drinks that they could then take with them on the go, and, and they didn't need to be anything more than that.
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