In Search of Teh Tarik 3

For the next Destination, I was planning to try Starbucks’ version of Teh Tarik too, to compare with Strudell’s Vanilla The Tarik. But I am really over budget… and then I decided to stop by Carefour Subang Jaya before I head home.

The food court is name Cili Padi, sounds very local. And the first food stall, In Kopitiam is my favourite. It reminds me of Ipoh style of Kopitiam. I ordered a Teh Tarik to compare with Strudell’s Vanilla The Tarik.

I approached the counter and start to order.

“Kak, Teh Tarik satu?” *one Teh Tarik please?*

“Takde Teh Tarik lah. Tak boleh tarik lah” *there’s no Teh Tarik, we can’t do Teh Tarik here*

“Oh… Takde ke? Ada Teh biasa tak?” *Oh, seriously? Do you have normal Milk Tea?*

“Ade. Nak makan ape-ape ke?” *yes, we have it. What do you want to eat?*

“Tak, tak, itu saje.” *nope, that’s all*

The best part of In Kopitiamis their efficiency. Their kitchen is well organized and therefore preparing the food/drink is quick. The serving speed of In Kopitiamis slightly faster than Strudell, maybe because of the kitchen of In Kopitiam is busier than Strudell. In Kopitiam have a nice and friendly serving attitude.

This is the “Teh Biasa” I ordered. They let the customer enjoy their sweet time stirring the milk inside the tea (I love doing that). And the Tea from In Kopitiamis much more milkier than Strudell (I believe they added fresh milk into it). Although no Vanilla flavour is in the Tea but the taste of the Teh is much more richer compare to Strudell.

Good product, nice service with a reasonable price. I will definitely come again.

-Service Quality – 4/5

-Product – 4.0/5

-Customer Satisfaction – 5/5

-Comment – should have more variety in terms of drinks.

In Search of Teh Tarik 2

Now, I am in Strudel because of Strudell's good advertising skills and most of all, Chicken Rice Shop’s poor service.

I have a good first impression on Strudell. Strudell have nice interior design and have a great atmosphere. Strudell using the self service style to let the customer serve their own self. Giving freedom to customer to browse around, instead having a salesperson to stare at you the whole time. I like the freedom they give and taking my own sweet time browsing. And they left me alone to take pictures on the cakes and stuffs giving me enough freedom to browse and take my sweet time.

Ok, now that I decided to order, “Excuse me?”

The waiter quickly responds, I was impressed because I need not to wait.

“Yes, Sir. How may I help you sir?” said the waiter. I was amaze by the warm welcome.

“Errr... One Vanilla Tea please?”

“Oh… Did you mean by Vanilla Teh Tarik?”

And I think. “Oh, was it Teh Tarik? It was on the banner.”

“Yup, it is. Coming right up. Please have a seat while you wait, sir.”

The Vanilla Teh Tarik took only a while to finish. And I took some picture before my first sip. The taste of the Tea was not strong (maybe the water was too hot when brewing). But the Vanilla flavor is the main focus of the tea, the Vanilla flavour matches with the Teh Tarik nicely, making the drink tastes richer than ordinary Teh Tarik.

I take a look on the interior design of Strudell. They have nice, cozy design to present a relax and comfotable atmosphere. There also a sofa for customer to sit and relax.
One thing I like the most of the environment is their lighting. Their lighting is cozy inside and outside u can get some nice sun light. And the air conditioning is not bad too. Even though the Tea might not taste like what I expected but I had enjoyed my time finishing the Vanilla Tea.

Conclusion, good service makes customer happy.

-Service Quality – 3.5/5

-Product – 3.5/5

-Customer Satisfaction – 4.5/5

-Comment – Should offer more food in the menu.

In Search of Teh Tarik 1

I was in KL Central, i was thinking that maybe I could write a blog for Service Marketing’s blog. It was a long day, I was tired and thirsty and I was trying find some place where I can get some refreshment and rest for a while. Then these banners caught my attention.

I browsed the menu and I found something that I like - “Vanilla Tea”, it sounds nice. And I think to myself: “I never knew that The Chicken Rice Shop offer such a variety of drinks, impressive…”

And then… standing in front of The Chicken Rice Shop, I waited for them to approach me. But they seem to be very busy at the moment. I waited for about 3 minutes.

