January 05, 2006

The Cups weighs in Kilos: A critical review.

I was intrigued to write this after a stream of entries by fellow bloggers that talked about their customer-experience with certain companies and establishments in Jordan.

I’ve spotted the coffee house “Cups & Kilos” during my summer holiday, but only tried it during my last trip to Jordan; I went there a couple of times, the last of which was with my fiancée with a minor related incident!

Here's my humble analatical self's two fils take on the venue with a bit of scruitny:
The place definitely fails in terms of location-location-location, but then again, many ventures have opened in remote areas miles away from their targeted customers (e.g. Books@) yet they managed luring & locking them in! Still, the place is not in the route of any typical journey, and punters have to purposely u-turn from 3rd circle or navigate the maze of the undefined area between Abdali, Weibdih & Jabal-Amman to arrive to their location!

Sticking up to a single –I assume so- coffee beans and flavors supplier meant that their offering would be almost consistent, and utilizing the variety of syrups their supplier offer stimulates a gourmet variety and specialty, nice trick.

Another nice trick is how everything was smartly branded at minimal cost, cheap sticker tags holding the logo was tagged to almost everything, it works just fine!


I find it an extreme turn-off when a coffee place uses a typical takeaway cup that is not branded and used by every other place; they however got their hands over blank takeaway cups that seem to be readily available, got the branded sticker tags, and gave their cups this distinctive & professional feel.

The layout of the shop is also neat, the decoration and the excessive use of wood gave it a warm feeling, I particularly liked the neat back-office with glass partition! I also noticed the ceremonial over-the-counter serving technique that starts by laying a napkin along with a mixing stick & stashes of sugar servings while the drink is being prepared… good stuff until now, but here comes the buts…

But their coffee is cold! Really all their espresso-based drinks are served warm, possibly due to wrong thermostat setting in the coffee-maker or this is the best it can do! I like my coffee warm by the way, but I like it served boiling hot and then warm-out while I’m flirting with it!

But their customer service is inflexible, dry & lack product & servicing knowledge! if you happen to be a regular or “experienced” with their menu offering, then you’ll feel welcomed, but if you happen to be a new punter with undecided or coffee-ignorant attitude, then expect only to be either pushed to ordering something obvious that you don’t like or stay mystified gazing at the menu & the flavor list and walk away muttering your dismay without a purchase!

Then comes the issue of unconventional customer requests, which my fiancée is good at, she orders Turkish coffee; such a small serving typically requires a small cup, but my fiancée rightously wanted her coffee in a larger cup, so its easier for her to hold it from the lid, the lady waiter did not know how to deal with this request, simply because she was only taught how to make coffee and go through the serving ceremony in an impassionate & autonomous manner.

My fiancée was sticking with her request and the waiter kept repeating her objection in a very artificially must-be-friendly fashion, and as the situation stagnated, a more experienced waiter who seem to have self-enforced intuition recognized the situation, apologized to my fiancée, elaborated that because of the small serving of Turkish coffee, its content will mix when poured into a larger cup and hence the taste will not be as good.
He then took the cup, emptied the content into the new larger cup carefully and served the drink again…

The place have allot of credentials to become successful, but they should look into the tiniest of details, as well as orienting their people to be more customer-centric, genuinely friendly and more knowledgeable with what they’re selling…

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