THE COFFEE CLUB HAS NO GROUNDS FOR CONCERN
AFTER PARTNERING WITH 59CLUB MEA
One of the UAE’s most-popular all day dining café has partnered with the market-leading performance measurement and management specialist, 59club MEA, to ensure it maintains the highest possible service standards across its branches.
The Coffee Club has engaged 59club MEA (Middle East and Africa) to measure and refine its customer ‘journey’ at 23 of its restaurants in the UAE: 9 in Abu Dhabi, 10 in Dubai, 2 in Al Ain and 2 in Ras Al Khaimah.
Since launching in Brisbane, in 1989, The Coffee Club has become Australia’s largest home-grown café group, with around 400 outlets in nine countries, delighting more than 40 million dedicated customers, with more than 20 of those stores located in the UAE.
Ravi Chandran, CEO of parent company Liwa Minor Food and Beverages, explained: “Like most hospitality businesses we have our core standard operating procedures and staff are measured against those.
“However, we were hugely impressed with the data and information gathered by 59club MEA during its initial visits to our stores and it became clear to us that its testing procedures were far more thorough and beneficial than anything else we had seen previously.
“The company has an impressive track record in ensuring high-service standards across its client portfolio and this is a further guarantee to our customers that the experience they enjoy at The Coffee Club will be second to none.”
59club MEA’s directors, Mark Bull and Neal Graham had an appetite to demonstrate to the brand how its proprietary mystery-visit data can highlight areas of service which might otherwise be overlooked.
Chandran was so impressed with both the quality of ‘live’ information supplied and the initiative of the pair that The Coffee Club signed a one-year contract for 59club MEA to evaluate their outlets’ service performance.
Graham explained: “Previously, 59club’s reputation in UAE – and beyond – has been built upon its work within golf and leisure clubs, but this arrangement is testament to the ability of its products across other sectors, including pure food-and-beverage operations.
“Each of the outlets will receive four ‘casual dining’ visits through the year and each visit will be based on what we call the four pillars of the test: attitude; facility; process; and sales.
“59club’s reputation is based upon the ability to drill down into each of those areas to ensure the test is not a mere ‘tick-box’ exercise – it’s an in-depth analysis of both the good and the bad of the customer experience.
“It’s not about pointing fingers; it’s designed to help staff improve – maybe even in areas where they didn’t realise they were lacking – to provide direction for further training where required, and to ensure The Coffee Club continues to be known as the most customer connected café experience by being personalized, easy and rewarding.
59club MEA is one of six 59club divisions worldwide, with more to follow. It was created in 2019, initially to service existing clients within the region’s golf industry following the company’s strategic approach to measure, train and support its client properties to elevate sales and service standards from a dedicated local office.
The subsequent agenda was to introduce its ever-evolving product range – Mystery Shopping, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Employee Training and Management Development Programmes, plus Financial Operational Comparison Tools – to an emerging audience across the region’s diverse hospitality industry.
And, as the new partnership with The Coffee Club demonstrates, its expertise and specialist tools are equally effective in a number of other leisure spheres – membership clubs, spa, hotels and F&B are just four sectors into which 59club MEA has expanded in little more than a year.
■ To discover more about 59club MEA visit 59clubmea.com, email enquiries@59clubmea.com or call 050 553 7989.