Then I decided to take more pictures… “Please allow us to seat you” hmmmm… the company’s service scripting is good but the service lacks implementation. They seems as if they are ignoring me or something. I guess I will just make it Strike 1 for now.

Ok, now that I am finally being escorted into the shop. I take a look around of the interior design. The shop is having a traditional kopitiam look. But, It is a little warm and humid inside. To make it worst the air is oily. They certainly needs to improve on the air conditioning. To make it worst, the renovation of the shop is full of warmth color (Yellow paint with yellow light).

I ordered “Vanilla Tea” but the waiter told me

Waiter: “Nope, errr… ah… we don’t have that.”

Me: “But I pretty sure that I saw it written on the banner.”

Waiter: “Nope, I am sure, ah… we don’t have that.”

Me: “Hey, I just saw that outside...” I beginning to lose my patient… arguing with your customer, huh? And I am getting really confused… and suddenly he left me unseated to the cash registry. and i guess that's Strike 2

I went outside and I lead him to the banner “This.” I said

After a few second pause, he says: “Ah… Strudel…”

Me: “What?”

Waiter: “This is Strudel…”

Me: “What do you mean?” I really can’t understand his English. This is getting too long! Just give me the thing I ordered!

Waiter: “The shop next door.”

Me: “You mean that this banner here belongs to the shop next door?”

Waiter: “Yes…”

I am getting really frustrated because of all these confusion. And I am still tired and hungry, I just want to sit down and relax.

Waiter: “So…” the waiter cut in and say,“Do you still want the Tea?”

Based on his tone, he say as if I am not their potential customer. For me, it sounded like "So, you want to go to next door instead?"

And very well, that’s it, Strike 3

“No, thank you.” I replied. I am not going to pay with this kind of service. Especially with serve by this type of waiter.

-Service Quality - 1/5

-Customer Satisfaction – 1/5

-Comment – Business minded (realistic). Bad handling of Customer

chilis

For those who do not know what Chilis is, it is a bar&grill restaurant that serves mexican food located at Midvalley, Bangsar, and 1 Utama.

Chilis is also a great place for people to hang out and watch football together. They have a bar at in the restaurent and when sometimes there is a big match, people will gather there, grab a drink and cheer for their favourite team on air.

Its been a long time since I've last dined there. The moment you step into Chilis, you can feel a very home-y, cosy and friendly kinda ambience. The waiters and waitresses are trained to serve you well.

But i once met a waiter there who was so calculative. There is this beverage in Chilis which is calle the bottomless drink. If u order that drink u can ask for a refill, on one condition. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO SHARE THE DRINK. And that waiter had the nerve to stare at us the whole time, making sure that we don't share the drink. How rude! I've met some nice waiters who let us share the drink and even let us refill our drink more than 1 time.

This time, I was very hungry. I ordered this prawn and citrus fried rice. As a old timer in Chilis, I know that they serve their food in a BIG plate, but the amount of food is quite little. I told my friend this and she had the nerve to ask the waiter to add more rice to my plate!

In which, surprisingly the waiter chuckled and agreed. How nice :)

As you can see, with EXTRA rice :D

My friend love this dish! A lot! This is the fajita nachos (pronouced as fa-hi-ta). They used to serve guacomole ( mashed avocado) with this dish, free. Now they no longer serve it free. You have to pay an additional RM1.50 to add a scoop of it. How sad :( They only serve the sour cream for free.


Well, if you guys like to try something new. Head on to your nearest Chilis to have a try!

PayPal --- The "Life Saver"

For those of you who are familiar with eBay, I'm sure you know how you can trust a seller or buyer. You can of course check their credibility based on their feedback score.

So for people who love shopping on eBay (I know I do because the stuff like are not sold here in lousy Malaysia!), obviously feedback ratings are very important. If we have a very bad feedback score, people may not want to buy your item (even if it's dirt cheap) because there's a sense of mistrust. And you would also have problem bidding if you have a low feedback score sometimes. The seller won't trust you and of course all they want is a hassle free customer who will pay no matter what in the end.

I have a good feedback score. 21 with 100% positive and registered in the USA. It's no problem for me bidding on items, but of course, I check on the seller's feedback to make sure I won't get cheated on my own cash. You see, I buy items which cost up to RM900 so if the seller suddenly disappears, my money will be gone just like that.

