Virtual Coffee: Here's What the Buzz Is All About

Our corporate ancestors may have had watercoolers to gather 'round, but in the age of e-commerce companies and tech startups, coffee was always available. That is — until the pandemic shut it all down.

While remote work has its perks — here’s lookin' at you, afternoon nap — the coffee breaks have been subpar. Even a few years removed from the pandemic, now is the time to take them back with successful virtual coffee breaks.

Work-related coffee rituals do more than keep us caffeinated. They're a way to build relationships with colleagues, sow the seeds of new business partnerships, make online meetings more casual, soften sales pitches, and recruit new talent. Nearly every business scenario is more palatable with a cup of extra smooth Arabica in your hands.

To keep coffee culture alive for your remote team, use this guide to plan your next virtual coffee break. These tips will make your virtual coffee chat feel as authentic as meeting face-to-face in your favorite coffee shop.  

How Virtual Coffee Is a Pragmatic Solution for Managers and Employees

Virtual coffee is more about the connection than the ritual of coffee drinking. The lines blur between business-related topics and personalized chit-chat. It’s the perfect time to understand who your employees and business partners are and what drives them rather than discussing figures and projects. Shared interests and hobbies come to light, strengthening manager-employee bonds and shoring up business relationships.

What separates virtual coffee from other meetings is rooted almost entirely in its ease. Networking and understanding your employees is far easier in a home office environment. The other party is more likely to attend a video call without the hindrances of leaving the house while providing a number of other benefits:

• Improved loyalty
• Mental health benefits and decreased loneliness often caused by remote employment
• Communication across departments and seniority levels
• Feelings of inclusivity
• Collaboration
• Enhanced company culture and employee engagement

When To Choose Virtual Coffee Over a Virtual Meeting

Adding coffee can improve the ambiance and vibe of almost any virtual meeting. Virtual coffee breaks work best for casual conversations between small groups. They're ideal for one-on-one chats or groups of up to five. Invite more people than that, and you're in a full-blown meeting requiring extra planning and an agenda.  

Here are our favorite reasons to keep things casual with a virtual coffee meeting instead of a standard virtual meeting.

One-on-ones

No matter how strong managers’ relationships are with their direct reports, one-on-ones can feel intimidating. A virtual coffee meeting sets a casual tone and shows these check-ins for what they are: a chance for your virtual team members to chat openly about their ideas, concerns, achievements, and obstacles. Providing coffee is also a good way to show some employee appreciation.  

Recruitment Meetings

Using virtual coffee sessions in your recruitment process is a sound solution for your hiring efforts. Coffee can alleviate first-round interview jitters and showcase your laid-back company culture if you're talking to a candidate for the first time via video conferencing.

You can use virtual coffee to persuade a potential hire to join the team. Set up an online coffee meeting between a promising candidate and a satisfied remote worker who can give them insight into work culture or a typical day.

Virtual coffee is also effective in impressing a highly coveted candidate. Send them a coffee-themed gift, such as an espresso maker, coffee grinder, and gourmet beans to get them ready for the event and showcase your goodwill.

Networking Opportunities

If you follow someone in your field on social media, send them a LinkedIn message and invite them to virtual coffee. Worst case scenario: They say no. Best case scenario: You convert a business role model into a business connection.

Remember that if you do the inviting, you should also do the buying. Send your guest a gift card or virtual credit card so they can pick up a cup of coffee before your meeting.

Brainstorming Sessions

Caffeine is a nootropic substance that effectively " wakes up” the brain. A bit of caffeine increases alertness and improves attention spans, so adding coffee to everyone's cup can make your brainstorming sessions more productive.

Virtual coffee brainstorms are best with small teams of two to five people so everyone can add their ideas without talking over each other. The casual nature of a coffee chat also pairs well with the anything-goes rules of a good brainstorming sesh. For your next creative meeting, ask everyone to bring along their coffee cup.

Team-Building Activities

Establishing a strong company culture and creating genuine human connections with coworkers is challenging in a remote work environment. However, regular virtual coffee sessions can promote team bonding.

