Is Your Cafe Furniture Suitable For All?

They say that ‘You can’t please all of the people all of the time‘ but in the competitive world of hospitality that’s exactly what you need to do. The good news is that a great starting point is nailing your cafe furniture. Why? Because first impressions count and this is the first thing that customers notice when they walk into your establishment. That’s long before they’ve ordered your food or drank your coffee, so the reality is it needs to be right.

Of course you should be designing your cafe to fit your concept but it’s highly important to consider all of your customers when it comes to variables such as seating. You may for example decide to base your theme on a slouchy laid back feel complete with worn leather sofa’s, low tables, and bare floorboards. That’s all well and good but what about those with disabilities, elder people, or those with young children? How do you make sure you don’t alienate these people also without ruining your theme or concept? Let’s take a closer look.

Zoned areas

When it comes to seating, it probably isn’t wise from a business perspective to place all your eggs in one basket. A great way to overcome this is to create zoned seating areas. This way you can still have your low-slung chairs and sofas but alongside this create separate areas which are more in keeping with older people, the disabled, or those with children. You can even have fun with your zones by decorating them differently or using different lighting. Do whatever works best for you. By utilising zonal seating, you’re likely to attract a larger cross section of the public instead of alienating some.

Get your table positioning right

As well as seating you might want to look at table positioning. Being able to maximise your floor space in return for maximum profit is the holy grail of any successful establishment. However the mistake that many establishments make is to over-cram areas with tables. Not only does it make it less intimate, but more importantly your customers won’t necessarily be able to move around the tables easily, or have clear access to restrooms and doorways. This goes for mums with pushchairs, the disabled, or the elderly, so it’s well worth doing a test run before you settle on your final table positioning, by making sure that no one is going to struggle if they decide to walk into your cafe.

Young children

It might also pay you to invest in some high chairs and perhaps even some child’s cutlery and plates. Even though you might not consider children and young mums to be your target audience, the truth is that this group of people often turn out to be regular and loyal customers, so ignore them at your peril! Some cafe’s even supply colouring books, non-marking pens, and puzzles to keep this area of their customer base on-side; so you might want to consider this too.

As well as providing an array of (hopefully) useful advice, here at Cafe Furniture Melbourne we also supply commercial grade cafe furniture at seriously competitive prices. Check out our website or contact us directly on 03 9357 9688 to find out more. Alternatively if you’re in the Campbellfield area of Melbourne then why not take a look first hand by visiting our showroom.