Teaspoon A local success story
Tanshi Mohan
Teaspoon A local success story
Tanshi Mohan 1
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I’d like to dedicate this book to my mom, dad, sister, and dog. Thank you for always being there for me.
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I would like to thank Amy Lai, Jephanie Chen, James Quach, and Elise Nguyen for taking the time out of their day to be interviewed. I would also like to thank Freestyle Academy, Mr. Greco, Mr. Florendo, and Ms. Parkinson for pushing me to continue creating and editing my work through this incredibly tenacious project.
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Table of Contents
Preface
Quali-tea
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Introduction
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The Smart(phone) Campaign
Moving Forwards
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C.A.R.E.ful Mangement
Works Cited
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Preface
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hen I first heard about the Documentary project, it took me a long time to figure out what I genuinely liked and was interested in. But as my sweet tooth started to whine for attention, Teaspoon became an automatic contender. I have loved boba tea from a young age, but when Teaspoon came, they revolutionized my taste buds. Suddenly, I could taste the actual tea, not tea that had been eclipsed by sugary fruit syrups.
I recall when Teaspoon slipped into my weekly routine. I remember seeing their drinks as I walked down my school hallway, the crowds outside of their cafe, and the sweet smell of boba that filled my senses everytime I entered.
I then realized how I knew nothing about why Teaspoon was here. I did not know how they became popular, popular enough to be a part of my own school’s club fundraisers. I knew that they had a story, since their success could not have come from nowhere. One thing I was concerned about as I started this project would be having too wide of an angle. I got a lot of information from everyone, and I wish I could tell all the small stories that make Teaspoon what it is without straying from the main story. I hope everyone who reads this short documentary on Teaspoon are able to not only gain some insight into why Teaspoon is a successful business, but also appreciate their core values. Previous Page: Thai Tea and Liquid Gold 9
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Introduction
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Even though they’ve been able to expand, being n a small side street in San Francisco, a half poke cafe, half boba shop, lies in between two tall office entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, the odds were once against buildings. When I walk in, I notice the cafe’s large them. According to Richard Feloni, a writer for Business windows and the familiar smell of delicious, sweet boba tea. Insider’s Strategy section, a restaurant’s failure rate is around Amy Lai, the cofounder of Teaspoon, sits across the table 60% in the first year. The year prior to opening Teaspoon, from me. She smiles when she tells me, “We even had a millennial entrepreneurship dropped to 25% due to heavy college debts (Wasik). Lai and customer come in and talk to Fan were fresh out of college us about how his fiancé,...the Hearing people say that..they really love our and working a corporate girlfriend at the time, loves Teaspoon...so he wanted to product and the people...that made feel like all job when they realized they wanted to do something actually propose to her at the hard work was worth it. ~Lai more and do something Teaspoon. ..Hearing people they cared about (Lai). say that Teaspoon is a big part of their life, and that they really love our product and How did these two entrepreneurs create one of the people, that was a big moment for me, that made me the Bay Area’s most successful boba tea cafes? Teaspoon’s success is not only based on their financial feel like all the hard work was worth it”(Lai). It’s been three years since Teaspoon’s grand opening, and the boba prosperity and popularity, but also on their reputation of tea cafe has expanded to eight other locations. What once having high quality products, a friendly and welcoming started as a small start up in the Bay Area has transformed environment, and participation in the community. into a giant success for Lai and her cofounder, David Fan.
