After a heavy lunch (well, I didn't really eat a lot) of Korean barbeque buffet with my cousin, I had a craving for something real cold. So we ended up at a bubble tea shop.
He ordered a hot milk tea while I had a cold one.
This is a popular bubble tea chain from Taiwan, which has taken Singapore by storm. There are now at least 60 outlets all over the island.
Immediately after getting my drink, I took a sip to quench my thirst. The next moment, I caught myself saying "Wow, it's artificial enough."
Of course, what else can you expect? Everything are pre-packed and most of the ingredients and flavoring comes in powder form. So you don't expect them to add a real plum when you order a plum milk tea. Anyway, I'm fine by it as I only wanted to quench my thirst.
We quickly find ourselves a seat to enjoy the aircon as well.
While chatting over our drinks, my cousin remarked that his drink is tasteless and asked me to try it. I took a sip and it's BLANDER than BLAMD. It tasted like plain water mixed with diluted milk with VERY VERY VERY faint taste of tea.
I've noticed that the standard of quality for drinks at this shop is rather inconsistent. Some tasted ok, some tasted horrible and only one tasted good.
When a business expands so fast, there is always the issue of consistency in quality. Looks like this company is facing the same problem. I've no doubt that they have some procedures and processes in place with regards to mixing of drinks. Boil the tea for 15 minutes. Transfer to container. One scoop of this, 3/4 cup of tea, a tablespoon flavoring for this tea. Tea after 30 minutes will be discarded as it's taste has changed. That's what I think they will do.
If the staff are following the standard operations, then how could the taste varies from one outlet to another? This problem is especially obvious in Chinese restaurant as each chef's way of cooking, controlling of fire and timing affect how food turns out. But that is an exception.
How can company like MacDonald maintain its consistency in food quality? I bet you cannot tell whether this hamburger was bought from the MacDonald in the east or west.
Did the staff at the bubble tea shop added too little tea leaves? Did they added too much water?
If you follow the procedures and recipes step-by-step, it is unlikely that your food will turn out otherwise. But even if you follow everything to a T, there's always a chance that something may go wrong. The ingredients may be defective. But we are so accustomed to assume that if it's from the same supplier which you've been getting supplies from for many years, there's no problem. That makes me wonder if MacDonald requires its managers to do food tasting every day.
Ok, back to our drinks.
I told my cousin to ask the staff to change it. However, he was hesitant as he said he has drank quite a bit (not that much actually, about two sips). Now, my cousin is a nice person and didn't want to cause any trouble to the staff. He thinks it's not really the staff fault and since the drink is still ok, he just leave it. And the drink wasn't that expensive too.
I told him I'll change it for him. I believe that if our feedback is genuine, we have a right to not accept substandard service.
Of course, I wanted to see how the staff handle such situation.
So I took the drink and approach the lady telling her that the tea was bland and there's no taste of tea at all.
It looked like she never had customer bringing back a drink to feedback that it's tasteless. I asked if she could change a new cup for me. She was not sure how to react to me and wanted to call her colleague. However, the other staff was too busy with his work and did not hear her.
She then asked me if I wanted to add sugar or tea.
Seriously, I'm not sure if either one of these options will makes the tea taste better. Adding sugar? Will it end up tasting like sugar solution? Add tea? Didn't I just feedback that the tea is tasteless? Is she going to add more tasteless tea to my tasteless tea?
In the end, I asked for the second option as it's sounded safer. Obviously, she did not hear about my request to change for a new cup of tea.
Nevertheless, whether I got a new drink or not is not important to you.
The important message is that how many of your customers are keeping quiet like my cousin? They got something of substandard quality or lousy service and they just keep quiet. Is it because they are easygoing and more forgiving? Are they too scared of the trouble? Or do they see no point in feedback as they already expect the kind of outcome or answer from you?
It may not be your fault but your customers have been disappointed by many businesses.
Customers who keep quiet and walk away the last thing you want them to do to you.