What an Office Coffee Service Provides
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.
Brian Jenkins is a freelance writer and
blogger who writes about the office
environment and ways to improve
productivity such as utilizing an office
coffee service.
Article Directory: Article Dashboard
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.
Technorati Tags : coffee office service provide