Consumers, cafes, baristas, and statistical analysis of their interactions

Coffee is an important agricultural plant with a high trading ranking in the world, and it is currently the most popular drink on the planet. In the article, we analyzed customer behavior in the Slovak coffee market and the effect of barista knowledge and experience from the consumer's perspective. We chose the anonymous questionnaire approach to marketing research for the investigation of consumer behavior. For statistical data analysis, we used the Chi-square test of independence, a measure of association between two variables, the Friedman test, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov one-sample test. Based on the questionnaire survey results, we can conclude that 66.4% of survey respondents cannot imagine a day without coffee and consume up to 3 cups per day. The women in our study statistically prefer milk and sugar to their coffee significantly more than men. Up to 92% of respondents aged 18–24 prefer visiting a coffee shop to drinking coffee prepared at home. Our respondents prefer the recommendations of acquaintances and the good name of the company when visiting a café. We confirmed the existence of a relationship between the baristas' attitude or professionalism and the gender or age of the respondents. Because of the quality of the baristas, men and women between the ages of 18 and 50 visit coffee shops in significant numbers. Based on the results of the questionnaire survey, we can conclude that a professional with a wide range of experience and education has proven to be an important factor for today's customers and consumers in the Slovakian coffee market.