Boost Office Productivity: The Importance of Coffee Machines and Questions to consider before buying one.

TLDR: Office coffee machines save money and time, boosts productivity and workplace happiness. Need to consider questions like how many coffees, what type/quality, cost/ budget.

Saving Time and Money

While for some of us ducking out to the local café for a quick takeaway coffee is a welcome mental break in the work day many of us favour more than one cup of coffee each day. If you’re heading out on a regular jaunt to get your caffeine fix, it’s almost assured that you’re losing a lot of productive time in your day and leaving your wallet a whole lot lighter.

If you work close to a café, the entire foray can take up to 30 minutes depending on how busy the café is, and how far you have to travel to and from your desk. This might be an acceptable part of life if it’s something you indulge in once in a while, but losing so much time out of your work day for a few coffees is hardly feasible for most of us even with the world’s most understanding boss.

Saving money is a huge upside, with the average cost per cup from a high-end automatic coffee machine coming to around 60 cents when compared to the average price of cafe coffee, that’s about an 85% saving each cup.

Increased Productivity and Workplace Happiness

Productivity and convenience are other major selling points, and with a coffee machine in the office, you’re guaranteed to boost the whole vibe of the workplace. Grabbing a coffee is not only an arguably vital source of caffeine, which helps improve energy levels and focus it’s also a much needed mental break for staff. Taking mental breaks and in this case, coffee breaks can aid in productivity by providing a clearer distinction between different work tasks, or getting clarity on a project they might have been absorbed in for hours. This is backed by multiple studies into workplace productivity and happiness levels.

The social aspect is also important, with team members being likely to take coffee breaks together. This provides them with an opportunity to exchange ideas, knowledge and experience with each other in a casual and friendly way. A coffee machine is a simple and cost-effective way of fostering team-work and collaboration, while reducing unproductive work hours.

Being able to provide a great coffee to visiting clients or during meetings is a simple but extremely appreciated gesture and having a great coffee machine on site can add perceived value and comfort to your customer’s experience. Being able to share a cup of coffee with your clients or team members is a great way to connect socially, contributing to better overall relationships. Coffee culture in Australia is especially strong, and being able to offer your staff and customers a really tasty, comforting cup of coffee goes a long way in forging strong bonds, for very little effort and a seriously low price.

Choosing the Right Coffee Machine

There are a number of factors that go into choosing the right coffee machine for your workplace, and taking the time to consider all of them before making your choice can save you money and ensure absolute satisfaction. After all, a good coffee machine is an important investment and one that many in the office are sure to be looking forward to with plenty of enthusiasm – getting it wrong could certainly lead to some headaches! Luckily, with a small amount of forward-thinking and this awesome guide to arm you with knowledge, you can easily be prepared when you come in to talk to one of our expert machine specialists. The following considerations are things that our team is likely to ask you when you come in, so knowing ahead of time can really streamline to process. Less time deciding means more time playing with the machine!

How many cups do you expect your machine to make each day?

Let’s talk capacity. The more coffee’s you need to make each day, the more likely you are to choose a machine that has a larger water tank, grounds tray and bean hopper capacity.

It is always a better choice to overestimate how many you will need, rather than underestimating and purchasing a machine that can’t keep up on the busier days.

You should consider whether the machine might also be used to offer clients and customers coffee, which would cause it’s workload to fluctuate more, or be less predictable than your team’s coffee consumption.

For exceptionally large workplaces, estimating that each person will drink 2 cups of coffee per day is a fairly accurate, educated guess while some may drink more, they will be offset by the non-coffee drinkers and those that only drink one. If you have client coffees on top of that, you can come up with a rough estimate again, then round up for safety.

For example, in a workplace with 20 staff, you can safely assume the machine will make roughly 40 coffees per day. If this workplace was a hair salon, mechanics, or real estate it would be reasonable to add another 20-30 coffees per day onto the machines workload. This means you need to purchase a machine that can comfortably produce around 60-80 cups per day. 

What do you need your coffee machine to do?

Knowing how you need your coffee machine to perform will help narrow down the number of coffee machine options out there. Some of the main points to consider when purchasing an office coffee machine in the context of performance are the following:

Beverage type: Do your staff and customers drink mainly black, or mainly milk coffees? Most people in Australia drink milk-based coffees, so it is likely important to choose a machine that is capable of producing hot steamed milk. If this is the case, it is also worth considering the purchase of a small milk fridge or temperature-controlled milk container to go with the coffee machine to keep milk safe for consumption throughout the day.

Beverage menu: You can also choose a coffee machine with a wider repertoire of producible beverages. For example, some machines will give you the option of producing only a very small range of drinks like short blacks, long blacks and flat whites. Others will produce a full menu that includes the aforementioned as well as lattes, cappuccinos, macchiato, and hot milk portions (for hot chocolates and chai lattes).

Customisation: Some machines will give a wider range of options when it comes to customising a drink, such as being able to adjust the strength of the coffee shot, the temperature of the milk and the option of saving drink programs for individual staff members or customers.

