You may have noticed that recently we’ve been putting more emphasis on Google reviews. There’s a good reason for that.
In today’s world, what happens digitally has a real impact on how our cafés perform day to day. Yes, we’re fortunate in many ways. Many of our locations sit inside hospitals or places where people naturally pass by, so the captive market works in your favour.
But the customers you see across the counter every day are not the only customers we have.
There are customers we haven’t met yet. There are customers who may never walk through our doors but still encounter our brand. And increasingly, those first encounters happen online.
Research consistently shows that most people check online reviews before deciding where to eat or grab coffee. For many people, a business’s digital reputation becomes their first impression. In the same way someone might glance at a person’s LinkedIn or Instagram before meeting them, people look at a business’s online presence before deciding if they trust it.
In many ways, our digital presence is our introduction. The modern version of a handshake.
I’ve got an uncomfortable question for you:
Is your store’s current digital reputation actually a true reflection of who you are?
Every café, every brand, every person now has a digital reputation that travels far beyond the physical place where the work happens.
And that reputation is public.
When someone searches for our cafés, they don’t see the effort behind the scenes. They don’t see your early mornings, the training, the teamwork or the care you put into every cup.
They see a number. A star rating. A handful of comments.
Aaand from that small window, they make a decision. In seconds. Tsk.
Think about how we judge people online.
The same thing happens with businesses.
So the real question becomes this:
Your digital reputation doesn’t just reach the people walking past your cafés. It reaches future customers, future staff, future partners and sometimes people on the other side of the world who may never step inside one of your stores, but are already judging you.
And whether we realise it or not, every experience we create contributes to that story.
Every interaction writes the next line.
That’s why reviews matter. They help future customers feel confident before they even arrive.
It’s also why we encourage teams to ask for them. Often our guests are happy to share their experience, but they simply don’t think to do it unless someone asks.
As the wise saying goes,
“you have not because you ask not.”
Now, there is a right way to ask:
If you know you’ve genuinely looked after someone, shown kindness, served great coffee AND delivered the comfort and dependability we aim for, then asking for a review isn’t awkward.
It’s simply inviting someone to tell the truth about their experience.
Each review does something powerful. It tells the next person, the one we haven’t met yet, that they can trust us.
And that’s really the point.
We’re not chasing stars on a screen. We’re building trust at scale, beyond what your eyes can see in the moment. That’s what the digital space allows us to do: you get to transcend beyond the confines of present time and physical space.
Every cup of coffee you serve, every moment of kindness you offer, every guest you genuinely care for… that story can travel further than the counter, further than the moment.
Sometimes it travels all the way to the next person who needs us.
So ask.
