How to Improve Café Acoustics

Unwanted noise is among the top two irritants for customers, along with bad service.

Running a café is all about creating a great customer experience. From the quality of your coffee to the friendliness of your staff, every detail counts. One often overlooked factor that can significantly impact customer satisfaction is the acoustic quality of your space. Poor acoustics can turn a cosy café into a noisy, stressful environment, driving customers away. It’s good for businesses to create a calm atmosphere that is ideal for both conversation and concentration.

In this post, we’ll explore practical ways to improve the acoustics in your café, making it a more enjoyable space for customers and staff.

Café acoustics: why are they important?

Café acoustics refers to how sound behaves inside your café. This is influenced by the room layout, surface materials and various sources of noise.

• Good acoustics ensure that conversations are clear, background noise is manageable, and the overall sound environment is pleasant.
• Poor acoustics, on the other hand, can result in echoey spaces where customers struggle to hear each other, leading to a less enjoyable experience.

High reverberation times in coffee shops

Many modern cafés have hard, reflective surfaces like concrete floors and large windows. These materials and minimalist styles cause sound to bounce around for longer, creating a noisy environment with lots of echo. Fortunately, this post provides a list of simple solutions to address these issues.

The value of optimal acoustics

• Better Customer Experience: A more relaxing environment drives better reviews and longer visits.
• Superior perception of taste: There is evidence that good acoustics positively affects our perception of taste.
• Increased Customer Retention: A pleasant acoustic atmosphere encourages repeat visits, in turn leading to higher sales.
• Enhanced Speech Intelligibility: Customers can hear each other more clearly, which is crucial for social interactions.
• Minimising the Lombard effect: The phenomenon where people raise their voices in loud environments, causing noise levels to increase further.

Strategies to enhance café acoustics

Apply high-absorbing acoustic panels

Applying acoustic panels is the most effective way to create acoustic clarity and reduce the reverberation time in your space. Class A acoustic panels absorb more than 90% of the soundwaves that hit their surface. Panel designs and colours can be customised to match the aesthetic of your café.

Optimise the layout of the café

Strategically placing furniture, plants and acoustic screens can help manage sound in the coffee shop. Creating designated zones for remote workers can keep laptop activity and phone calls away from other customers. Adding bookcases or indoor plants around these zones can improve the look and also serve as visual and acoustic barriers.

Use low-level background music

Playing soft background music can create a pleasant atmosphere and help mask unwanted noise. It can also improve speech privacy, which becomes an issue when a space is too quiet. However, the volume should be kept at conversation level: loud enough to be heard but not so loud as to be distracting.

Introduce more soft furnishings

Add curtains, rugs, and padded seating to help absorb sound. These furnishings are less effective than acoustic panels, but they will help to dampen sound and reduce the reverberation time.

Quick-wins to reduce noise sources in a café

Prioritise quiet equipment

Consciously choose quieter equipment, like grinders and blenders, that won’t contribute to excessive noise. This simple change can make a big difference in the overall café ambiance.

Install rubber feet on chairs

Rubber feet on chairs can reduce harsh noise caused by scraping on hard floors, creating a quieter environment.

Use barriers for noisy equipment

Install half-height walls or other barriers to separate noisy equipment like coffee machines from seating areas to help contain the noise.

Stop noise escaping from food preparation areas

It might seem obvious, but having a door to separate food prep areas is often overlooked. A swinging door that’s easy to open and automatically returns to the closed position is an easy, practical solution.

Controlling ambient noise in a coffee shop

Sources of noise in a café

Loud equipment (such as coffee machines, steamers, and dishwashers), background music and the constant sound of ordering or customer conversations provide enough sources of noise that could potentially contribute towards poor acoustics within your café.

Ambient noise – striking the right balance

According to an Oxford University study, nearly one in five people find everyday sounds like chewing and repeated sniffing intolerable (a disorder known as misophonia). Therefore, it is essential to strike a good balance with your café’s ambient noise, too quiet can potentially be as problematic as too loud.

Things to avoid: the Lombard effect

The Lombard effect is a phenomenon where people involuntarily raise their voices in noisy environments. This leads to an overall increase in the volume of the space, causing occupants to raise their voices even more. Unfortunately, this creates a cycle that most people are all too familiar with in restaurants and bars, where you end up shouting just to be heard by the person sitting next to you.

Case Study: Starbucks

Higher noise levels at Starbucks compared to competitors

A SoundPrint study sampled over 1400 sound readings, including 886 Starbucks locations, and found that Starbucks was 3-4 decibels (dB) louder than rival coffee shops throughout the day. Although 3dB may not sound significant, decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale meaning an increase of +3dB equates to the sound intensity doubling. Competitors managed to maintain quieter environments by focusing on acoustic design, which can have a dramatic impact on the overall atmosphere of a coffee shop.

Conclusion

Improving the acoustics in your café will improve customer satisfaction and generate repeat visits. By following the tips and strategies outlined in this post, you can create a more enjoyable and relaxing environment for your customers.

For expert acoustic advice or a free acoustic survey of your space, feel free to contact us. Let’s create the perfect acoustic environment in your café, ensuring it’s the go-to spot for delicious coffee and great conversation.

 

 

References

Herklots, Tiffany. “Zagat Releases 2018 Dining Trends Survey.” Zagat Blog, 8 Jan 2018, zagat.googleblog.com/2018/01/zagat-releases-2018-dining-trends-survey.html.

Reinoso Carvalho, Felipe, et al. “Using Sound-Taste Correspondences to Enhance the Subjective Value of Tasting Experiences.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 6, 1 Sept. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4554938/, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01309.

“What’s Your Sound Barrier? New Study Finds Nearly One in Five People in the UK Find Everyday Sounds Intolerable.” University of Oxford, 23 Mar 2023, www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-03-23-what-s-your-sound-barrier-new-study-finds-nearly-one-five-people-uk-find-everyday.

“Lombard Effect.” Wikipedia, 29 Dec 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_effect.

“Listening to the Data: Exploring Sound Levels at Starbucks vs Popular Coffee Chains” SoundPrint, 8 Apr 2024, blog.soundprint.co/listening-to-the-data-exploring-sound-levels-at-starbucks-vs-popular-coffee-chains/.