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Quali-tea
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ai and Fan opened up Teaspoon in early March of 2015 in Los Altos, California. Recent college graduates, Lai and Fan worked at the same corporation where after meeting, they decided to be business partners and embark on a new adventure (Lai). So what pushed Fan and Lai out of their stable “cushy” corporate job? As mentioned before, opening up a cafe is risky, but their shared interest and passion for boba tea made the risk worth taking. The name “Teaspoon” arose from the combination of their two products: shaved snow and boba tea. Lai and Fan left to create their vision of a boba tea cafe, one that included a welcoming environment, diversity, outstanding customer service, and premium quality tea (Lai). It was hard work. For the first year, Lai and Fan worked 13 hours a day trying to manage and build their start-up (Lai). They were fortunate enough to have hands-on help from parents, family, and friends. While most businesses mainly just risk the loss of money from investors, they risked losing the investments of their loved ones. It was this that helped drive them to put 200% effort into their little tea cafe in Los Altos. Compared to a decade ago, Teaspoon starkly contrasts the older boba tea shops. Boba tea was originally made with artificial fruit powders and non-dairy fruit creamers (Krishan). This gave it its creamy taste, but overall low quality product. Lai
and Fan both saw this lack in quality and jumped in to remodel the drink. Teaspoon’s core values lie in their customer service and their commitment to make the best quality drink. Lai and Fan are dedicated to making sure their drinks all natural and organic. They use real fruit, gold cane sugar, and organic milk and creamer. One example of their dedication is when they went all the way to Taiwan to acquire freeze-dried passion fruit in order to stick with their no syrup and all natural flavor policy. This is just one of the reasons Teaspoon is so successful. The boba tea market lacked quality, and opening in Los Altos was a smart move. I personally remember a time without Teaspoon. As a huge boba fan, I remember when I used to have to travel all the way to downtown Mountain View or Palo Alto to get my cup. Now, quality tea is next door. Another difference between Teaspoon and the boba cafes of a decade ago is the environment they have created. Teaspoon cafe’s design is modern and inviting. They put a lot of time into designing their simplistic but sophisticated menu, which helps make trying something new less daunting. Teaspoon’s marketing coordinator, Jephanie Chen, characterizes Teaspoon as “Kind, friendly, welcoming, [and] cheerful.” Like me, Lai remembers the original dynasty of boba tea cafes. Her vision of Teaspoon was sculpted by them, as she Previous Page: Amy Lai
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recalls: “the music that was playing in the background was like some Korean pop music, something that they (people who do not know what boba was) felt intimidated from, it wasn’t a very welcoming environment for anybody not a part of the asian culture. So, when we started Teaspoon, how I envisioned it was, Teaspoon was going to be able to provide a environment that can allow anybody of all ages, of all cultural background to enjoy this delicious product.” And it worked. When Teaspoon opened in Los Altos, the rest of Los Altos High was exposed to this fun and new drink. Now, I wasn’t the only one who had “boba fever”. Elise Nguyen, a former employee at Teaspoon and a current student at Los Altos High, recalls the atmosphere of the little cafe: “It’s kinda happy, I guess, if I had to describe it one word. The music is, well recently it’s been a lot of mainstream, kind of music with guitars and happy singers, like Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz … Sometimes it was EDM...it seemed to perk up our customers and our baristas too.” Teaspoon’s environment is also aided by its cheerful staff and their devotion to customer service and customer relations. Lai uses the acronym C.A.R.E to teach new employees Teaspoon’s standard of customer service: “C stands for care about your customers, try to remember their name, and their drink, and something personal about them to create a relationship with them because to me, customer relationships are really important because that actually makes the job so much more enjoyable… A would stand for acknowledge them, making sure that we appreciate them. R would stand for reduce the wait time because nobody wants to wait really really long... E for empathy, making sure we understand where the customers are coming from, if they’re upset with something, we’ll try our best to provide options and alternatives if there’s something that we can do.” Nguyen recalls the pleasantness
of employees and great customer service: “at Teaspoon, they’re a lot more willing to remake drinks, like, people (at other establishments) will remake drinks but they’ll be a little hesitant, or be like I don’t really want to do this, or they’ll complain or something.” Teaspoon’s regional manager, James Quach, emphasizes this difference once again: “Other tea shops, usually when you get something, they’ll ask you a couple questions, like” why, what’s wrong with it”, or they’ll hesitate to give you a refund or like replace that for you. But over here, we don’t. There’s just no questions asked. If you don’t like the drink, we’ll make you a new one, completely different, and so long as our customer leaves happy.” But Teaspoon surpasses the standard bar of customer service even further. “Our regulars mean so much more business to us, we definitely feel like it was our responsibility and our obligation to give back to the community ...” Lai says. And so they did. Teaspoon was open for only 2 months when they started to participate in local fundraisers with schools (Lai). They have collaborated with Palo Alto High, Stanford University, Gunn High, and Los Altos High in student-led fundraisers. In 2017, Los Altos awarded Teaspoon with the Teen Friendly Business Award because of all their activism in the community (Morgan). By creating such great relationships with their customers, the cafe has also been the location of a proposal (Lai)! But Lai hopes that Teaspoon’s efforts to be active in the community are a part of a bigger picture: “we honestly feel like food is the best tool or reason to get people together because, kind of like enjoying music, … you don’t even have to understand each other’s language or background.., to... appreciate [the] music. Same thing with food: if it’s tasty, no matter what your background.., culture, or age [is], you can enjoy it together, and share that really great moment...” Previous Page: The Boba Bar 15
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The Smart(phone) Campaign
