Most office coffee decisions are made by one or two people. Usually it’s whoever manages the budget, or whoever complains loudest about the machine.
The result is often a setup that suits a few people and leaves everyone else nipping out to the café down the road.
A short staff survey about office coffee and refreshments fixes that. It takes ten minutes to put together, a week to run, and tells you exactly what your team drinks, when they drink it and what’s missing. Whether you’re reviewing or upgrading your office coffee machines or just the beans you buy, it makes sure your budget goes on drinks people actually want.
In this guide, we share ready-to-copy employee survey questions, explain how to get honest answers, and show how to turn the results into a better office coffee setup.
Why should you survey staff about office refreshments?
Surveying staff tells you what your team actually drinks, so you can stop guessing and spend your refreshments budget where it counts. Coffee is one of the few perks almost everyone uses every day, which means small changes are noticed quickly.
It’s also a perk people value. A Perkbox and TalentPool survey of 2,315 UK workers found 84% of employees appreciate free tea and coffee as a workplace benefit, as covered in our round-up of UK workplace coffee statistics.
A staff refreshments survey helps you:
- Stop guessing. You’ll know whether people want oat milk, more decaf or a better tea choice.
- Cut waste. If nobody drinks the hot chocolate, you can stop ordering it.
- Spot quick wins. Sometimes the fix is as simple as more cups or a second milk option.
- Show your team you’re listening. Asking, then acting on the answers, shows people their opinion counts.
- Build a case for budget. Clear numbers make it easier to justify an upgrade, especially alongside a breakdown of what workplace coffee really costs.
When should you run a staff survey?
The best time to run a staff survey about office coffee is a few weeks before you set next year’s budget or renew a supplier contract. That gives you time to act on the results.
Run it during a normal working week, not around bank holidays or when half the office is away. If your team works hybrid, keep it open for at least a full week so everyone gets a chance to answer.
Who should take the survey?
Everyone who uses the office should take the survey, not just the regular coffee drinkers. The people who never touch the machine are often the most useful, because they can tell you why.
Include part-time staff, hybrid teams and anyone based on a different floor or site. If you regularly host clients, ask reception what visitors tend to request, too.
How do you get honest survey answers?
You get honest answers by keeping the survey short, anonymous and clearly linked to real changes. These steps help:
- Make it anonymous. People are more honest about the coffee (and the person who never cleans the milk jug) when their name isn’t attached.
- Keep it short. Aim for ten questions or fewer, and no more than five minutes.
- Use a free tool. Google Forms or Microsoft Forms work well and show results as charts automatically.
- Mix question types. Use multiple choice for quick answers, plus one or two open questions, where staff need to provide a written answer.
- Explain why you’re asking. A line saying the results will shape next year’s setup encourages people to take part.
- Set a deadline. One week is plenty. Send a reminder halfway through.
How do you write good survey questions?
Good survey questions are short, neutral and ask about one thing at a time. A badly worded question can skew your results before anyone has answered it.
Keep these rules in mind:
- Ask one thing per question. “How do you rate the coffee and the machine?” mixes two answers. Split it into two questions.
- Avoid leading wording. “Would you like better coffee?” will always get a yes. “How would you rate our current coffee?” gets a fairer answer.
- Use the same rating scale throughout. If one question uses 1–5, use 1–5 everywhere so results are easy to compare.
- Always include an “Other” option. Your list won’t cover everything, and the “Other” answers are often the most useful.
- Ask about real habits, not wishes. “How many drinks do you have a day?” is more reliable than “How many would you like?”
What questions should you ask in a staff survey about office coffee?
Ask about how much people drink, what they drink, when they drink it, which milks and teas they want, and what they’d change. Copy, paste and adapt the questions below, picking the ten that matter most for your office.
