How David’s Tea is using reviews to improve customer service

David's Tea now has over 160 stores around the country, and recently had its IPO.

Super service orientated, brightly lit stores, and the grandest selection of tea you will find on the high street since Nineteenth Century England.

But it is not the product that got my attention. On my walkabout, I chatted with one manager - Randy in their Burlingame location - and he mentioned how reviews were used internally as a kind of performance measurement. Not the only one by all means, but still something that was discussed with the member os staff in relation to that review.
After this event I discussed more and more places were doing the same in this area.
Reviews is not about the experience you have, it is about how you feel about the experience you had.
Sometimes you will find the feedback says more about the person giving it than about the facts - and sometimes a manager may well have observed the exchange, and will input their view post event as well.

Negative feedback that cannot be resolved really hammers a business as their stars start to drop.

Here is an example from Yelp:

A 2 star review...
"TL;DR - It feels like a bunch of high schoolers working their first part time job.

Ok. 5 stars for my first visit and 1 star for the two times after. The first time I went, there were 2 workers there who were super friendly and knowledgable.

Second two times.... not as much.

All the girls do there is just talk to each other. The store was pretty full of customers browsing, but the girls just talked amongst themselves and ignored basically everyone; except those ringing up."

Compared to this 5 star one...

"Super friendly and fast service. Super transparent pricing than that! Ashlee made the whole experience a delight!! Definitely try if you're around."

If you browse many people's reviews you will see one common theme - it is all about customer service, combined with the product/service offering itself.

And that is the key to getting more, good reviews - improve customer service and you will get the stars.

But, of course, Yelp can attract some complainers. And that is why I think Google is going to rise in the mind's of business owners across the world. Google owns Search, and it would seem (from my testing in the field) the mobile Search results are increasingly delivering Google data, including reviews, open hours, shop images, over and above Yelp listings.

Whichever way, people are listening, and my personal experience of David's Tea has been 5 stars every time.

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