Organize team coffee chats with a small group. If you have a larger department, break them down into smaller meetings with only the people who work together the most. Gamifying your virtual coffee to play team-building games like trivia or Two Truths and a Lie is a superb icebreaker and online event that boosts camaraderie to boot.

You can also use a Slack-based extension like Hoppier’s Lunch Roulette as a virtual coffee break idea that brings unacquainted workers together in a virtual workspace.

Sales Demos

Internal teams aren't the only ones who benefit from virtual coffee breaks. Add this event to your sales funnel by inviting prospects to a casual coffee chat.

Free coffee can give potential customers an extra incentive to listen to your pitch and demonstrate your no-pressure sales tactics. The goal of this meeting/coffee tasting is to spend time with the customer and get to know their needs.

How To Organize a Virtual Coffee Meeting

Virtual coffee meetings are surprisingly easier to organize than most other meetings. Because of their casual nature, you don't need to create an agenda, find a fancy event platform, or hire a speaker like you would if you were planning other corporate events. Just follow these steps — and whatever you do — don't forget the coffee.

Choose a Platform

Any basic video platform will work for a virtual coffee break, so go with what you know. Skype, Zoom, and Google Meet are convenient free options. If you already have a subscription to Microsoft services, Microsoft Teams’ virtual chat is an obvious choice.

Set a Date and Time

Because virtual coffee meetings typically have a small guest list, you can collaborate with your invitees to choose a date and time. Even though you'll collectively decide on the meeting time, send out a formal calendar invite so everyone can block off the time, avoid double-booking themselves, and get an automated reminder or notification.

Plan Some Conversation Starters

The foremost reason to do virtual coffee is to get to know your coworkers or customers. To avoid a pattern of stilted small talk, plan some icebreaker questions or other interactions for your meeting. Ask about the other person's weekend or talk about how they take their coffee. If your meeting is with someone you see regularly, ask follow-up questions about personal topics you've discussed before.

For example, if you previously talked about your weekends and this person mentioned watching their daughter's soccer tournament, you can ask if their daughter still plays soccer. Thoughtful details like this will make more genuine connections.

If details often elude you during the meeting, take notes. Keep them in a folder on your computer and review them before your next meeting. These will show that you're an active listener and, hopefully, make you the most popular person on your virtual team.

Send Coffee

Unsurprisingly, the most essential part of a virtual coffee meeting is — you guessed it — coffee. You can ask your attendees to bring their own cups, but the experience will leave a more lasting impression (and spread happiness throughout your remote team) if you provide the coffee.

How Hoppier Streamlines Virtual Coffee

Hoppier virtual credit cards provide an efficient avenue to send coffee to your team members, job candidates, or sales prospects. All you have to do is set up a program in our easy-to-use interface.

Create a virtual card and set your budget. Typically, $5 is enough for a good cup of coffee, but if you want your guests to be able to order the fanciest latte on the menu and a snack to go with it, set your budget at $15 to $20. If you have a distributed team, keep team members' locations in mind as well. A cup of coffee in L.A. will cost more than a cup of coffee in St. Louis.

Next, choose the vendors where guests can spend their gift cards, such as Starbucks, Dunkin’, or Tim Horton’s. You can limit vendors to just coffee shops or leave them open so guests can use the money how they want.

You can also set a time limit on the funds so guests can only spend the money on the day of the coffee meeting. Any money that's still on the card after the time expires goes back to your account. (This is a big difference from a coffee shop gift card, where you won't see that money again whether guests spend it or not.)

Before you finish setting up your virtual coffee program, add your company logo to the card to create a branded experience.

Your Virtual Coffee Break Needs Coffee

Whether you're having java with your Java developer or mocha with your marketing manager, coffee is an essential part of your virtual coffee break. So, make it a priority in your planning process. Use Hoppier virtual cards to send a coffee budget to your guests.

The coffee can serve as a small sign of appreciation for your team members, a perk for job candidates, or an incentive for sales prospects. Schedule a demo to set up your own coffee program and bring coffee culture to your virtual team.

‍

‍

‍