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white and red building stands side by side with other offices in Hayward. On the front of its glassdoor is “Teaspoon”, inscribed in brown lettering with the logo underneath. As soon as I walk in, I’m greeted with a smile. Jephanie Chen is Teaspoon’s marketing coordinator. Chen is a creative person with an impressive range of interests and hobbies, such as flying (she was planning on being a pilot before deciding to enter the marketing-world). This is one of the reasons Chen is great candidate for Teaspoon marketing campaigns, because a wide range of interests means more connectivity with different groups of people. Chen’s job consists of marketing campaigns, contacting vendors, helping with community events such as fundraisers, and most importantly, digital marketing. Chris Cavanaugh, the Chief Marketing Officer of Freeman, explains, “Technology provides the perfect opportunity to fine-tune our offerings, enhance the way we serve our clients, and find new ways to nurture the relationships between audiences and brands.” Choosing the right medias to market your product is a difficult step, because neglecting the right social medias for your targeted audience could mean an untapped market. While some people may think that digital marketing can be less effective than advertising on billboards, digital marketing
actually keeps the content appealing and informative and is more effective because it reaches a larger audience in less time (Chen). Chen runs Teaspoon’s social media account on Instagram, called @TeaspoonLife. She points out that in today’s day and age, people are more likely to like a post on Instagram than open up promotional letters in the mail. Chen also states that “people are more visual now, like, a nice photo, people are more likely to look at it....because our audience is also younger,..they use Instagram. That’s why I mention Instagram a lot, instead of Facebook and stuff, because, the funny thing is, I had a lot people telling that they don’t even use Facebook anymore.” Facebook was originally created with the idea of being a computer-based social media, while Instagram was created for the smartphone. Using Instagram to advertise Teaspoon was a smart move, considering that “smartphones currently own 50.87% of the market share” (Nwazor). Another important aspect of digital marketing is creating personalized content (Nwazor). Teaspoon does this by incorporating their customers into their social media accounts and creating an interactive experience. For example, @TeaspoonLife have pictures of Los Altos High seniors enjoying a cup of boba, which in turn publicizes Teaspoon to Los Altos High. Another way they create Previous Pages: Signs, Jephanie Chen 19
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personalized content is by connecting with their customers through replying to comments or direct messages (dms). Sometimes, Teaspoon will even post a pictures taken by other customers, as seen through the photo credits. Teaspoon also creates more interesting, personalized content by posting with people who have high amounts of instagram followers. Not only do these people promote the product, but Teaspoon organizes events which help these customers genuinely understand their story and product better (Chen). Even though Chen does not spend the majority of her time working directly at Teaspoon’s locations, one can see how Teaspoon’s value of friendly attitude and people skills continue up the ranks. Chen describes her favorite part of the job: “Other than just digital marketing, as a marketing
coordinator I have to talk to vendors, I have to talk to customers.., and I’ve talked to sponsors or people that are trying to sell us stuff, or people that I’m trying to sell too, so.. [I] talk to so many people, and that’s the best part of the job.” Since 2015, Teaspoon has expanded to eight other locations. I ask Chen about how she thinks Teaspoon is going to be able to keep their classic “local feel” to their new cafes. Chen responds: “..I think that managing people is the most important thing, in any business really nowadays. ..that’s why we choose the right manager. So we just have to manage and choose the right person, so he or she can manage to store. So,... we spend a lot of money and a lot of time trying to hire one person. .. if you have the right person, you have a lot room to grow.” Previous Page: Toffee Milk Tea
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C.A.R.E.ful Management
According to the Harvard Business Review, “Bad managers Quach has been with Teaspoon since the beginning, it can cost businesses billions of dollars each year, and having too only show how his management skills are a part of Teaspoon’s many of them can bring down a company. The only defense success. Some responsibilities of a regional manager include against this massive problem is a good offense, because hiring branch managers, evaluating the efficiency of stores, and helping all the stores when companies get these be operating at their best decisions wrong, nothing performance. He also helps fixes it. Businesses that get A lot of times..people overlook it right, however, and hire staff prepare for upcoming empathy..instead of getting upset over that fundraisers, and make sure managers based on talent will that everyone’s on the same thrive and gain a significant customer, you should try to..let them leave competitive advantage.” page (Quach). One unique way with a smile. ~Quach Quach hires branch managers James Quach is the regional is by asking them the question; manager of Teaspoon. Quach joined the team in 2015, and with a lot of hardwork, rose to the what does empathy means to them? Quach explains the occasion and was promoted to regional manager. Teaspoon, as importance of this question: “because a lot of times, when you seen through their expansion, is a flourishing company. Since go from any store, any restaurant, ... people overlook empathy,
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and sometimes they’ll see oh, this person is having a bad day, and it’s going to ruin your day. But that’s not the type of person that I’m looking for to work with us, what I’m looking for isyou should have a deeper understanding for the community around you, ..that person might be having a bad day, there has to be a reason why, you know, you can make their day better. So instead of getting upset over that customer, you should try to.. let them leave with a smile, at least they would have had one good thing that happened to them that day. So that’s one of the most important things that I look for, in a manager.” Quach is truly invested in Teaspoon and what Teaspoon stands for. According to Glenn Llopis, a former corporate executive
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and entrepreneur of several companies, an effective manager must build rapport with their employees. James Quach’s enthusiasm towards his job shows that this has already been built: “My favorite part of the job would be, hmm, there’s a lot to my job that I love. I guess my favorite part is just be waking up and getting ready to go see my staff... My staff are what helps make Teaspoon successful, they’re also great individuals. I like to know everyone a personal basis, of course, you keep your personal life and your professional life different, but you can still know them on a personal level. You know everyone has really interesting life stories.”
