Practice Exercise: Interview Transcript

Research objective: To understand the coffee consumption behaviour of consumers.

Interviewer: Sandra

Interview with Henry on April 2, 2019 at his office in Melbourne CBD. Henry is an administration
executive for a local company.
Q1. Coffee drinking background.
Sandra: Tell me about how you started drinking coffee. How long have you been drinking coffee?
How often do you drink coffee?
Henry: I started drinking coffee during my university days. I have to work part-time and study full-
time in those days and it could be quite tiring. I drink coffee to stay awake to study and work on
my assignments after I finished my roster. At that time, I drank two cups of coffee. One in the
morning when I wake up to start the day and another in the evening to study. Now, I drank more
than two cups of coffee per day…about four cups of coffee if I go lunching with colleagues or
meeting with clients.
Sandra: What type of coffee do you drink during your university days? Do you make your cup of
coffee from coffee product purchased from supermarket or buy it from cafeteria or specialty
coffee houses?
Henry: As a student then I do not earn much money and can’t afford specialty coffee which to me
is a luxury beverage at that time. I made my own instant coffee from coffee powder bought from
Coles. I just wanted some caffeine to keep awake to study.
Sandra: What about now? Do you still drink instant coffee now?
Henry: No. I hardly drink instant coffee now after I graduated and got a permanent full-time job.
Because my workplace is located in Melbourne CBD. I am spoilt for choice. There are many
specialty coffee houses in my work location and many of them make very good coffee. During
work week, I get my coffee from these specialty coffee houses. During weekend, there are a
couple of reasonably good coffee place near where I live where I can get my coffee fix, although
the coffee not as good as those in Melbourne CBD. I think my jar of instant coffee has gone
mouldy now sitting in the dark corner of my kitchen cabinet (laughter).
Sandra: I see. Tell me more why your coffee drinking preference has changed from instant coffee
to specialty coffee now.
Henry: I am working on a job that gives me a higher income as compared to student days and I
can afford to drink specialty coffee. Specialty coffee tastes much better than instant coffee. I
don’t think I can go back to drinking instant coffee now that I am so used to specialty coffee.
Q2. Specialty coffee house attributes.
Sandra: What do you considered are important when determining which specialty coffee house to
buy your cup of coffee?
Henry: The quality of the coffee beans. However, coffee can be ruined by the operator rushing
the brew process which can compromise the quality of a cup of coffee even though the coffee
beans are of high grade. I would say the ingredient and process in the making of a cup is
important. I am willing to pay slightly more for a good cup of coffee that is made from quality
bean and quality process. What I am saying is value for money in my purchase is important.
Sandra: How far are you prepared to travel to get a good cup of coffee from a quality specialty
coffee house?
Henry: This depends. If I am at work in Melbourne CBD, I can’t be out of my workplace for too
long to get a good cup of quality coffee. I will settle for my second best cup of coffee from
specialty coffee house located within 10-min walk from my workplace. I will wait till lunch time
when I can spare relatively more time to go to my preferred specialty coffee house to get and
enjoy the best cup of coffee. My preferred specialty coffee house requires about 15-min walk.
Melbourne CBD has some very good specialty coffee houses and their coffee quality can’t be
 matched by coffee houses’ in the area I live in. It would be insane to go into Melbourne CBD
during the weekend to get a cup of the best coffee because traveling time will be long and cost
will be high due to fuel consumption and expensive parking fee. During weekend which I am
usually very busy, I will settle for a cup of coffee from whichever coffee house is nearest to my
place of appointment, grocery shopping or social gathering. This also make me look forward to
going back to office in the working week (laughter).
Sandra: When you walk into a specialty coffee house to buy your coffee, what would you like to
see?
Henry: Besides a clean place, I like to see friendly staff who will serve me quickly because I have to
get back to office fast. In those specialty coffee houses I go to, the baristas are very friendly and
are happy to talk through the options of coffee bean available to help you to make a choice. They
will tell me where the beans were sourced to the brewing technique used. Some even provide
tasting notes to help your selection. A particular specialty coffee house even allow sampling of
new coffee beans it intends to offer on the menu which is very rare. I would like to see more
specialty coffee houses doing the same because it really make them looked creative in product
offering and make us customers felt our opinions are valued.
Sandra: Besides sampling of coffee, what type of promotion activities do you think will attract you
to buy coffee?
Henry: Loyalty card which a lot of specialty coffee houses have been doing. Every time a customer
buys a coffee, they get a stamp or a hole punched on their loyalty card. Buy a certain number of
coffee and get the next one for free. Also, give half-priced refill promotion or bottomless mug
promotion in which charge the first cup of coffee at a higher price and the refill is free. Re-visit
discount coupon to encourage return purchase.
Sandra: What facilities should be offered inside the specialty coffee house?
Henry: Comfortable sitting area to enjoy a cup of coffee while chatting with colleagues or friends.
It is also important to have an easy to reach charging port and free wifi for those customers who
need to work with their tablet or laptop over a cup of coffee.

Note: This practice exercise deliberately left out the rest of the interview questions and answers.
Please use the interview transcript above for practice on data coding using Microsoft Word.