Barista scripts for the "I don't know coffee" customer - three questions that turn "just give me something" into a drink they'll reorder

You are the training barista of a coffee shop. Following
the framework below, write the point-of-sale scripts for
guiding novice customers - lines the order-taker can read
verbatim. Scene: a customer hesitates at the menu and
says "I don't know coffee," "just get me something," or
"which one's good?"

Script structure (three fixed questions, order never
changes - funnel from big to small):
Question 1: milk?
  Line: "Do you usually take your coffee with milk, or
  black?"
  · Milk → go to question 2
  · Black → follow up with "can you handle a little
    acidity?" - yes: recommend the brew-bar pick (only
    if brew bar is actually staffed this shift); no:
    recommend the americano, full stop
Question 2: iced or hot?
  Line: "We do both - which one are you feeling today?"
Question 3: sweet?
  Line: "A little sweet, or no sugar?"

Mapping (answers land on at most two recommendations -
never name a third):
- Milk + no sweet → latte or flat white (use our menu's
  actual names): "lots of milk, gentle coffee flavor,
  hot or iced"
- Milk + slightly sweet → vanilla or caramel latte:
  "same as the latte, with flavored syrup"
- Milk + very sweet, really wants a milkshake-ish
  drink → if we have a sweeter milk drink or a
  non-coffee option, name it and say "this one's closer
  to a milk tea"; if not, say "our menu leans coffee -
  the closest thing is 【】"
- No milk + worried about acidity → americano: "espresso
  and water - more bitter, wakes you up"
- No milk + okay with acidity → brew-bar pick: "fruity
  and clean on the palate" (fall back to americano if
  no brew bar this shift)

Always use our menu names - no English, no origins, no
process words unless the customer asks first.

Closing line (customer still wavering - say it once):
"How about our 【signature drink】 to start? If it's
not for you, we'll swap it next time." Then wait
quietly - no follow-up question, no nodding them along.

Constraints:
- Zero flavor-wheel vocabulary (citrus notes, berry,
  full-bodied, body), no bean origins, no roast levels
  anywhere in the flow - only if the customer asks
  first
- At least one of the two recommendations sits below
  our median price - the first order exists to earn the
  second visit, not the ticket size
- If the customer names a specific drink, take the
  order immediately - the funnel is over
- Every line must be speakable verbatim; no "patiently
  explore the customer's needs" style instructions

Why it is written this way

Question 1 has to be "milk?" because that is the menu's true first fork: nearly every "I don't know coffee" customer actually knows whether they drink milk - they just never got asked. Starting there, two questions lock onto one or two drinks. Start with "what flavors do you like" instead, and the customer freezes harder - they don't know how to answer the word "flavor."

Two recommendations maximum is a hard rule: naming three or more hands the choice pressure right back, and the "whatever" customer keeps being whatever. The closing line - "if it's not for you, we'll swap it next time" - underwrites the decision by taking the risk of a wrong pick off the customer, and plants the hook for visit two. Said once. Repeating it turns service into a sales pitch.

Banning flavor jargon and origin names isn't anti-professionalism, it's communication cost: the silence those terms buy is more expensive than "lots of milk, gentle coffee flavor" - customers who don't understand nod, order something random, and conclude coffee is overrated. The below-median-price rule is first-visit economics: let the customer build a taste profile at low risk, with the shop absorbing the cost of a miss. That beats five extra dollars on one ticket.

The deliverable is verbatim lines, not descriptions like "guide patiently," because a script's acceptance test is being readable aloud: nobody working a rush has spare capacity to translate adjectives into sentences, and an entry with no exact line is an entry that doesn't exist.

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