The Real Heroes Behind SLAY - ‘BARISTAS’
Every brand wants to be a ‘people-first’ brand. But what does being ‘people-first’ even mean? We had to answer the same question here at SLAY Coffee and it took us quite some time to understand what it really meant to be ‘people-first’. Not just in theory, but in reality as well.
SLAY Coffee employs over 300 people across the country from all walks of life. While there are about 50 people working in the corporate team based out of Bangalore, the majority of our workforce are the real heroes of the brand - the baristas.
With 300+ baristas today across 18 cities and growing, they are by far our biggest strength and truly the ones who make the brand what it is today. SLAY Coffee is India’s 2nd largest coffee brand online and has the highest rated coffees across all leading food delivery platforms.
How did we get there? Simple - our baristas ensure that they create magic with their hands when they brew a 5-star cup of coffee day in day out.
Besides providing professional training, industry best remuneration, great incentive opportunities, a comprehensive health cover - which was all just a must do for us - we went a step ahead and delivered on our promise of truly being a ‘people-first’ brand.
It was time for us to humanize SLAY Coffee and bring the baristas right at the center of all the attention. Also it was time for the brand to be known through the ones who brew the perfect cup of coffee EVERY TIME.
The ‘Barista Sticker’ was introduced in late 2019 as not only a way to further communicate that every cup of SLAY Coffee is handcrafted by a professionally trained barista, but to also make the baristas truly the face of the brand. The idea was simple - every cup of coffee would carry a sticker of the barista who brewed it. The sticker would have a picture of the barista and it would say “Handcrafted by <barista_name>”.
We were quite excited to launch this initiative and were eagerly looking forward to what our customers would think about it. And much to our delight, not only did our customers love it, it became one of the most talked about things for them on our social media. We started getting Insta mentions where a customer would click a picture of the coffee cup with the barista sticker in view and they’d thank the barista for ‘making their day’ or such. Even reviews on Swiggy and Zomato started receiving gratitude towards specific baristas. Our customers and baristas have a strong connection,all thanks to the ‘Barista Stickers’.
Not only did this give the brand a human touch, it reassured our customers that this coffee was being made by a human on the other side and not a machine. And to top it off, it all came together when we would pass on the personalized compliments to our baristas which would really make their day.
We haven’t looked back since and we’re extremely proud of this initiative where the barista is the only branding on an otherwise blank cup for thousands of customers who order SLAY Coffee every day.
