10 More Minutes With Spencer Perez

Spencer shares his plans for the future, hobbies outside of coffee, and thoughts on how the industry can better uplift coffee service technicians.

BY EMILY JOY MENESES
ONLINE EDITOR

Photos courtesy of Spencer Perez

Yesterday, we introduced Spencer Perez: coffee service technician, founder of Coffee Machine Service Co., and, more recently, board member of Service Layer Cooperative (SLC), a co-op dedicated to helping coffee technicians turn their trade into long-term, viable careers. Today, we continue our conversation and hear from Spencer on the philosophy behind his work and plans on the horizon.

Barista Magazine Online: You’ve spoken in the past about how the service technician role is often undervalued and underpaid, especially compared to similar trades, such as that of electricians and plumbers. What do you think has caused this cultural perception of coffee technicians? What do you think it will take to change it?

Some who haven’t experienced the effect a good tech can have on a café’s operations hear “technician” and think “appliance repair.” There’s a misguided conflation with your average plumber or auto mechanic, maybe because we all work with our hands? We played into that perception for a while. Many techs do.

When Coffee Machine Service Co. (CMSCo.) started, we were priced like this was a side hustle. Kind of like good light-roast in its advent. We were offering something that didn’t exist before, and competitive pricing seemed essential to shifting the paradigm. But that probably caused some unnecessary heartache.

I think techs would do well to take some lessons from how the consumer expectations specialty coffee established in the late aughts contributed to its current struggle to sustain itself. The specialty segment of the industry owes much of its “success” to a relatively small subset of passionate visionaries, but love don’t pay the bills, you know? Talented players are leaving or selling out to consolidations. I don’t blame them.

Then, some people just look down on the trades, and I think that’s helped keep wages and work quality suppressed. To deliver the product we want to at scale, we have to invest in the company. Fat parts stock. Great wages. Service management systems. Process improvements. Specialized workbenches. You get it.

A good tech has to consider a breadth of domains—plumbing, hydraulics, AC power, DC power, motors, water composition, materials science, coffee quality, the weather, service writing, inventory management—uncommon in other trades while working on equipment that is supposed to be making money right now and will kill them. This is complex, tiresome, dangerous work on luxury equipment making a luxury product. 

Of course, there are actors in every trade who will do bad work or are just bad at customer service. Certainly, some of them have soured public perception. This was a lonely job before I found the Service Layer. Sometimes I got grumpy. If SLC can help improve baseline competency for and well-being within the trade, we all benefit. Not everyone will want what we’re selling, but the ROI for those who do makes all the difference to their coffee programs and peace of mind.

You’ve also talked about your goal of shifting the coffee equipment purchasing culture away from online resellers and toward local technicians. Why do you think this shift is important?

If we can’t make good money, the good techs will disappear. We can’t develop companies which serve the best parts of the industry—the compassionate, innovative, (communal) parts—on $300 installs. My and many others’ experience is that online resellers feel entitled to our work—they prefer it—and all the profit from the sale. 

But outcomes are better all around when the person who sold the equipment assumes some ongoing responsibility for the way it serves its owner. The customer usually gets subsidized service rates, faster response times, and more money stays in the local economy.

You have to understand that when you buy a machine online at some crazy discount—advertised with free installation—you are voting against our existence. Not mortally or anything, I mean our trade.

What’s your go-to coffee drink?

Aeropress at home (1:16, 2 pours, 1:30 finish), espresso out, the occasional short Americano, or a little cold brew if it’s just so hot. I’ve got a Duvall FC-1 in the shop, and I’ve been playing with a 1:0.6 thing at 170°F-180°F, yielding 11g in ~40s. It’s nuts. Think warm spiced honey. Or like a balsamic glaze. It’d be great on a sugar cookie.

What are your hobbies/interests outside of coffee and being a technician?

With the kid and a business, I’ve taken a hiatus from wrenching on old motorcycles, but I’m always reading something. Finishing M. Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale right now. E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful is up next.

(My wife) Sarah and I are watching through The X-Files one episode at a time. Camping and creek swims are up there. Kicking it with my daughter—riding bikes, little hikes, making weird art—is up there. I write some, more in the winter. I love doing chores with music, but I also get a lot out of sitting, lying, stretching, whatever, in silence. My shop is on a wooded creek. It’s sublime in the mornings. The birds.

Any final thoughts? 

Be kind to each other. Buy local. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.

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