Don’t be rude: Coffee meeting? Find a waiter!

Most of the time, you probably pick your favourite cafe based on its proximity to your workplace and the quality of its coffee.

Those qualities might serve you well for takeaway, but they’re not what you need when meeting someone for coffee.

Spend five minutes now coming up with a list of three cafes you’d be happy taking a client to.

The cafes on your list should be centrally located. They should be quiet and tasteful, to encourage deep conversation. They should have comfortable seating. They shouldn’t have too many people getting takeaway, but should instead focus on dine-in patrons.

Once you’ve satisfied these qualities, make sure your cafes have table service.

You don’t want to leave your guest waiting while you order, or have them go up to order after you so you can save the table. Worse, you don’t want to waste the start of your meeting glancing at the counter every few moments to see if your coffee is ready.

You should be devoting your full attention to communicating. Plenty of city cafes have table service for precisely this reason. Use it.