CHAI FRIDAYS!!!!
If its the first time you’re coming into starbucks and we have a rush of customers, it will be overwhelming. You heard it was a coffee place, and when you walk in there everyone’s yelling mocha-macchiato-venti-breve-ccino. It can be a bit crazy.
So when I got a customer a few months ago who looked really stressed, I was extra calm when I was getting his order. He looked down at a post it, looked up to me, and then back to the post it: “er.. chai. four. yeah, four chai. small” I smiled, “Do you know if you want the chai tea latte - with our chai concentrate and steamed milk - or the chai tea - like with the tea bag? He looked back at the paper and tells me that one of them is with whole milk… and then admits that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I tell him since one of them sounds like a chai latte, we’ll make them all chai lattes, and asked if that was cool. He said that it was fine.
When he got his drinks, he found that it wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted them with the tea bags. He tells this to the person on bar, and the person on bar kind of had an attitude with him “Sir, that’s what you ordered, and that’s what we made.” Ugh, c’mon, coworker. I felt so bad that my coworker was making him feel bad, especially since it was probably myself who misguided him. I stepped in and let him know that I must have misunderstood. I checked again for what he wanted, and we came to the conclusion that he wanted a tall whole milk chai tea misto and 3 tall chai teas. Good thing we had enough people on the floor, because I slid from my expediting spot to help out this guy. I quickly gave him a refund, got his drinks together in a tray with drink stoppers/splash sticks. He thanked me a lot, and I said it was the least I could do since I got it a bit wrong the first time (and I had to make up for my short tempered coworker).
The next week when I was expediting the line during the afternoon rush, I saw him in line “are you getting the four chais?” He told me that I was actually right last week, everyone wanted chai lattes. I laughed, and said I have him covered. So we get his four chais ready, and I put them in a carrying try with splash sticks and send him on his way
A few Fridays later before this customer walked out the door with his drinks, I say that I’ll see him next week. He said “oh yeah! Chai Fridays!”
Chai Fridays! How amazingly great and cute is that!? The next week I asked him about Chai Fridays, and he told me that him and his coworkers celebrate the end of the week by him going out to get everyone chais! I love that so much. I’m so happy to take part in someone’s end of the week celebration. This past week he gave me his card, and I found that he’s an awesome photographer who’s taken some pretty chill Obama pictures.
Now when he come in all of us behind the counter go “CHAI FRIDAY!!!!”
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