Level 7 : Buzz and neighbours

Well, we've been playing on and off for less than 2 hours, and we're at level 7, with a 5th stove !

Some players have accepted our friend request. Let's use the "Neighbours" tab to ask them to be neighbours. New neighbours can take up to 4 days before they are visible in game. Just be patient !

Neighbours are needed for certain things, like expanding our cafe, or setting up some items, like the coffee machine. For now we need just 2, for our first expansion.
Having many neighbours gives no advantage that I can see. Eventually, 20 or 30 should be enough.
Some people will tend to frantically collect neighbours, which is pointless. Friends, on the other hand, are decisive. The more, the better. FB gives the possibility to have 5000, so use it! In my other account, I have some 900 in-game friends, and add a few every day. Later, we'll see the usefulness of friends (apart from having a drink together, of course).

Now note there's a thumbs up icon on top of screen, with a figure. This is the "Buzz rating". The higher the buzz is,  the more customers come to your cafe, the more successful you'll be. Buzz goes 0.1 point up when a customer is happy, and a full 1 point down when they're disapointed.

A customer will be unsatisfied if no seat is available, of if they wait so long for service, that they get up and leave. I noticed another source of disapointment, when they want a dish that the waiter cannot serve to them. So make sure that all counters are accessible.

On the other hand, satisfaction usually happens when they are served very quickly. To achieve this, always keep the path between counters and tables short and clear. Also make sure you have the maximum number of waiters. When climbing a level, a message says you can hire 1 more. Waiters are hired top right of screen, where the cafe name Is. It is a good idea to check sometimes if there's a free position that you missed.

I've seen it written several times that having several doors and many windows will increase buzz. This might have been true before, I dont know. But now it's meaningless. I know of very successful cafes with 1 door and few, if any windows.

Another common practice is to spend a lot on decoration to increase buzz. Again, this has *absolutely no incidence*. This is the kind of junk you find in several online CW tips and guides. I'll show that a cafe with no deco can get and keep a top buzz rating.

Buzz rating can be between 5.0 and 105.0 points. But don't worry if it stays low. Soon we'll see how to max it out, and keep it so. Definitely.