Just a note, this episode is about coronavirus, or COVID-19, so if you don’t want to hear about that, you should skip this episode.

News about the current global pandemic is changing quickly—every day, there’s a new story, a new piece of information. In that same span of time, the service industry has morphed drastically. With orders across the globe to shelter in place, or to avoid crowds, small businesses are forced to shut their doors or find ways to limit interaction with employees and guests.

For the businesses still open, their mode of operation is fast changing, with a focus on ways to keep open while paying their staff and keeping people safe. One way the community has responded is by engaging with customers directly, making virtual tip jars and funds so service workers have a direct line to the cash they’re missing from not working or getting tips. A lot of these solutions are key, so how do we tie them together and make them fit a long term context?

My guest today is Kandace Brigleb of Needmore Designs, a branding studio that works with a number of roasting companies—they also have a podcast called Unpacking Coffee that you should absolutely check out. Kandace released a tutorial about how to integrate a tipping option to buying coffee online. She took inspiration from the non-profit websites, where there are multiple points of contact that urge folks to donate money, and in this episode, we talk about the ways to use design and technology to encourage not just regular tipping from our customers, but how to use technology to ensure you can keep—and pay—your staff.

One thing that I really love about this episode is that, for being a response to a swiftly changing global pandemic, some of the conclusions and ideas posed by Kandace are evergreen, and address a number of possible outcomes. The bottom line remains the same, however. We have to preserve as many jobs as we can, and that’s going to require us to get creative. Here’s Kandace.