24 July 2008

[liff] Murky Coffee: It Wasn't About The Quality After All.

1675.


In what we hope will be the footnote to the Murky Coffee Kerfluffle, Dale Sundstrom thought well enough of me to leave the following in the comments of the original post:



Murky's owner now admits the policy is NOT about the coffee.


In a discussion with me in the forums on CoffeeGeek, Nick Cho admitted that the main reason for the "no icing espresso" was not "Mostly for quality reasons," (the coffee) as he originally claimed, but to discourage the abuse of complimentary dairy products.


Setting policies for stuff like this just prevents your employees from using and developing their own good judgment and communication skills. Coffee and customer are both important; choosing one at the expense of the other is foolish and unnecessary.



The message thread can be found here; Dale's posting about it on his own site can be found here; WaPo's article about that whole thing here. What you think about Dale's conclusions can be found between your own ears.


But we can't help but wonder if things would have gone the way they did if Nick Cho had given his staff the freedom of saying the truth about it. Dairy products are expensive and even more so now; too many "poor-man's lattes" would be a significant cost. Half-n-half isn't cheap.


Thanks for the info, Dale. Tippin our coffee cap to you today.


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