1. You should have enough urns to be able to rotate them around. So three ( one for dark like and blonde ) will always be full. Then one or two ( we have two ) that’s empty that lets you brew. Every ten minutes you brew a new batch ( ina. Cycle so example : pike then dark then blonde then pike etc ). You dump the old coffee once the new one is finished ( never ever brew in to old coffee. ).

Try to tend to customers first during this they take priority ( if you’re halfway through doing it though it’s ok to finish real quick just let the customer know you’ll be right with them ).

2. Simple “how is your day” is my go to. I also just toss around compliments and let the customers decide if they wanna make it a convo or not. Just be friendly and relax!

3. I tend to rotate between the two ( take order then make food ) but hopefully someone can hop in and back you up if you’re too busy at POS. Make sure you get their brewed coffees before moving on to next customer too!

4. It’s ok for a bit but try not to take too long. If needed just let the customer know you’ll be one sec and take it out real quick. But as I said above hopefully someone can hop in to back you up! You usually have some leeway and it’s ok for a bit but food can burn if you take too long.

5. Honestly just ask questions and take it slow. You’re new it’s ok to make mistakes. You’ll learn from them. Just feel comfortable asking for help if you need it and show you wanna learn and get better and you will. Don’t worry too much you’re still new ! It takes a while for people to really become full-fledged baristas don’t get too upset you’re still pretty much a green bean.

You’ll do great just relax and focus on learning and getting better. 😊

Okay, a lot of these answers are actually peak specific, but if you open super early like we do it's a little different because you probably only have between 2 and 4 partners for a few hours. So.
1. Brew coffee when you have downtime, using the extra urn to brew a new batch of aomething if you already have all three coffees. Our store calls for 1/4 batch in the mornings, but we do a half batch because we rarely have time to do a proper cadence. If you're a super busy store, do a full batch
2. A lot of customers won't want to connect in the morning. I personally do a quick "how's your morning going?", but the thing that really matters that early is learning your regulars and making their day easier by helping them with their orders.
3. Definitely grab food between customers, or you'll get waaaaaay behind really fast. I make sure both my ovens are going (or I've run out of stickers) before I go back to POS (this is especially important if you're also handling drive thru warming)
4. Yes. If there's a free partner, they'll probably grab the oven if only to stop the beeping. If it beeps for waaay too long, I tell the customer "excuse me, let me take care of that noise" and grab the oven, but only if they've ordered 8 drinks and are taking forever.
5. If you're talking peak, working at the same pace the whole time and not stressing about the line really helps. If you open, making sure everything is stocked properly, you have a full batch of pike, and things are marked out in the POS if you're out of them helps a huge amount. Also, keeping RTD&E organized can really help you on warming.

1. During peak you are brewing something every 10 minutes. You should follow rotation. There should be a sticker of the order on the side of your machine. That way you alternate pike, blonde, and dark. Set the timer each time you brew. Don’t brew over already brewed coffee. You dump whatever is in your 4th urn and then brew into that. You should have a button on the iPad called batch guidance. It will tell you how much of each you should brew depending on time of day.

2. Just being peppy and communicating. If I’m on front and warming I generally happy shout hello when they walk in and let them know I’m coming for them as I grab items from my beeping ovens.

3. Food between customers. If your drowning you need to let your flex person or your shift know you need help. I just keep customers posted on what’s going on. Excuse me let me go grab that beeping oven and then I toss in a new sandwich and run back to take their order.

4. You generally don’t want to leave it long. If you have a true line let your DTO know they need to grab their own food for a second.

