We all can find ourselves in different situations facing the need to have a glass of hot water. Whether you have just escaped from the desert or simply need to take your pills, it is p to public catering establishments whether to provide water for free or charge customers minimum prices to gain higher revenue. We are not talking of any altruistic or ethical issues. It’s just a business, baby! On the other, charging several cents for services that are actually not services appears to be a modern trend.

For example, a woman in a Moscow restaurant asked the staff if she could charge her cellphone, but her claim was rejected. This occasion resulted in numerous discussions and appeared to be another proof in favor of caterers that are eager to charge their customers for every extra breath. There are plenty of other examples of such greediness or tight economy, if you like. Such approach shoes a great eagerness of business owners to save every cent. However, they are so concentrated on the small things that they do not consider some obvious reasons of losing their major revenue. This is the point for another discussion.

We can turn to some moral and ethical issues as well. Could you imagine a posh restaurant with some world’s famous chefs and brilliant cuisine where no one will serve you a glass of water free? It sounds like nonsense. On the other hand, we can imagine such situation in a cheap caf? at the campus, for example.

When it comes to gas station chains, here we have commercial coffee machines that produce boiling water. This is actually their main task. The majority of venues provide hot water for free, as customers’ satisfaction and high-quality service are of major priority for all gas station chains without any exception.
If considering Russian gas station chains, we may observe 190 venues located in the North-West region and connected to the remote coffee machine monitoring system (BMS). The system delivers a precise data all operations with the equipment including the level of water shedding. This rate was 11,483 cups in January 2017 while in December 2016 the rate was even higher featuring 19,121 cups of shed water. In other words, free hot water is in a huge demand today.

Professional coffee equipment calls for specific ingredients including special coffee blends of the highest quality in addition to particular types of milk and water. The last two ingredients are selected extremely carefully as they can affect the taste of the beverage the same way as the quality of coffee beans. The “right” water has nothing in common with water we consume every day. For example, a typical shot of espresso consists of 100% of water. If the water is of low quality, the taste will be awful and never able to meet customers’ expectations.

We started talking about coffee due to obvious reasons. The revenue from beverage appeared to be even higher if compared with selling fuel. A leading gas station chain and oil producer “Gazprom Neft” has made over $1.5 million from coffee sales during the last half-year. The revenue from coffee is almost the same as from fuel sales.

It means that the quality of coffee served at gas station chains reflects their attitude to business and customers in general.

Business owners have two major alternatives to boost the quality of the beverage. The first one is to purchase high-quality water delivered in 19-liter bottles. The second alternative is to install efficient filters to the water pipe system.

The ability to follow the highest standards and requirements to water quality will let business owners prolong the lifespan of their equipment as well as increase its durability. All you need is to consider parameters and requirements established by the producer. We recommended using professional filters and customizing its setting in accordance with the requirements.

The best bet is to connect your equipment with the remote monitoring system and take control over it round the clock in real time.