About drinking habits:
- How many hot drinks do you usually have at work each day? (0 / 1 / 2–3 / 4 or more)
- What do you drink most often at work? (Coffee / Tea / Herbal or fruit tea / Hot chocolate / Water / Other)
- When do you usually make a drink? (Arrival / Mid-morning / Lunch / Mid-afternoon / Late afternoon)
- How often do you buy coffee outside the office on a workday? (Never / Once a week / A few times a week / Every day)
About the coffee:
- Which coffee drinks would you like to have available? (Espresso / Americano / Latte / Cappuccino / Flat white / Filter coffee / Other)
- How would you rate the taste of our current coffee? (1–5)
- Would you drink decaf if a good decaf was available? (Yes / Sometimes / No)
- How important is it to you that our coffee is ethically sourced, such as Fairtrade? (Very / Somewhat / Not at all)
About milk, tea and extras:
- Which milks would you like available? (Dairy / Oat / Soya / Almond / None)
- Would you like a proper tea selection, and if so, which teas? (Breakfast / Green / Herbal / Fruit / Other)
- Is there anything else you’d like at the drinks station? (Hot chocolate / Biscuits / Filtered water / Reusable cups / Other)
About the setup:
- How easy is our coffee machine to use? (1–5)
- Do you ever have to queue or wait for the machine? (Often / Sometimes / Never)
- What’s the one thing you would change about our office coffee?
- Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
How do you act on staff survey results?
Act on the results by looking for patterns rather than individual requests, then turning them into a short list of changes. Common patterns include:
- Lots of people buying coffee outside? Your coffee may not be good enough or may lack the drinks they want. It may be time to compare bean-to-cup or pod machines.
- Queues at peak times? Your machine may be too small for your team, or you may need a second drinks point.
- Strong demand for plant milks, decaf or tea? These are usually quick, low-cost changes.
- Low scores on ease of use? Simple instructions on the machine, or a quick demo from your supplier, can help.
- Complaints about mess and clutter? It might be time to rethink how you set up your coffee station.
Example: a 40-person office
To see how this works in practice, imagine a 40-person office where 32 people complete the survey. The results show:
- Most people have two or three drinks a day, with a rush between 8:30 and 9:30 am
- Around a third buy coffee from a café three or more times a week
- Eight people ask for oat milk, and six say they’d drink decaf if it was available
- Several people mention queuing for the machine first thing
From those answers, the office might add oat milk and a decaf option straight away, as both are quick and low cost. The morning queues and café trips suggest the machine isn’t keeping up, so it’s worth looking at a model with faster output or a second drinks point.
These show three clear changes, all backed by what the team actually said.
Small questions, better coffee
A staff survey is one of the simplest ways to make your office coffee work for everyone. Share a short summary with your team afterwards: what you learnt, what you’re changing and when.
Even if not every request makes the cut, people appreciate knowing they were heard. Running the same survey once a year makes it easy to see whether the changes worked.
Ready to act on your survey results?
Once you know what your team wants, our team at The Office Coffee Company can help you get there, whether that’s a new machine, a better decaf or a wider tea range.
Explore our range of office coffee machines, browse our coffee and tea, or get in touch to talk through your results.
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Frequently asked questions
What questions should you ask in a staff survey about office coffee?
Ask how many hot drinks people have a day, what they drink most, when they make drinks, how they rate the current coffee, which milks and teas they want, whether they’d drink decaf, and the one thing they’d change.
Why should employers survey staff about office refreshments?
A refreshments survey shows what your team actually drinks, so you can cut waste, fill gaps such as plant milk or decaf, and justify any budget for upgrades.
How many workplace survey questions should we ask?
Ten questions or fewer is ideal. Most people should be able to finish the survey in under five minutes.
Should a staff survey be anonymous?
Yes. Anonymous surveys tend to get more honest answers, especially about things people might not want to say to a manager.
How often should we survey staff about office coffee?
Once a year works well for most offices, ideally a few weeks before you set your budget or review your supplier.
What’s the best free tool for a staff survey?
Google Forms and Microsoft Forms are both free, simple to set up and show results as charts automatically.
Can survey results help us choose a new coffee machine?
Yes. Answers about daily drink numbers, peak times, queues and favourite drinks tell you how much capacity you need and which drinks the machine must make, which narrows down the right model quickly.
