Customer needs even more in focus
Schaerer Coffee Link
Schaerer is a pioneer when it comes to the networking of coffee machines – the company presented its first digital solution for analysing data from its machines back in 2015. A holistic digital strategy was then launched in 2016 and the Schaerer Coffee Link digital platform came in 2018. Since then, Schaerer has been resolute in its pursuit of the goal of supporting customers in line with their specific needs in gaining deeper insight into their coffee operations and optimising them digitally, developing new business models and enhancing the end customer experience with the machine. In order to provide them with more targeted support when networking Schaerer coffee machines, Schaerer is adapting its digital range of consultation and solutions to be even more consistent with the multifaceted customer requirements. These advanced products and services not only consider the specific business case, but also how deeply the customer is already involved in the digital world.
Data and evaluations
What are my main business hours? Do my guests prefer oat or soy drinks? What is our most popular beverage? Which additional benefits beyond the coffee beverage itself can I offer my guests? For a company to grow, it is essential that it knows the behaviour and wishes of its customers as well as the specifics of its own coffee operations. Sustainability is also playing an increasingly significant role and the efficient use of resources is becoming ever more important. Schaerer has continued to develop its digital solution to provide customers with individual analyses and dashboards based on the extensive data and evaluation options. These answer questions and make it possible to take specific actions to optimise coffee operations.
Step by step to digitalisation
An important bit of insight from the numerous customer projects and the many years of experience of the Schaerer digital team: Even though digitalisation in the out-of-home coffee market is proceeding without pause and more and more companies want to take advantage of it, some already have more experience with it, meaning they have more extensive requirements in terms of the range of services offered by a digital solution. While some are still at the very beginning of their digital journey and for instance just want to monitor the status and consumption data of their networked coffee machines, more advanced players are using the database to make their processes more productive or even to create innovative business models. That is why the Schaerer team is now incorporating the individual degree of digitalisation of each company even more firmly into its range of consultation and solutions. The focus is on three central requirements: “gaining transparency”, “optimising business” and “creating innovations”. The farther customers get on their digital journey, the more extensive are the services and digital technologies Schaerer provides to continue to expand the business and integrate more technology into operations at the same time.
Gaining transparency
Companies in the early stages of digitalisation are mainly interested in using data from coffee machines to gain insight into sales performance, ingredient consumption and service-related issues. The visualised data in particular helps to better understand coffee sales and machine availability as well as to monitor the life cycle of the coffee machine. The transparency gained thanks to this continuous monitoring and evaluation process creates the basis for improvements to existing processes, such as adjustments to opening hours or more efficient staff scheduling.
Optimising business
Anyone who has seen the benefits of basic statistics and actively uses them and wants to exploit the potential of digitalised business processes for more productivity are in the right place with the “Optimising business” requirements. For these companies, the emphasis is primarily on solutions that, among others, automate recurring processes, thereby simplifying workflows, minimising downtimes and reducing operational costs. Examples are beverage-related payment models (pay-per-cup) or remote functions for price and recipe adjustment as well as the display of advertisements throughout the entire coffee machine fleet. Users can access this information through the Schaerer Coffee Link Portal dashboard or the Schaerer data interface. However, the latter requires extensive digital expertise, as the API interface provides raw data that the customer has to interpret.
Creating innovations
Companies with a high degree of digitalisation will also find that Schaerer is the ideal partner for innovative business ideas. Integration of coffee machines into the digital ecosystem of the customer using an interface/API is at the centre of the “Creating innovations” requirements. This allows for coffee concepts and completely new business models to be introduced that create unique user experiences across multiple devices. Examples of these are mobile payment with a smartphone, customer loyalty programs using loyalty apps or the holistic integration of machines in robot cafés or automated self-service concepts.
Wherever customers find themselves in the digital world and whichever path they choose, the expertise the Schaerer digital specialists have in providing consultation and creating solutions puts the customers and their needs at centre stage. This is the only way to provide them with optimal support on their digital journey – true to the motto: The value of a digital solution lies not in its technology, but in how much it enriches people’s lives.