If you're considering hiring an office coffee service to provide coffee and beverages for your office or just beginning to investigate the options provided by an office coffee service, you'll find that office coffee services provide far more than just coffee. When your business partners with a company that provides office coffee service, you'll be able to choose from a wide variety of services and items ranging from coffee makers to vending machines, equipment and supplies for your coffee or break room, coffee and other beverages and even snacks. Here's a quick tour of what you might expect a typical office coffee service to provide for your office or place of business.
Coffee Makers
The typical office break room has a coffee maker that is meant for home use. Unless you've only got a couple of people drinking coffee over the course of the day, you'll find yourself replacing that coffee maker far more often than you would at home. Professional office coffee services generally will offer a wide choice of coffee makers to suit the way your office drinks coffee. Your choice of coffee maker will vary from provider to provider, but most offer several choices that include standard drip coffee makers, espresso machines, single serve coffee machines, semi and fully automatic coffee makers and even vending machines.
These days, the most common coffee maker choices are single-serve coffee systems like Keurig, Flavia or Senseo. Single serve coffee makers cut down on maintenance and clean-up by brewing one cup of coffee at a time using a self-contained coffee ?capsule? or cup. Some of these are connected directly to the plumbing so that even filling the water receptacle is a simple matter of turning a tap. Single serve coffee systems offer a number of advantages over coffee makers that brew by the pot. Perhaps the biggest advantage is that each employee or client can make a different kind of coffee without having to brew up a full pot. If your secretary loves her Rainforest Hazelnut, the rest of the office isn't stuck drinking up the rest of the pot.
The cost of the coffee machine will often depend upon two factors: the type of machine and the volume of coffee that you order from the coffee service each month. Many coffee service companies provide a standard coffee machine for free as long as you continue to order your coffee and other supplies through them. Often, however, you can continue to rent the machine for a small monthly fee even if you buy your own coffee to use in the machine.
Coffee
In addition to the coffee machine, coffee services also deliver coffee to your office on a pre-determined schedule. If you've chosen a pour-over pot or drip machine, the coffee will usually be packaged in pre-measured one-pot pouches. If you've chosen a single-serve coffee system, you'll be able to order coffee in single serving coffee pods (K-cups, T-cups or other pod types depending on the coffee brewer supplied by the company). In either case, you'll usually find that having coffee available to your employees in pre-measured pouches cuts down on waste and reduces the amount of coffee that's used per cup.
Other Beverages
In addition to coffee, many coffee services also carry tea and hot chocolate, and some also provide soups that can be made with hot water. In fact, if you're renting a single serve coffee system like the Keurig from your office coffee service, you'll probably be able to order their entire range of beverages through your service provider.
Snacks for the Break Room
Some coffee service companies also offer a range of snacks for your office break room. The snacks offered by your coffee service may include bags of chips and pretzels as well as individually packaged bagels, doughnuts, croissants and muffins. The companies that provide snacks may also provide other individually packaged items like jams and jellies, butter pats, coffee creamers and cream cheese. Many offices find that providing these in sanitary individual packages cuts down on waste and is more economical than buying them at the supermarket.
Supplies and Equipment
What happens if your coffee carafe shatters or your machine needs servicing? Office coffee services provide all service for your coffee machine, including replacement parts and repair. In most cases, if your coffee machine malfunctions the coffee service will provide you with a replacement for it if it can't be repaired in place. You can usually set up a service contract with your provider and let them take care of regular maintenance like cleaning, de-scaling and replacing filters and other parts on a regular schedule.
When choosing an office coffee service, be sure that you ask to see their full catalog of supplies and services. Compare all costs of using the coffee service with the costs of providing a similar level of coffee service on your own to help you decide if a coffee service is the best option for your office.
What is the first thing that most workers do when they get to work? Is it sit down and immediately become productive? Probably not. Most likely they head for the coffee. They grab a cup of coffee, say a quick hello to their co-workers, and then they start their daily tasks. For many workers, if they were to skip those first five coffee minutes, they wouldn't feel like they would be able to be very productive in the morning. In fact, a lot of ideas start flowing around the coffee area first thing in the morning as workers come to life and start to chat.
If this is what happens regularly in your place of business, and you feel like you spend more time restocking the coffee supplies than you do the rest of your job, it might be time to consider hiring a coffee service. A coffee service can routinely stock your coffee supplies, making sure that you never run out (and you know you don't want that to happen). That's not all a coffee service can do, though.
What a coffee service can supply
Yes, coffee services deliver coffee. But they do so much more.
?Provide coffee and coffee related beverages such as cappuccino, espresso, teas, hot chocolates and other hot beverages based on your companies needs. A coffee service should be able to determine how much your place of business will need based on the number of employees. ?Provide the machines to brew the beverages in. ?Provide disposable cups and lids, napkins, and stir sticks. ?Provide sugar and sugar substitutes, creamers, non-dairy creamers, flavored syrups, honey and other items that routinely go into hot beverages. ?Water delivery ? water coolers, individual bottles of water, and water filtration devices. ?Provide foods such as cup of soup and oatmeal that can be made quickly the hot water from the coffee machine. ?Offer other light snacks and beverages such as juices or soft drinks.
Other services a coffee service may be able to perform
?Maintenance of machines ? Machines need to be routinely cleaned to provide the best tasting beverages, and a coffee service will do this task for you making sure it's done regularly and done right. If a machine breaks down, a coffee service can fix it or replace it, ensuring that there is minimal disruption of the availability of coffee in your place of business. ?Rental of additional machinery for special events ? Sometimes you need additional supplies for a conference or other special event. A coffee service can rent you extra brewing machines, carafes, durable mugs, and other supplies you don't want to have on hand every day. Of course, the service can provide you with the additional coffee, tea, creamers, sugars and other supplies you'll need for your event. ?Same day service for ?emergencies? ? Okay, so running out of coffee may not be an emergency of say Hurricane Katrina proportions, but a lack of coffee can be disastrous to productivity and moral. If the coffee runs out or a machine breaks down, many coffee services will say ?help is on the way? the same day. ?Vending services ? Some coffee services stay in the beverage and light snack area, while others combine their services with other services such as vending machines for snacks and cold beverages, microwaves and microwavable meals for employees, and all of the cups, plates, napkins, utensils, and condiments that are needed for those services. ?Green your coffee offerings - Everyone's doing an environmental part these days. Some coffee services may be able to help you green your office's coffee by having options such as organic or fair trade coffees, teas and sweeteners, cups made from recycled materials that can also be recycled, compostable stir sticks, and other eco-friendly products.
Hiring a coffee service for your place of business can save you a lot of time, a lot of headaches (both figuratively and literally), and even save you money. Replacing over worked coffee machines routinely and buying coffee, teas and their accompaniments at retail prices can really add up. Coffee from a service can cost as little as 10 cents a cup.
A good coffee service will come out and provide you with a tasting of their coffees and other beverages before you purchase. They will also speak to you at length about the coffee habits of the people you work with so they can determine your needs. Many coffee services will also throw in the first coffee machine for free as a bonus to signing on to their service. Shop around for the best office coffee service in your area.
Both Brian_jenkins & Mikecole236 are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Brian_jenkins has sinced written about articles on various topics from . Brian Jenkins is a freelance writer and blogger who writes about the office environment and ways to improve productivity such as utilizing an