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Dear Customer: Inside the World of Baristas, Upselling, and the Rules of Serving a Special Cup of Coffee
Dear customer who is reading this book blurb:
Have you ever thought how relaxing it would be to work in a coffee shop? You might have thought, “Yeah, I'd like to become a barista, I wonder how hard it is?” You may have thought how nice it would be to have regular customers, chit-chatting about their day. It would be like a fun sitcom! Have you wondered how great it must be to talk coffee - the taste, smell, and nuances – with people who are passionate about coffee? You may have wondered if the decaf coffee is any different than regular coffee. Have you ever thought about buying a coffee shop?
Or, have you ever wondered why your local coffee shop sucks, that the employees are so slow and so dumb, and they can never get your order right?
This book is a stunning, no-holds-barred, vicious, yet poignant look at a coffee shop near you.
Have you ever thought how relaxing it would be to work in a coffee shop? You might have thought, “Yeah, I'd like to become a barista, I wonder how hard it is?” You may have thought how nice it would be to have regular customers, chit-chatting about their day. It would be like a fun sitcom! Have you wondered how great it must be to talk coffee - the taste, smell, and nuances – with people who are passionate about coffee? You may have wondered if the decaf coffee is any different than regular coffee. Have you ever thought about buying a coffee shop?
Or, have you ever wondered why your local coffee shop sucks, that the employees are so slow and so dumb, and they can never get your order right?
This book is a stunning, no-holds-barred, vicious, yet poignant look at a coffee shop near you.
235 pages, ebook
First published September 3, 2014
About the author
Sean William Brown
3 books3 followersSean is the author of 2 books and maybe one of them is for you...
Dear Customer: Inside the World of Baristas, Upselling, and the Rules of Serving a Special Cup of Coffee was Sean's 1st book about his time working at Caribou Coffee in Minneapolis. The book is for anyone in customer service, service industry, hospitality, or anywhere customers are jerks!
Wal-Mart: I Don't Belong Here is Sean's second book, although he wrote it before Dear Customer. Called "amazing and depressing" by a Twitter follower, which is what he was going for. Have you ever wondered what goes on at Wal-Mart? Now is your chance to find out.
Also find Sean at www.thesku.org where he writes a comic and blog for people behind the counter, bar, or register. Anyone can read it though! (#dearcustomer beware...)
The easiest way to connect with Sean is on twitter @SWilliamBrown33 or email at seanwilliambrown@yahoo.com
Dear Customer: Inside the World of Baristas, Upselling, and the Rules of Serving a Special Cup of Coffee was Sean's 1st book about his time working at Caribou Coffee in Minneapolis. The book is for anyone in customer service, service industry, hospitality, or anywhere customers are jerks!
Wal-Mart: I Don't Belong Here is Sean's second book, although he wrote it before Dear Customer. Called "amazing and depressing" by a Twitter follower, which is what he was going for. Have you ever wondered what goes on at Wal-Mart? Now is your chance to find out.
Also find Sean at www.thesku.org where he writes a comic and blog for people behind the counter, bar, or register. Anyone can read it though! (#dearcustomer beware...)
The easiest way to connect with Sean is on twitter @SWilliamBrown33 or email at seanwilliambrown@yahoo.com
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 16, 2015
Just a few comments:
I can understand and appreciate how frustrating it is to work at Caribou. It sucks. Bravo, he nailed those feelings.
It took me a while to read this because of errors (really, 2 people edited this book? Time to find new editors).
The very special cup of coffee really bothered me. Yes, there are a few customers that would probably deserve this, but I'm really hoping this is an idea based off his obvious fascination with Fight Club and didn't actually happen.
I can understand and appreciate how frustrating it is to work at Caribou. It sucks. Bravo, he nailed those feelings.
It took me a while to read this because of errors (really, 2 people edited this book? Time to find new editors).
The very special cup of coffee really bothered me. Yes, there are a few customers that would probably deserve this, but I'm really hoping this is an idea based off his obvious fascination with Fight Club and didn't actually happen.
January 16, 2024
Funny story... I was cleaning out the 11,000+ emails on my phone one night, and I found an ARC copy of this book, which had been sent to me way back in 2014.
It took me 10 years, but I finally read it! Unsurprisingly, I found this book to be an easy read to get into—it was like pulling on an old pair of shoes that happen to trigger some PTSD-like symptoms. I used to work in a bookstore, and I was cross-trained in basically every department, including Cafe, so this journey was not unfamiliar to me.