But this is not about eBay’s service. I want to talk about Paypal. It’s an online service which is owned by eBay. Basically Paypal is what Americans do to pay anything online, even to pay an individual or anyone with a valid identity. You can use Paypal to pay for eBay winnings, flight tickets, stocks, and almost anything. Some people even use Paypal’s donate banner on their website so people can click on it and donate money to the individual/company via Paypal. Paypal's money comes from any American bank account or Visa or MasterCard and even Amex. So since I obviously don't have an American bank account, I use my MasterCard with Paypal.

Paypal's service is not only flexible, it's just awesome. It has this feature which is call "Paypal buyer protection". One day I bought this expensive bracelet watch on eBay which retails for RM500. So I paid using Paypal under the "buyer protection" service with no extra charge.

The seller was an eBay "Power seller" with over 2000 satisfied customers. After I paid, he immediately post the item from the US to Malaysia and gave me the tracking number for the parcel.

After 3 weeks my item did not arrive. Since the watch is so expensive I was obviously worried. The tracking number existed so it means that the seller DID mail me the item, it just didn't arrive somehow. I called everything I could think of, Pos Malaysia's HQ, my local post office, I even called KLIA's parcel department to ask them if my item has arrived. And with no success I was starting to get scared. So the American post people said it takes up to 2 weeks to arrive so obviously my item is lost in the mail (stolen by a postman) or stuck in customs(I heard luxury items was charged high taxes). So through Paypal I opened a 'Dispute' to inform the Paypal authorities that I did not receive my item despite it being paid already. And less than a week, my money, every single cent was credited back to my credit card. I was so happy and glad and I just feel so safe shopping with Paypal. That’s what I call great service!

So I did not get the watch, but at least I received all of my money.And the next day I went to the shop and bought the watch I was suppose to receive.

The Irresponsible and Unhelpful --> MK LAND

Refer back to my previous post about the flood happened in Cyberia, this is the unfinished story of it. When the flood happened in Cyberia, the place that flooded the most is the basement parking which I parked my car there!!! Here’s the pictures’ showing how my car ended in the flood.

What I was so angry and frustrated about is that when there was water flowing into the car park, why there is no one that can help to spread the news or even make announcement so that residents can go and move their car from the parking lot. The 1^st unit that I wanted to blame is MK Land. They are the owner and management group of Cyberia. Why they didn’t have someone to announce or warning the residents when the flood is happening.

After seeing my car and other’s car “swimming” inside the car park, we decided to call the security and the management stuff. They arrive after 30 minutes we called them. So unprofessional displayed by them. So after they came, we tell them what actually happened and ask them what they can do for us. You know what answer we get from the stuff from MK Land? He said the water level was too high, he can’t do anything and MK Land also can’t do anything. Oh! What an excuse! We asked him whether can help us to call someone who can pull our cars out from the car park. He replied us by saying its middle of the night now, and all shops were closed. Wait tomorrow he said to us and then he left. Leave us helpless at the car park ourselves.

What the hell? We had paid for the parking fees every month and maintenance fees annually. This is not the kind of service that we deserved to get. We deserve a better service with the price we paid. The attitude showed by the security and MK Land stuff was not pleasant and couldn’t give us a satisfied solution to the problem we facing.

So we ended up by gathered all of our friends to help us pushed out the cars. The bunch of friends and people were more helpful and friendly compare to the security and MK Land management stuffs. We work hard on our own to “Save” our cars from the “swimming pool”. And this was how we did it.

BRAVO GUYS !!!

The “Unexpected” Cyberia FLOOD !!!

For those who stayed at Cyberia or having their car parked at the Cyberia will know that few days ago there was a big flood happened in Cyberia. After long hours of heavy rain the car park building was being flooded. The basement of the car park building was the part that seriously been flood. The water level of the flood came to the highest level of almost 1 meter. Most of the car that parked in there are all “wet” and being cover half by water.

Since long ago, the drain of that car park building was not functioning well and the water pump system also having problem. So that whenever there is a rain, the car park will be flooded. The management of Cyberia didn’t pay much attention on this issue and didn’t take any action to solve the problem. i felt so disappointed with them.

My “Unpleasant” Journey with Sri Maju

Last week, I spent a wonderful weekend in my hometown. I was so reluctant to come back KL, but I have to because I have classes on Tuesday. Monday morning, my mum sent me to the station; as usual, I bought a single seat ticket. I checked in and settle down. It was a rainy day, I decided to spent my 3 hours journey by sleeping.

