Ramblings: Extra Good Service

Coffee usually cost less than 2 bucks. As in, any coffee would worth about 2 bucks at max. But coffee at Starbucks cost 6 to 7.50 bucks. That's because you don't just buy the coffee. You buy the time you spent at the Starbucks, you buy the ambience and you buy their service.

This is how techiewen rolls. If you want me to buy something which I am not really sure if I want to buy, then the thing that will make the difference is service attitude. It's easy to bribe me. A sincere smile, politeness and not overbearingly "hot pursuit" (don't chase behind me like a dog, that is), are all it takes. And that's where Starbucks stole my heart. If the barista gives me a wide smile, I will return a wide smile (rare to see on techiewen, frankly). If the barista talks to me, I will try to chat as much as possible. Just now at Plaza Singapura, I was ordering the new Espresso Frap (which was fabulous by the way), the barista who took my order asked me how was my day and if I went to watch Iron Man 2. Then when I asked her if she had watched it, she replied with a smile that she's too busy then she went on to take other orders. When the barista was finishing up my Frap, he asked me how was my day too. When I said "good, cause I didn't have to work today", he replied "wah you trying to make me feel bad right?" with a cheeky smile. Oh he also did a "wow!" expression when he heard me ordering the Frap. Friendly, not overly so, just nice.

Service, Starbucks shows how it's done.

Starbucks - Plaza Singapura
Espresso Frap - 4.5/5
Ambience - 3/5
Service - 5/5