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.