Hello, Snapshot!

Just today, my Store Manager was shivering right in front of an email before she printed out results of a short review of how the partners in our store were performing.

In other words, the customer snapshots. The mother of all VIPs compared to the other people who's working in Starbucks. They're like.. mystery shoppers. And they write reports/reviews of the performance of the barista on duty; both on the cash register and the hot beverage section.

And I saw that I got hit by a customer snapshot.

It's my first time, and I managed to sit on the benchmark for performance/beverage preparation. I achieved a score of 92%

It was quite satisfying at first, but after you really think about it, it's nothing much. Because the bar is being set at 92% as the passing mark, it's nothing to be proud off, unless if you achieve like 97 or 98 .. Or 100%.

And thank goodness that my store manager was really happy with the marks. Another one of my partners scored 95%. So having two results at the same time, our district manager was pleased.

.. Thank goodness indeed.

And it said there; Partner did not have knowledge of products.

I admit that, because this customer snapshot asked me one question that left me extremely stomped.

"Excuse me! These espresso beans; are they used to make American Latte?"

Firstly, isn't Latte a style of Italian beverage?

American Latte. How's that? An American coffee master having kids with a passionate Italian petrolhead, and teaching them how to do a Latte; that's an American Latte??

Or the Latte being prepared by Starbucks barista because Starbucks originated from Seattle after the influence of Milano's styles of coffee beverages?

Anyways, getting a 92% is a very very chance for me to improve for the better. I wouldn't want to be an idiot when it comes to these sort of things. That's why I'm slowly going back to the basics in some aspects of this job.

The 92% is just a second chance for me, and I'm thankful that I didn't screw anything up?








And besides that, I got reviewed for being at the cash register, and preparing the beverage at the same time. It's against some actual laws of Starbucks because there's supposed to be a minimum of 2 baristas on the floor, so...

Bah?

It was a normal experience. More to like a transaction of selling and buying.

That's going to ring in my head for quite a while. I need to initiate more conversations with the customers.

But not TOO much of a conversation.









PS. Ng Khai Lee dropped by Starbucks Ikano today. Thanks for dropping by bro! Guess I'll give you a call sooner or later when I'm a little bit less tied up with work and studies? =)









Anyhow, it's back to Penang to recoordinate myself. Music and studies alone, this time. *yawns*