Automation: There is a range of machines emerging now that have Bluetooth connect-ability. Staff can download an app to their phone that allows them to create and save their customised coffee, as well as send it to the coffee machine remotely as long as a cup is placed beneath the spouts, no touch control is required! Not only is this more hygienic, it also means that coffee machine settings aren’t being changed regularly to suit each person.

Plumbing options: Do you want the option of having your machine plumbed into the mains, so no one ever has to remember to fill up the water tank? Or perhaps having an on-bench machine appeals because it allows you to move it to wherever is convenient, whenever you want.

Coffee input flexibility: Some coffee machines provide a way to use pre-ground coffee as well as fresh whole beans. This can be useful if you have a number of decaf coffee drinkers or staff who want to bring their own coffee in – you can keep everyone happy!

What standard of coffee do you expect from your machine?

Different coffee machines can produce different standards of coffee. How do you take your coffee? What are you willing to sacrifice? If the answer is nothing, and you want a coffee as close as possible to barista-quality – that makes the choice easy. The factors that affect quality with office coffee machines include the following:

Use of powdered or fresh milk: We are very much on the ‘fresh is best’ team, but understand that some organisations are quite large and/or don’t have the time to monitor the stock levels of a coffee machine and therefore might choose a different option.

The use of freeze-dried coffee or fresh whole coffee beans: Like the machines that use powdered milk for convenience, they also often tend to use freeze-dried coffee – better known as instant coffee - rather than freshly ground coffee beans. We all know the difference between an instant coffee and a fresh espresso based coffee – no contest!

Basket capacity: How many grams of coffee the machine uses each time to produce a coffee shot. Where this is concerned, the bigger the better. The larger the coffee dose, the larger the amount of dissolved coffee soluble – sugar, oils, acids and caffeine – all the tasty goodness! This is what produces the golden, mousse-y head on top of your coffee shot which we call the ‘crema’.

Standard of milk texture/steaming: Not all machines are created equal in this arena, and getting a demonstration before you buy is paramount! If you and your team appreciate a milk-based coffee, then you will no doubt be familiar with the silky, micro-foam milk texture that Australians know and love. Getting a coffee machine that can live up to these standards is a must.  

Extraction quality: Naturally, some machines extract the goodness from your coffee to a higher standard than others. This depends on how they are built to do so – how they push the water through the coffee, at what pressure and pattern. Any machine specialist worth their salt will be able to explain how each machine works in terms of extraction, and the benefits of some systems over others.  

What is your budget for a coffee machine and is it enough?

What is important to consider when budgeting for a coffee machine is how soon a machine will pay itself off in increased staff productivity, less time outside of the office, customer or client satisfaction, and paying less for coffees compared to running a tab at the local cafe. A coffee from the local cafe is around $4.00 per cup. The average coffee pods cost around $0.85 per cup. A cup of coffee from a quality machine like the Jura professional automatic coffee machine is around $0.60. That's up to 30% cheaper than pods, or 85% cheaper than a barista coffee or 30 minutes or more extra productivity per cup! When you really plot out the money saved by investing in a quality coffee machine, it truly sets itself apart. Those who choose to buy a cheaper machine that produces a lower quality coffee often regret it.

Other costs associated with coffee machines to be considered include:

Purchase price: the initial, upfront purchase of the machine and relevant accessories.

Installation costs: some machines may require professional installation, make sure to ask about the costs associated with this – here at Crema Coffee Garage we prefer to install machines and train staff with every office coffee machine.

Weekly costs: How much does it cost to run each week in regards to utilities and consumables like coffee beans, milk, chocolate powder, cups, or cleaning products?

Maintenance and repairs: what are the costs associated with having the machine serviced or repaired, and how regularly do these need to be carried out? At Crema we look after our clients by offering servicing and repairs to all office machines that we install.

The Takeaway

Hopefully this article has provided helpful insights into the important questions to ask yourself when considering the addition of a coffee machine into the workplace. At Crema, we firmly believe that coffee belongs in every office and we don’t discriminate based on workplace size or type. All workplaces have people, and all people need coffee - except of course a small minority of non-believers who we accommodate with chocolate, chai, tea and decaf, because we’re nice like that.
When it comes to office machine setups and experience, we have over 10, 000 happy office clients and we continue to sign up new ones at a constant rate – our results simply speak for themselves. We’re good at what we do. Come in for a machine demonstration or give us a call for a chat with one of our machine specialists – we guarantee we can find the perfect fit for your workplace.

If you are looking for an all inclusive package that caps your expenses and includes the machine, servicing, cleaning products and consumables, there are Professional Coffee Machine Packages available. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

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Having quality coffee in the office is the most cost and time effective way to keep staff and clients happy - and we've got the numbers to back it up!

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Enjoy the added peace-of-mind of Crema's own 5-Year Coffee Warranty Program when you pre-pay for servicing and buy your coffee and consumables through us. Click here to find out more.