Background
A Cup Above has two locations - a coffeehouse in Louisburg, KS and a coffee cart located in Olathe, KS as the Olathe Medical Center. Louisburg is a bedroom community of Kansas City with a population of 3000. We have a drive-thru that accounts for about 80% of our business. The Olathe location is located in a medical building so there is a steady flow of patients and employees all day long. Both locations offer the typical breakfast items, quiche, burritos, muffins, bagels, cinnamon rolls, scones etc. Louisburg also has a lunch menu and serves soup in the winter
Keys to Success
Great Customer Service. We have trained our employees to not only make quality drinks, but to get to know each customer that comes in by name. We also encourage them to find out something about them and their life and family. Customers appreciate feeling like someone really cares about them. We never argue with a customer, it goes back to the old adage, "The customer is always right". At A Cup Above they are!
Special Events
We usually have a drink of the week during the winter, but our biggest, most successful "event" is our free drink day. We pick one day a year at the hospital and give free 12 oz. drinks to the employees and volunteers. Last year we gave out 400 drinks. This year 800! Doing this allows people to try something that they normally wouldn't. It also brings a lot of people in who have never tried us before. We've seen a great increase in business after each free drink day that has held throughout the year.
Target Customers
Our customer base is mainly 25-45 year old married women with school age children, however, our male customer base has been steadily increasing.
Challenges Faced
Having two locations can sometimes be a headache, especially trying to keep both staffed with quality employees. We have maintained a great crew for a year now, but some are heading off to college so they will need to be replaced.
Where We're Headed
We would love to open 2 or 3 more locations in the next five years.
