A customer interview. Coffee Molly Cafes

G'day to our subscribers and to everyone who happened to visit the Shifton company page by chance. Today, we're offering an interview with one of our customers - the owner of a café chain, who has been using the Shifton online service for quite some time.

Shifton: Kia ora. Let's introduce ourselves!

Irina: Kia ora! My name is Irina Uskova, and I own and run a chain of coffee shops called Coffee Molly in Nizhny Novgorod (Russia).

Shifton: Tell us a bit more about your business.

Irina: By the start of 2021, the company had over 20 baristas with varying levels of occupation. Coffee Molly has been operating in the city since 2014, focusing on catering to office workers. Currently, there are seven coffee shops in Nizhny Novgorod with a total turnover of 25 million rubles per year.

Shifton: Why did you choose to partner with Shifton?

Irina: The nature of the market is such that our employees are quite young, and therefore they often change jobs. For most of them, it's their first job. As a result, working with personnel takes a lot of time and involves selecting applicants, training, mentorship, and professional development.

It became obvious to me that this process shouldn't be taken too seriously, as the main focus is to maintain the core group of baristas - 5-6 people. They help newcomers to settle in quickly and easily.

This bustling activity impacts the daily work schedule, so it needs to be promptly monitored, and any changes must be communicated immediately to everyone.

Shifton: How did you handle these issues before?

Irina: In the past, we sent updates via a general chat, and sometimes we had to call employees individually to ensure they were aware of changes. But with each new coffee shop we opened, the need to automate these tasks became greater.

Shifton: Does your company need an automated online scheduling service?

Irina: Definitely, those keeping up with trends are aware that the food services market is increasingly adopting IT technologies. Handling schedules is a daily task for the administrator and senior baristas. When scheduling, they must consider employee preferences (personal matters, second job, etc.), the efficiency of the barista at a specific coffee shop and the nature of the day (weekend or weekday). Also, we need to organise training for newcomers, conduct inventory or general cleaning, find a replacement for the unwell, or split shifts between two employees. And, of course, we should consider all possible delays and overtime.

We automated this process a while back, but as the company grew, I wanted something more than just a program that set work rosters. I was looking for partner developers who could make the program function as payroll for each employee as well. There were even more ideas...

Shifton: Did your expectations get fulfilled as the cooperation with Shifton grew?

Irina: Yes, I'm absolutely pleased with it! Honestly, when I first stumbled upon Shifton, it took me some time to realise how flexible this tool can be.

During the testing phase, I asked numerous questions about what was planned for implementation and what features Shifton offers, to ensure employees would be confident with their schedules at any moment and know in advance the amount they will receive at the end of each month. I wanted payroll to be seamless, conducted in real-time, and accessible to staff on their smartphones at any time, not just on payday.

Shifton: Were your requests met? How satisfied are you with the support from Shifton developers?

Irina: All my requests were met, and I also realised that the program can be further customised to suit our needs. I worked closely with the developers for 6 months and communicated what we liked and what we expect further. We quickly implemented the program and immediately saw that we wanted to use it more and more and tailor it to our requirements.

Shifton: Have you been successful so far?

Irina: We've achieved several things: we automated individual schedules considering preferences, assigned baristas to branches, and adjusted bonus and penalty calculations. We removed errors in salary calculations where some shifts were overlooked or paid twice. We installed the app on all employees' smartphones, so they receive notifications on updates and payroll instantly. We also reduced the scheduling time by 10 times and decreased turnover, as employees see their rosters/salary and can affect them, thereby overall enhancing the time planning process for everyone.

Shifton: Surely you have more ideas on Shifton's tool customisation?

Irina: Yes, absolutely. We're anticipating a more user-friendly interface for making changes in the schedules. At present, not all details can be changed, and adjusting certain parameters requires starting anew. We're expecting more flexible settings in salary reports for overall periods and the ability to leave comments on work. As for service functions, we need the ability for staff to leave comments and prepare reports on completed tasks in the app. I'm also interested in the automatic calculation of bonuses based on sales indicators or KPI fulfilment and more flexible settings of the app interface for staff convenience: what to display on the main screen, what notifications to send, and what to report on.

Shifton: Thank you for your detailed and informative feedback, Irina. Can you recommend the Shifton online service to other company owners?

Irina: I already suggest the tool to my clients, whom I assist in setting up their coffee shops, since Shifton is cost-effective, easy to use, and liked by my staff. Before starting with Shifton, I thoroughly tested over 10 different apps and programs. By the time I found Shifton, I had already agreed with a developer ready to create a similar program for us. And Shifton completely resolved all my scheduling and payroll automation concerns.