When I got seated, I felt it was extremely cold. Although I already turn off the air-condition at my place. Later, I found out that the wind came from the seat behind me. A man who is in his late fifties was sitting behind me. He did not want the air-condition and turned it to me. He can just off it but he didn’t do so. It made me freeze. I tried to ignore the coldness and continue my nap.

Suddenly, I felt someone kicking my chair non-stop. Once again, I turned to the back and staring the old man. I wished I have the courage to ask him stop kicking the chair and respect to others. But, I failed to do so. How am I going to continue my sleep? Luckily there was an empty seat at the last row. I managed to change my seat. Hurray! Another important reason I want to change my place is to snatch some photos of the jay customer.

When I sat at the back row, I could clearly see how inconsiderate that old man was. He just simply put his leg high on the front seat, pulling the curtain rudely and also making a lot of noise when he fell asleep. It was disgusting to see his action.

The entire journey supposes to be pleasing because the bus driver was kind of polite and the bus was clean. And I suppose to get a good seat and good nap. Unfortunately, the jay customer who misbehaved had screw up the whole journey of the passengers. Sometimes, good service experience not just depend on the service provider, it is still much depend on other customers as well.

A Bad Experience with Telekom Malaysia

Yeah sounds a little bit extreme but since I had so many bad experiences with them, I might just go up to the VADS building where the contact center is (I think it's there) and commit arson.

So you may ask what kind of horrible things they did to me that I would have such a passion to destroy them all.

First story, I use a TM phone line (like we have any other choice?).

During the first week when the phone line was connected, there was no dial tone. And I think it was like that for a long time just that I didn't check earlier because I never really used it to make calls. But calls could still come in. So when I found out, I called them, using my cell phone (since the phone is out, DUH!).

Took me ages to get through (and a series of pressing buttons for that automated response). When I finally got through, I SPECIFICALLY asked to talk to someone in English, but instead she still spoke to me in Malay. I spoke to her in English anyway and her English was SO bad I wonder why they even bother hiring these people to answer calls in English.

Then I told her my problem. The way she responded was like she was so shocked something like that could happen.

TM Contact Staff: "Are you sure there is no sound!?"

Moi: "No. No dial tone"

TM Contact Staff: "Is the phone connected?"

Moi: "Yes (DUH!)"

TM Contact Staff: "I put you on hold on moment" (Best of Elevator Music volume 12 plays....7 minutes later) "A technician will come over to your place tomorrow"

2 days later

Moi: "The technician did not come"

TM Contact Staff: "Are you sure?"

Moi: "Look, I am the only one living here, I had to skip a class just so that I could wait for your people to come fix my stupid line. When can you fix it?"

TM Contact Staff: "Erm miss, I think they will come tomorrow. Sorry. Please wait tomorrow"

Moi: "And I have to use my cell phone to call you and there's no reception here, so I need it fixed ASAP"

The next day someone finally called, telling me that they wanted to go to my house to fix it and confirming the time. When I finally hung up from that call, I could hear a dial tone once more on my telephone.

So now it's fixed? All of a sudden? And they want to come here to fix what? And what was the technical fault that actually happened? Did they sneak into my house when I was away to fix it? Or did they suspend my phone line just to freak me out? I didn't even bother to inform them that my phone was back up again since I was stood up by those technicians again.

TM, you may have won this time....

To be continued with Celcom, bills that never comes to the house anymore but they call me and rudely asks me to PAY!

Poor Facilities and Services in KUALA LUMPUR HOSPITAL

This is the place that everybody doesn’t want to go. But, 4 years ago during my diploma, I was almost admitted in the HKL because I was suspect to have dengue fever. It was almost every day I have to get a check up, have a blood test for about a week and HKL like my second house where I have to spend all my day there. For those that don’t have an experience get sick and sent to HKL, you will not have an idea how terrible that place for sick people.

The main factor why it is terrible is because it is government hospital and the services are not good as the private hospital. The main difference for these two sectors is the fees for the patient. HKL provide the lowest fees which is only the registration fees RM2 only. But for private hospital, just count it by yourself. So, the services provided also as low as the fees.