Moving Forwards
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easpoon owes it success to their emphasis on quality, customer service, and welcoming environment. As Teaspoon expands, Lai wants to continue to keep a “local feel” to their cafes, push for their high-standard of quality, and continue to educate the population on the delicious tea drink. Teaspoon hopes to continue to be a part of the community wherever they go, even when small-local cafe feel is harder to grasp. Lai tells me about her recent feats at one of Teaspoons new locations: “for example, in San Francisco we opened up a store, and San Francisco, as you know, is a much bigger city. So, having that same small community feeling is a little bit different. But, we’re still doing, it, we’re doing fundraisers
with high schools, ...we’re still doing a lot of community outreach, going to festivals..Last year, there was a Taiwanese festival in Union Square in San Francisco, and they wanted us to support them, ….we went out to show what the product [is], [boba] actually originates from Taiwan so we definitely want to support the Taiwanese culture. So we’re trying to, in different ways, in different cities, [by] reaching out to communities [to] get people together to know about this product and enjoy it.”
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Works Cited Beck, Randall, and James Harter. “Why Good Managers Are So Rare.” Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Publishing, 2 Nov. 2014, hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare. April 1 2018. Cavanaugh, Chris. “The Role Of Digital Marketing In Brand Experience.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 24 Aug. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/08/11/the-role-of-digital-marketing-inbrand-experience/2/#e714eec6da5e. 10 March 2018. Chen, Jephanie. Personal Interview. 18 March 2018. Feloni, Richard. “Food Network Chef Robert Irvine Shares The Top 5 Reasons Restaurants Fail.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 25 Feb. 2014, www.businessinsider.com/why-restaurants-fail-so-often-2014-2. 16 March 2018. Krishna, Priya. “A Brief History of Boba.” Food & Wine, 22 May 2017, www.foodandwine.com/tea/bubble-tea-taiwan ese-street-drink-turned-american-addiction. Lai, Amy. Personal Interview. 3 March 2018.
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Llopis, Glenn. “Effective Managers Earn Trust Quickly By Doing 5 Things Well.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 8 July 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/07/10/effective-managers-earn-trust-quickly-by-doing-5-thingswell/#71d5eaa35631. 1 April 2018. Morgan, J. “City Manager Weekly Update - May 12, 2017.” City Manager Weekly Update - May 12, 2017 | City of Los Altos California, 12 May 2017, www.losaltosca.gov/citymanager/page/city-manager-weekly-update-may-12-2017. Nguyen, Elise. Personal Interview. 2 April 2018. Nwazor, Toby. “Digital Marketing Trends Are Evolving: Here Are 4 Ways You Can Stay Relevant.” Entrepreneur, 29 Nov. 2017, www.entrepreneur.com/article/305173. 4 April 2018. Quach, James. Personal Interview. 29 March 2018.
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anshi Mohan is currently a junior at Freestyle Academy participating in the Digital Media and Design program. Friends would describe Tanshi as humorous and caring. If you were to try and find Tanshi outside her home, she would most likely be at Teaspoon ordering her favorite drink, toffee black tea with milk and honey boba. In Tanshi’s free time, she plays piano, snacks, spends time with her dog, and volunteers to help cats and dogs find their forever homes. She hopes to attend UC Davis and graduate with a bachelor degree in psychology or marketing. Her end goal is to be able to help people lead better lives. If Tanshi won the lottery, she would give half of it away to her favorite charities, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the National Wildlife Federation, and spend the rest on concert tickets to see the Neighbourhood, Childish Gambino, and Lana Del Rey.
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Teaspoon A local success story
Tanshi Mohan