By Susan Burton, Henry County Schools Communications Director
Paris, TN- Great customer service skills are a must-have for students who are placed in work-based learning sites. Henry County High School teacher Melissa Berry’s “Focus on Adulthood” high school students are learning about customer service while on a field trip to Sweet Jordan’s coffee shop. Students were tasked with observing workers and how they handle customers. Many of the students noticed that smiling, talking calmly, and making sure orders were correct are especially important when working with the public.
Along with observing customer service, students were also asked to compare their products to the ones they were tasting at the store. A student noticed that the whipped topping was a great addition and wanted to add it to their offerings at the Big Red Barista. “Our students run a school-based enterprise, the Big Red Barista, and we wanted to use our field trip to compare our coffee and drink services to the ones at Sweet Jordan’s,” Berry explained. Sweet Jordan’s employee Cheyenne O’Daniel told the group of students that in addition to quality products, “kindness and a positive attitude go a long way in keeping customers happy and coming back.”
The Big Red Barista is a coffee shop run by the special education department at HCHS. The school-based enterprise uses the profits from their sales to buy more inventory for their business and to pay for field trips for students to learn and practice skills that will assist them in being responsible adults. Staff and students at HCHS can order coffees, flavored waters, and other drinks from a Google form that goes out on Monday and Friday mornings. Students then use the order forms to make the drinks and deliver them to classrooms and offices. Many of Berry’s students will be placed at Sweet Jordan’s for work-based learning opportunities and possibly future employment.