5. You get better with time. Don’t worry too much. If you need help let someone know and communicate. Your store manager shouldn’t have a totally not supported green bean on front and warming during peak. That’s 100% on them. Just keep asking questions, communicating, and trying your best.

i’m an actual green bean myself but i’ve been put to do morning shifts this whole week. i was told brewing coffee should be done every 30 minutes because my store has an honorable reputation, if you will, so they try to be as fresh as they can be. they either throw it out or pour a new batch in another container, but mostly throw it out. mornings are usually big crowds so yea, full batch should do it. “the customer is always first” 🙄 so go with that. when it’s not busy, take the time to do it. for customers, just try to ask them about their day. i find this hard when opening since there’s no lines and everything is done quickly that a convo is nonexistent but just ask about plans for the day or about the coffee selection? for me, i try to set up food between customers to get it over with and taking an order should be similar to the time it’s heating up so try to multitask or reach out to another partner to help bag up the food. you can also do it after the line and be quick with it but the wait for the customer can be longer. i’m still tryna figure this one out myself haha. i’d suggest taking it out asap because a continuous beep sound goes off after it’s done warming which 1. it’s annoying and 2. get the order over with. i tend to talk to customers while i heat things up to keep that “customer service”. it’s up to you, if you can handle taking it out and bagging quickly, then tell the customer to hold up for a bit or you can just take it out and let it sit for a bit while you take an order. this is my first week and what i was taught to do because our store is VERY efficient and cares about numbers so the last one to me is still new. i’m also trying to figure out how to deal with a full lobby without letting my anxiety get in the way 😅 good luck with future opening shifts!!

hiya, regular opener here! forgive me if my reading comprehension is a bit poor but here we go

1 assuming you have four kegs, you should be able to do a regular rotation without having to brew into old coffee. so let's say your brewing order is pike, then blonde, then dark. you brew your pike first, then your blonde, then your dark, and you should have a fourth keg to brew the next round of pike. then when it comes to brew your blonde, you dump your OLD pike, replace the keg with the fresher pike, and brew the blonde into the keg you just emptied.

2 I find it easy to connect to customers first thing in the morning with just a "day just starting?" or "what's got you up so early?" or just asking general questions about what their days gonna look like. if they have something fun going on, great! they'll love to talk about going somewhere cool cuz they're excited! if they're headed to work and are tired, "well good thing you're getting some coffee in ya huh?" and most of the time they'll be like "yeah lmao"

3 so I'm a drive thru only store so I don't know if this will be really skewed by how my store is run? but surely they don't have you on dto AND dtr while on warming right? assuming you're on dto and warming duty and JUST those two, you're gonna want to try to talk to your customers over the headset while youre putting whatever food you need in the oven, and just input their order when you can.
this is pretty difficult to get used to and it took me kind of a long time, but one of the things that makes it easier for me is to repeat back what they said to help you memorize their order before you return to the computer.
if you feel overwhelmed by the amount of food you have to put in the oven, don't panic. YOU control the pace of the conversation. pad it out with a lengthy greeting, pretend you're taking a while to input their order, make somw jokes with them, or if it comes down to it, dont be afraid to tell your customers that you'll be with them in a second. sometimes one of your coworkers who has a second might even help you input an order or two while you're at the oven. you have plenty of opportunities to catch up on the oven, but it takes practice to get efficient working both at once.

4 its generally safe to leave the food in the oven for a few seconds after it starts beeping, but usually a coworker will swoop in and open the oven if it looks like its taking too long so in my personal opinion this isn't something you should be worrying about too hard. it takes a lot more effort putting the food INTO the oven than it does simply opening the door once its done. then when you have the chance, take it out if no one else has yet.

5 again this is gonna be a heavily drive thru only skewed perspective, but if youre out on dtr during peak, try to make sure youre lining up your orders on your sill before they get there. keeping your orders lined up and organized will help you throw everything out the window much faster and helps you feel less like you're scrambling to find the right drinks and food items. this can be really tricky sometimes, but trust your coworkers are getting all the drinks and stuff out in the right order (with some leeway if hot bar and cold bar are getting their tickets printed separately but you can tell the difference between a hot latte and a frap lol) and just keep in mind that customers are going to starbucks because they like it there! you'll get some cranky people occasionally but generally people are going to sbux in a good mood and are generally gonna be patient, especially if you let them know you're still adjusting to the job!

good luck with your future shifts! I hope this response wasn't too long lol but I'm sure you're gonna do great! keep asking your coworkers questions when you need to and be patient with yourself, you'll get it ❤