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Music, signage and atmosphere influence how long customers stay, how they feel, and how they perceive a brand.
In coffee shop environments, these elements are especially important. They help create a welcoming atmosphere, influence dwell time, and enhance the experience.
Greggs has built an exceptional position as the UK’s leading food-to-go retailer, with unmatched scale, brand recognition and daily footfall, and has recently opened a store internationally. Our observations and suggestions could support and further enhance that operational strength and customer experience.
Music was present in-store but extremely low in volume and difficult to hear during trading hours.
In practice, the store was effectively playing a mainstream radio station (Capital Radio), meaning the audio environment included both music and advertising content. However, in a busy food-to-go setting, the music itself was often indistinguishable and the presence of ads created an inconsistent brand environment.
Speakers were ceiling-mounted and positioned for coverage, but the combination of low volume and high customer noise levels meant the audio had minimal impact on atmosphere or customer experience.
Digital signage is already in use across the estate, with multiple screens behind the till and in window-facing locations displaying menus and promotional content.
This is a strong foundation, particularly for a high-volume food-to-go environment where clarity and speed are essential. The current setup supports operational efficiency and helps guide customer choice effectively.
There is an opportunity to build further consistency across the estate by aligning signage content more closely with trading periods, promotions and daypart behaviour - ensuring messaging is as dynamic and responsive as the environment it operates within.
Replace standard radio with a managed, brand-safe audio solution that removes advertising interruptions and creates a more consistent in-store environment.
Ensure music is audible enough to contribute to atmosphere without affecting operational communication during peak trading times.
Synchronise music and digital signage content to create a more cohesive, responsive in-store experience that supports promotions and trading patterns.
Based on your brand, audience and environment, here’s an example of how your music could feel with Startle.
This playlist has been designed to reflect a modern, upbeat and approachable food-to-go environment - blending contemporary pop, light indie and feel-good tracks that create energy without overwhelming the customer experience.
The intention is to:
Combine music, promotional messaging and automatically generated voiceovers - choose from over 100 professionally crafted playlists or a bespoke soundtrack.
We offer simple, scalable digital signage to promote seasonal ranges, upsells and brand storytelling - helping keep content fresh and visually engaging for regular customers.
With Startle Studio, you’ll have full visibility and control of all your coffee shops’ music and signage schedules from a central platform, ensuring consistency across every location.
We’ve worked with hospitality brands to create more thoughtful, atmosphere-led customer experiences that encourage dwell time and strengthen brand identity.
We partnered with Coco di Mama to help bring greater consistency and control to their in-store experience across multiple locations. With a fast-moving menu, high lunchtime peaks and a strong urban customer base, they needed a system that could support operational speed while reinforcing brand identity at every touchpoint.
This approach included:
From my first interaction with Startle I have been very impressed with the understanding they have of what we're looking for. Creating a 'vibe' or environment within a space is something quite hard to explain but the support and reactivity they gave throughout the curation process was incredible.
Head of Business Development
Book your discovery call to explore how music and signage could enhance experience, consistency and engagement across your estate.
On this call we’ll:
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