The dessert chain was popular when it first started. There were long queue at its first shop for many months throughout the whole day every day. The business quickly expanded with many outlets.
As with all things, customers soon get bored and there's no longer any queue like how it used to be.
There are still customers but sporadically. In fact, its first outlet was closed due to poor business.
The company she works at runs a campaign with a big insurance corporation where its customers can redeem for a free treat.
The customers need to download an e-voucher and present it at one of the dessert outlets. The staff will then key in a code to complete the redemption.
The promotion is for 3 days and restricted to 1,000 treats per day.
Redemption starts at 11am where there are usually not many customers.
As with all things free, there were many people turning up at the outlets to claim their dessert.
A lady was at the shop where the girl is working to claim her dessert.
She watched as the girl served the others who were there to claim their dessert.
The girl was the only one working at the shop.
After seeing the e-voucher, the girl has to key in the code for redemption. She then has to prepares the dessert and asks the customers for their preferred topping. For customers who have liked the insurance company's Facebook Page will get one extra topping. They have to show it to the girl before getting the extra topping. She then has to go to the cash register and churn out receipts for all those redemption.
For a paying customer, all she has to do is to take his order, asks for his or her choice of toppings and receive payment.
All these are extra works for her.
That explained her black face which was so obvious.
And from her perspective, how does she look at all these customers coming to claim the free treats?
The insurance company definitely pays a lump sum of money to the dessert company to run this campaign. But the girl on the ground might see this differently. Will she sees all these people as cheapskates who just made her life more miserable early in the morning?
If she looks at the big picture, she would realize how important this campaign is towards the profitability of the company (although profit margin might be lower probably of special price for the campaign). Customers coming for the redemption are as good as any paying customer.
The lady tried to strike up a conversation with the girl.
"It must be really troublesome for you to have to enter the code on every phone," she said.
Only to be ignored totally by the girl.
The next day, the girl was late for work.
She was still preparing the ingredients at 11:15am and there were already a few customers waiting to redeem the dessert.
She was obviously in a bad state and panic mode. Her hair was all over the place. The toppings were not arranged properly and the labels were not displayed.
And she looked like a volcano that is about to erupt anytime soon.
Actually, she didn't have to rush to prepare all the ingredients all at once.
What she could do is to apologize that she's late and asks for their patience. She can then prepare a bit of each toppings to tide her over those who are waiting. Or she could have asked what toppings they would like and just get those ready. After she has cleared the queue, she can take her time to do the rest of her work.