For the duration of the book, it was fun to live vicariously through Ben and to get all the workplace tea. Of course, we get a breakdown of the job itself (you may learn a little more than you wanted to know—Special Cup of Coffee—if you know, you know!); we basically go through orientation ourselves over the course of the first few chapters. Then we have front row seats as Ben eventually finds his footing as a manager and begins to re-evaluate some opinions he had in the beginning of his tenure.
Other Thoughts:
-I absolutely found myself voice-messaging some of my former coworkers to share a few of the anecdotes in this book. There’s some really relatable moments in here that you just have to laugh at.
-After reading other reviews, I realized that I had read the book under the impression that it was nonfiction, but, as the other reviewer pointed out, the author and the main character have different names, so make of that what you will. (If this means the "Special Cup of Coffee" is not real, that’s honestly a giant relief! I read that chapter in the middle of the night, and it was like a fever-dream that left me shooketh for days.)
-The book has a big focus on the start of the Caribou career, but it really glossed over the end, I could have used more/any information about how Ben left the company, especially since he was so miserable the entire time, you were almost rooting for him to escape somehow.
-As other reviews also mentioned, there were a considerable amount of errors in the copy I had. Didn’t really bother me. I did feel like there were a few parts that had too much repetition, like repeated bits or policies… Yet, that’s very much how these types of job operate—on repetition, #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork
-Ultimately what’s covered in this book is easily an inside-fly-on-the-wall look at people’s real, everyday lives. I had fun getting inside a manager’s mind and evaluating hires and what they brought to the company and the store. The other thing is there’s always bias on both sides of the counter. Like, needing drink orders in a specific order to be able to enter them into the system, but there’s no way that the customer could know that versus the customers who are just being high-key ridiculous for no reason.
-There was a section on Nickel and Dimed, which I read in high school and I own to this day. Nickel and Dimed is the reason I learned that I enjoy books like this, and so I very much enjoyed the discussion in Dear Customer.
It took me 10 years, but I finally read it! Unsurprisingly, I found this book to be an easy read to get into—it was like pulling on an old pair of shoes that happen to trigger some PTSD-like symptoms. I used to work in a bookstore, and I was cross-trained in basically every department, including Cafe, so this journey was not unfamiliar to me.
For the duration of the book, it was fun to live vicariously through Ben and to get all the workplace tea. Of course, we get a breakdown of the job itself (you may learn a little more than you wanted to know—Special Cup of Coffee—if you know, you know!); we basically go through orientation ourselves over the course of the first few chapters. Then we have front row seats as Ben eventually finds his footing as a manager and begins to re-evaluate some opinions he had in the beginning of his tenure.
Other Thoughts:
-I absolutely found myself voice-messaging some of my former coworkers to share a few of the anecdotes in this book. There’s some really relatable moments in here that you just have to laugh at.
-After reading other reviews, I realized that I had read the book under the impression that it was nonfiction, but, as the other reviewer pointed out, the author and the main character have different names, so make of that what you will. (If this means the "Special Cup of Coffee" is not real, that’s honestly a giant relief! I read that chapter in the middle of the night, and it was like a fever-dream that left me shooketh for days.)
-The book has a big focus on the start of the Caribou career, but it really glossed over the end, I could have used more/any information about how Ben left the company, especially since he was so miserable the entire time, you were almost rooting for him to escape somehow.
-As other reviews also mentioned, there were a considerable amount of errors in the copy I had. Didn’t really bother me. I did feel like there were a few parts that had too much repetition, like repeated bits or policies… Yet, that’s very much how these types of job operate—on repetition, #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork
-Ultimately what’s covered in this book is easily an inside-fly-on-the-wall look at people’s real, everyday lives. I had fun getting inside a manager’s mind and evaluating hires and what they brought to the company and the store. The other thing is there’s always bias on both sides of the counter. Like, needing drink orders in a specific order to be able to enter them into the system, but there’s no way that the customer could know that versus the customers who are just being high-key ridiculous for no reason.
-There was a section on Nickel and Dimed, which I read in high school and I own to this day. Nickel and Dimed is the reason I learned that I enjoy books like this, and so I very much enjoyed the discussion in Dear Customer.