What makes me wonder is hospitals is the place for sick people and this place should provide at least a comfort place so that the patients will be calm and rest while waiting their turn. But, what I faced was the seats were too old and some of them are not safe to sit and when come on weekends, the seats unable to accommodate the amount of the people come. There only a few ceilings fan provided on that time. Besides, the staffs will not welcome you with smile and easily get impatient and tempered with patients. So, patients will be sicker in this condition. This is because first, you have to spend your time to wait for your turn and second you have to face the uncomfortable basic services that they serve to you.

So, think twice to be there.

The Professionalism in AQUARIA KLCC

This place gives you an experience on a giant aquarium under the sea. My first time enter this place will never be forget because I really can feel like I’m under the sea. This place is very beautiful and I can see a lot of species of fish and any marine life that I have ever seen directly. The services they provide in this place are very good where they allocate their staffs to give a brief explanation about the habitats.

Besides, they also provide a computerize system called an interactive kiosk machine that have the interactivity to give more information and games about the animals. Once you enter the place, you can see The Flooded Forest that keeps the animals like spiders species and so on. Then, it is followed by other exhibition where you can touch the fish with the staff’s guidance.

Then the most important place that you should come is the giant aquarium which is called The Living Ocean. It have 90 meters moving walk away underwater tunnel. This will help the visitors so that they can use the moving walk away when they felt tired of walking along the tunnel. There are more than 3000 sea creatures of various shapes that lived harmoniously in this simulated natural habitat.

In this Aquaria KLCC also provide other services such as photography services, toilets and also the gift shops that sell a lot of souvenirs that can bring home. Besides, each visitor will get the CD about the Aquaria KLCC. The price can be said relative high where for adult Malaysian RM28 and child Malaysian RM22. However, when we think about the experiences gained after going there, its worth for that.

2 Different Experiences At The Same Store

It was definitely a tiring day after straight of 5 hours classes. Before heading for my lunch, my friend and me went to the bookshop or so called knowledge mart to look for our Marketing Strategy textbook. We had been visiting the shop few times just to find this book because it was not available yet.

Since it is already Week 5 plus the lecturer’s words promising that the book is available in the shop, thus, we were so confident that this time for sure we will get what we want. After searching in the shop, once again, it was not available. I went to the counter to ask the cashier when the book will be available. The cashier did not answer my question nor look at me. I waited for few seconds, then only he looked at my friend and me blankly. He told us that he did not know, and asked us to find the person in charge. At that time, the person in charge was not in. So, we asked the cashier for the person in charge’s contact number. Guess what, he showed us an unwilling face and asked me to copy down the number in a rude manner.

On Wednesday, we returned to the shop and the same thing happened which the book is not there yet. But we saw another Marketing Strategy case study book was there. We asked a female staff about the price. In addition, we also asked her about the book we were looking for. She answered our questions politely. After that, she guided us to meet the person in charge.

Although I did not get my book, I am still thankful to the female staff. I must give her a credit on her service as a salesperson. I wonder why in the same place, same position but two salespersons showed different service manner towards the customers. I understand that the bookshop is selling us the product. But good services is also an important aspect to ensure customer satisfaction.

vietnamese-valentine

It was a spur moment when we decided to go out for valentines dinner. We had no idea where to go nor what to eat because obviously it would be "people mountain people sea" case out there. Anyway, i suggested we go 1u . We were thinking of dining at either Italiannese or Dragon-i , but we ended up dining at Vietnam Kitchen.

the decors at Vietnam Kitchen

Its my 1st time there. I would say, the ambience is really nice and sophisticated. The food is really cheap also. The waiters are fast moving and their service is really good. They work in an efficient manner and they make sure the customers do not have to wait a long time to order.

the drinks.

my avocado milkshake is very very very very very very nice! While the six treasure drink is a mixture of red dates, lotus root, longan, white fungus, lingzi and jelly.

seafood fried noodle.

my beef noodle. the soup is beef-licious. yum! they serve raw taugeh with the noodle. I took a bite of the taugeh and almost wanna throw up. bleks.

oh, this you MUST try. its crunchy and yummy!

One thing I like about this restaurant is the waiters clear up your empty dishes as quickly as possible so that your table is cleaner. Some customers don't like it as it may give a "sign" that the waiters are indirectly asking you to pay the bill faster and leave so that other customers can have their seat.

dessert is six tresure tau fu fah :)