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A project to make businesses more aware of their customer experience, and how to fix it. By Mark Hurst. |
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Previous: Disney.com comment form | Main | Next: Kinko's customer service
June 23, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Tea list
Seth Godin points out:
When this menu of fancy teas was new, I'm sure it was impressive. And when they ran out of the first or second flavor, it was probably okay that they crossed out the missing flavor with a mixture of whiteout and blue magic marker.
Now, of course, it's just a billboard screaming about a lack of attention to detail. Note that broken plastic stand on the bottom...
[...and thanks to Seth for giving us the idea for This Is Broken three years ago! -mh]
It looks like this is a "coffee bean & tea leaf shop" - maybe they are helping indecisive customers.
Bad enough to wait as someone tries to figure out if they want coffee or tea, then watch them obsessing over 20+ choices.
The sign itself (plastic) is broken.
The sign (marked out) is broken.
Paying $3.50 for a cup of hot water with something brown in it...is broken!
So, do it yourself:
A whole pot of home brewed is 50¢ - NOT broken!
That sign looks very tacky. They could just use a chalkboard or whiteboard like many restaurants do.
The "Gold Line Rare Teas" are rare indeed (seeing as how all of them are marked out). With what the profit margin on teas and coffees must be, one would think that they could afford a new plastic stand and to print off a new menu every once in a while.
This reminds me of a story I heard on This American Life about a manager at a Quizno's sub shop who had to make do when the owner abandoned the store. They gradually ran out of ingredients, and at one point a customer came in and asked for a sandwich and they had to tell him that they were out of bread:
EDDIE:
Hi there! This is Eddie your shipboard computer, right back in here, and I gotta tell you guys that if we don’t move out of here within…ah, ah, let’s see now, something of the order of, errr… well, by the time I finish working this out, taking trajectory dispersion and the space-time curve into account it’ll be three less, so, let’s say a cheerful round number like twenty seconds within, er, er, about, well it’s near eighteen seconds now, and er, by the time I’ve finished saying what I’m saying now it’ll be sixteen seconds, we’re all gonna be goners.
FORD:
Computer, you’re working again!
EDDIE:
Oh, suuuure! This unearthly voice came and solved my problem for me: why someone should want to drink dried leaves in boiling water? Answer: because he’s an ignorant monkey who doesn’t know better. Cute, huh?
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Previous: Disney.com comment form | Main | Next: Kinko's customer service
What, you want tea? Nah, we don't have that. How 'bout a bagel?
Posted by: abcdario at June 23, 2006 12:07 AM