Prepare Your Tea Business for the COVID-19 Pandemic’s New Normal

In June 2019, Amazon's Founder and Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos hosted the first ever re:MARS conference, a three-day event in Las Vegas focusing on the future of machine learning, automation and robotics. The event was filled with innovators from around the world, all of whom shared the details of their recent breakthroughs. But on the final day of the event, billionaire Bezos addressed the crowd to share a bit of practical advice.

As one of the most successful people on the planet, Bezos said that people are always approaching him to ask for advice: “What will change over the next decade?” But he admitted that he spends far more time thinking about the opposite question.

“What won’t change over the next 10 years?”

There Will Always Be an Appetite for These 3 Things

“Yes, technology is reshaping the world, but at the end of the day I believe there will always be an appetite for three things: wide selection, low prices, and fast delivery,” said Bezos. He explained that every decision they make at Amazon goes back to that. If a new initiative doesn’t support any or all of those touchpoints, it has no place in the business.

I think there’s something prescient about that advice, especially now as we’re faced with a changing world with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As you chart a course for the next 12 to 24 months, I would invite you and your tea business to answer that question for your own enterprise.

Of course, that begins by understanding your customer.

It’s crucial to understand that there are people who still need you. They may need different things than they did in the past, but they still need something. Let that be your constant; let that guide your decisions as we find our way into this “new normal.”

The bottom line is that a meaningful amount of the work force will not be returning to the office or business-as-usual full time. Either they will transition to remote work, or they will adopt some sort of hybrid model commuting in just a few times a week. This will undoubtedly affect your revenue in some way, but remember this: Their routines may have changed, but their needs have not. For example, your customers still love a cup of tea in the morning, and if they no longer come to you… then why not find a way to go to them?

Understand Your Customers, Find Better Ways to Serve Them

Modern marketing is built on this idea of empathy — understanding our customers so we can find better ways to serve them. Get to know your customers. Understand their problems. And then craft a specific solution to that problem.

All marketing comes down to solving problems for people. The problem your business solved two years ago may not be the problem that needs to be solved now. Acknowledge that and try to figure out what your customers now need from you.

3 Tips for Navigating the Ongoing Pandemic

No one can predict the future, but here are three pieces of advice on how to navigate your business through the coming months:

1. Use Data to Get to Know Your Customer and Pay Attention to Shifting Trends. Track your sales hour by hour, day by day, and put them up against last month’s numbers. Use that data to make informed decisions about everything including staffing, prices, and hours of operation.

2. Embrace Innovative Technology Solutions Because It’s Here to Stay – and It’s Going to Be Even More Prevalent with Successful Small Businesses. Have you seen the data around kiosk service? It’s been shown to increase average spend by 15 percent, all while cutting payroll and improving the guest experience. Table ordering either by tablet or QR code is another key way to drive more revenue and cut expenses. Both of these could be options for teahouses, cafes or restaurant-teahouses. Of course, there are SO MANY other tech-related solutions for growing a tea business, whether you’re an e-commerce tea business or brick-and-mortar shop. The message here is to seek out technology solutions to benefit your business financially and to make things easier on your customers.

3. Diversify Your Revenue Streams. What other products can you offer? What types of tea-related services do your customers need? Could you supply teas to local food truck businesses, push carts, etc.? Perhaps those options are not the most profitable, but the idea here is to explore ALL of the different ways you can serve new patrons and diversify your income stream. This goes for all of the different types of tea businesses. Look at ways to generate new income so you can weather any storm.

Lastly, know your business better than anyone, and you know your customers better than anyone. This will help you tremendously during this (hopefully) last leg of the pandemic. Prove it by finding new ways to serve those people, and they will reward you (handsomely) with their patronage.

Chip Klose is based in NYC, where he runs the marketing agency Chip Klose Creative, working with chefs, restaurant and cafe owners to help them grow their brand presence and increase revenues. Klose is also the host of a weekly marketing podcast, Restaurant Strategy, where he talks about many of the strategies and tactics he uses day-to-day in marketing restaurants and similar businesses. To learn more, visit ChipKlose.com.