Tom Krieglstein visited Birch Coffee in NYC and found postcards on tables that let customers signal they wanted to meet people. He argues community doesn't need churches or clubs, it just needs someone to build it intentionally, even in a coffee shop.
A typical coffee shop experience for most people is you walk in, order your drink, give them your name. They put your name on a cup, they completely mess up that name. You get your cup back, take a picture, post on social media. And I swear that that's a secret marketing campaign that they do to post their cups on social media. Not the point of this post. I was at another coffee shop called Birch Coffee in New York City, and I did the same process. The only thing though this time is as I was walking to pick up my cup where, where normally they would upsell you on new products to buy, I noticed a section at their table. It said, take a sign and start a conversation with a new potential friend. And what they had were a bunch of sort of look like postcards on the display with questions on it where you could take one. And if you took it and put it on your table, that let everyone else know in that community that you were open to a conversation. You're open to meeting someone new. And it got me thinking. Community doesn't have to happen just within what we consider a traditional community, like within a student organization or within your church or your nonprofit community can happen anywhere. They're trying here in Birch Coffee to create community within their coffee shop. It reminds me of that time I walked past the gym and it said, come for the equipment, stay for the community. Community is your competitive advantage. What are you doing to cultivate it within your group and your organization? This is Tom helping you to bring your people onto your dance floor and engage your people.
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