December 2, 2021
If you've ever worked in a coffee shop before, this is a must read! I laughed out loud at the narrator's struggles, and even harder at his revenge. The main issue I had is that I assumed this was a memoir, but the author calls himself Sean and the narrator says his name is Ben throughout the book. Maybe this was all done for legal protection? It would hurt my soul to find out this was mostly fictional, so I'm going to tell myself now that this was all true (no matter how unbelievable his Very Special Cups were)! 3.5 stars, and relatable to every customer service worker in the world!
September 10, 2014
This book is beyond true. The world of customer service now has a book that speaks the truth. Not only is it accurate, it's beyond hilarious! I highly recommend this book to anyone that has worked in a customer service position and wanted to yank their hair out! Or even to customers so the can figure out what NOT to do.
July 27, 2015
Wow.
There is so much truth to this book! I've never been to a Caribou, but I've worked in the service industry and it really is the worst! People kind of suck in general. Anyway, Brown is a truly gifted storyteller. He's hilarious. I laughed so much because for a little while, he sounded just like my husband. He's good at explaining the world of managing a coffee shop and drawing us in. This was a quick read with an entertaining narrative, but I did have a few issues.
*insert complaining customer here*
1. LANGUAGE, BEN! So.much.profanity. While the plethora of f-bombs was true to the voice and even suitable to the subject, it was a bit excessive to me. I ended up skimming over sections at some points just because my brain was fried from the language. I'm no Pollyanna, but sometimes profanity can water down the message. And the message was solid with bits of brilliance in there - like the scene where he was looking out of the window while listening to the sad music and he started to cry. If it had been riddled with curse words, I would've missed a beautiful description of character depth.
2. Special cup?! Oh my lord. It horrified me. I was bothered the whole book. I've worked in the service industry before, too, but I've never wanted to do that to someone. It's kind of psychotic and he was management. That's...troubling.
One more really tight edit and this book would have been pure genius.
There is so much truth to this book! I've never been to a Caribou, but I've worked in the service industry and it really is the worst! People kind of suck in general. Anyway, Brown is a truly gifted storyteller. He's hilarious. I laughed so much because for a little while, he sounded just like my husband. He's good at explaining the world of managing a coffee shop and drawing us in. This was a quick read with an entertaining narrative, but I did have a few issues.
*insert complaining customer here*
1. LANGUAGE, BEN! So.much.profanity. While the plethora of f-bombs was true to the voice and even suitable to the subject, it was a bit excessive to me. I ended up skimming over sections at some points just because my brain was fried from the language. I'm no Pollyanna, but sometimes profanity can water down the message. And the message was solid with bits of brilliance in there - like the scene where he was looking out of the window while listening to the sad music and he started to cry. If it had been riddled with curse words, I would've missed a beautiful description of character depth.
2. Special cup?! Oh my lord. It horrified me. I was bothered the whole book. I've worked in the service industry before, too, but I've never wanted to do that to someone. It's kind of psychotic and he was management. That's...troubling.
One more really tight edit and this book would have been pure genius.
February 10, 2015
A quirky look at the life behind the counter and the many faces of customers. This book will have you laughing and scratching you head at the same time. Can you pick yourself out as one of the customers? I thankfully wasn't able to! YEAH!
I've never work as a barista or anything dealing with the public and after reading this book, I'm actually thankful that I didn't. You should probably be thankful too. For me, its decaf or regular, anything else you can get yourself.
I would like to read the next book Mr. Brown publishes. This book flows and pulls you in, so that you are a customer waiting in line. Sandwiched between someone who is late and someone who is playing on their phone. Good luck with that!
I've never work as a barista or anything dealing with the public and after reading this book, I'm actually thankful that I didn't. You should probably be thankful too. For me, its decaf or regular, anything else you can get yourself.
I would like to read the next book Mr. Brown publishes. This book flows and pulls you in, so that you are a customer waiting in line. Sandwiched between someone who is late and someone who is playing on their phone. Good luck with that!
April 16, 2015
i find myself wondering... why? why spend SO much time up front complaining about your training experience and trainer specifically, giving unnecessary anecdotes and details, without actually addressing what the title and subtitle suggest the book will be about? where is the intelligent dialogue? are there even any lessons to be learned- are there that many people that would actually buy this book that don't understand how awful customer service jobs actually are?? why are there so many typos? how did this book ever get published?
February 21, 2015
Sean has an impeccable gift for character study and the ability to translate it into words.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews