COSTA "Window in"

I am a passionate about coffee and sales. Therefore I came up with the idea for COSTA coffee shops. Why COSTA, well it is in my neighborhood, however it may work for any other brand.

The story As a young parent I made kilometers while walking around with my son in his early months. After long battles of making him fall asleep I was making very long walks (2-3 hours), unprepared, in cold and warm weather - various conditions. The main dream was to have a coffee - to waken up, get warm or cold (ice coffee!). However, entering the coffee shops equals waking up of a kid. Mainly because of change in temperature, noise and smell. All the things that in normal conditions make those places so magical. However not when you are doing all your best to keep the baby asleep as long as possible.

Solution "Window in" where I could knock and make and collect an order. I understand that the buildings do not allow such solutions (architecture style, building infrastructure and other obstacles), but the staff in most coffee shops is kind, and after a knock, smile and wave of hand they could react and step out to collect/deliver an order. This would be a game changer for many young parents, who are somehow "disabled" in operation of ordering a coffee while being on a walk with a kid. Also, what a great story to share in PR-marketing-CSR campaign? :)  

Costa Coffee new service

Recently my company had marketing campaign where there was idea to give voucher (one-time) for coffee as a gift for finishing an online task by our customers on our e-learning platform. Partnership idea: Purchase vouchers from coffee place which has most branches around the country. Costa Coffee was selected. Challenge: Costa Coffee is not ready technologically (IT system) to handle such task. Obstacles:

• Vouchers generated by Costa Coffee can not be "checked" in the system when presented by customer - therefore if someone prints 10 vouchers, they can easily use them in any Costa Coffee (rather than 1 voucher for 1 customer - one-time)
• Company takes the risk that someone will use the voucher more than once (the financial summary will be made after 2 weeks - vouchers use will be counted, so if a customer copies a voucher then they will use it as many times they wish, as the one-time feature is not implemented in Costa Coffee IT System)

Suggested solution - step by step (ideal scenario):

1. Company orders 100 vouchers for one coffee each (Medium size - Latte/Americano/Mocca)
2. Costa Coffee produces 100 vouchers
3. Each voucher has it's individual characteristic (numbers, QR codes, codes) - something that can be scanned/inputed into the IT System and the casher/till will record it, that it can not be used more than once (one-time vouchers)
4. Costa Coffee sends the file (Word, Excel) with these vouchers to the Company
5. Company distributes it to its customers (via email, postcard, thank you note, or as we would do - on our e-learning platform)
6. Company pays upfront for the vouchers (we know the budget straight away)
7. Customers go to Costa Coffee and redeem voucher at the cashier/till for a coffee
8. They enjoy the great coffee plus think positively about the Company

Business Case:

• Salespeople giving out vouchers to their customers
• Vouchers used in the marketing campaigns as the "thank you" (for example after downloading their ebook, or after first purchase)
• Costa Coffee has wifi connection - why shouldn't we invite our customers for webinar (web conference, online training, e-learning) while drinking coffee in Costa Coffee ?
• To cheer up a friend who is in different city (or travelling?) - wouldn't it be a nice if I could text (sms) my wife while she's on the business travel - text #have a good day - start it with a cup of coffee at Costa Coffee - waiting at the train station for you - just redeem this voucher #VOUCHER NUMBER - Love M.

I strongly believe that technology can create new ways of doing business and easily address such scenarios as I presented to you. Connecting people with things they love.