Last Teavana Rant
Okay, I promise this is my last Teavana rant.
Best tea in the world? I don’t know. But there’s a lot of tasty tea in there to suit different tastes and preferences. I think there’s a lot of fantastic tea, but I know a lot of tea enthusiasts would disagree. Are the tea accessories top notch? I don’t know. There is good stuff to be bought, though.
The point is, the word “good” can be used, at least, for a lot of things. The tea and many of the tea accessories sold at Teavana ARE good enough for the employees to believe in them. They’re good enough for the employees to genuinely care about their work.
Teavana doesn’t have to sell the way it does. It has good product, and an attractive store filled with things that are new and exciting to a lot of people. It probably has a lot of workers who are genuinely passionate about the product, and could tell you a lot if they could step outside of the sales method. Even if there is better quality and a cheaper price to be found, if the store gives a pleasurable experience, people will go there instead.
Unfortunately, it often isn’t, and when it is, technically the employees are going against company policy. Looking up reviews for any Teavana on Yelp brings up consistent repetition of the words “used car salesman/dealership.” Customers are clearly uncomfortable and overwhelmed, and the sales process is designed to take advantage of people who are too nice to say no, or who don’t have the willpower to say no more than five times. Yes, it’s a sales job. Yes, it’s retail, and in the end it’s about money, but if the customers notice, you’re doing it wrong.
If the best defense for Teavana's practices is blaming the upset customer for being too weak/gullible/whatever, well, that customer is going to learn from that experience by never coming back, or at the very least coming back heavily armed with battle tactics for Teavana. Neither of these outcomes is healthy for the store's future.
I’ll bring up other stores for comparison: I like to shop at Lush, which I know to also be a sales job with goals and numbers and all. Now, since their products are pricey, I do plan which ones I’ll get (like moisturizers and shampoos that get spent slowly), but that’s more a plan for my own budget and not my battle plan for fighting the store tooth and nail to only walk out with what I’d planned to get. The salespeople are talkative and enthusiastic, and you’ll find yourself encouraged to buy a lot, but it’s never stopped me from going in there. Shopping there, and dealing with the salespeople, is still a pleasant experience. When I buy more than I’d planned, it’s more out of a sense of “Oh, hell with it! I’M GONNA LIVE A LITTLE!” It still felt like my own decision. If I didn’t want to get the whole regimen a salesperson recommended, I just said no ONCE and they backed off.
Now, let’s talk tea. I recently started checking out DavidsTea. David’s does a LOT of what Teavana does: there’s a wall of canisters behind the counter that employees grab tins from so you can see and smell teas, which they’ll scoop for you and sell by weight. There are reusable tins, exclusive blends, teamakers, teapots, a preferred sweetener, drinks make to order, etc.
I’ve gone to David’s multiple times. I’ve brought my friends with me. Why?
Because going to David’s is a pleasurable experience.
And because David’s isn’t that far off from Teavana in certain aspects, that’s how I know Teavana dosn’t have to run its store the way it does. David’s is able to survive without giving me the entire store tour, without automatically trying to get me to get certain amounts of tea, or immediately scooping up the most expensive of a type, or the sample. They can survive without minimum amounts. They can survive while letting me get away with a small sale, giving me a pleasant experience that has me coming back to try and buy more. I’ll probably go there for teas I know I could get elsewhere cheaper and/or better quality just because of the experience.
And this is how Teavana shoots themselves in the foot over and over: they want to grab and wring newcomers for all they’re worth. But what’s the price of that?
1. If you know the samples are how they start the tour, which ends with them starting off the tea counter with scooping you pound tins of the sample, you’re only going to get the samples if there’s something new… but they don’t change out the samples regularly. Since you KNOW from experience you’ll be lured into the store for a tour that you have to fight to get out of, you might learn to avoid the samples, period, instead of going in and having a relaxed sample as you proceed at your own pace.
2. Even if you’ve readied your evasive maneuvers and battle plan, you’re still very deliberately planning your trip. You’re probably not going to walk in for the hell of it one day.
3. If you’ve been sold a pound, or even a half pound, of tea, especially an expensive one, you’re probably not going to be going back for a while, anyway, because you’re set for tea. Yeah, if you’re a tea nut you might have a lot of tea on hand at any moment, but for those new people, a half pound tin is a LOT of tea. Two ounces is a lot of tea, especially if it’s a tea you haven’t even tried.
Compare this to DavidsTea. Four ounces is not a small amount of tea, and is probably way more than one needs, but it’s not so large that it would take too long to run out. The tin is free with 4oz, and you’d be surprised how easily a freebee can make you look at a filled 2oz bag and say, “Oh, heck with it. 4 ounces with the tin, please.” I could have bought that tin for way less than the extra 2 ounces, but I wasn’t in defensive saving mode because there was no pressure at all! It was just available for me, and I took the bait because I was relaxed. It was an accessible little goodie. When it comes to “The 10% discount makes it like 2 ounces are free when you buy a pound, and the tin I want you keep it in costs $7, by the way. What? No, you NEED this tin if you want to keep your tea fresh! YOU LIKE FRESH TEA, DON’T YOU?” vs. “This 4 ounce tin is free when you buy four ounces. By the way, we give you a small discount if you bring the tin back to reuse it,” guess which is the easier ploy to fall for?
On top of that, at DavidsTea, you can buy however much or little you want. No minimum amounts (so, throw in that SINGLE OUNCE of a tea on top of that order of yours if you suddenly want to take home something without committing to it), and the baggies are the kind that keep your tea fresh. So, guess who will probably get more people coming back, eager to try something new, building further on a growing knowledge and experience of tea?
4. Yes, top-down selling is a good plan in a number of situations, but if you plan to introduce people to tea culture, you’re going to overwhelm them by starting with teas and accessories that are not only expensive, but complicated. Issues of having the time/space for dealing with cast iron aside, notice that the samples and indicators can be very fussy teas. Up until just recently, the two samples outside the door had white tea. The blooming tea is a white tea, and the Monkey Picked Oolong can be pretty sensitive, too. White tea and green teas are very sensitive to time and temperature, and it takes a little while to remember/get used to brewing sensitive tea properly. What’s the indicator green tea you ALWAYS have to show people when they ask for green? Gyokuro Imperial, the ultimate in fussy, sensitive teas that’s easy to burn, which you really can’t steep over 40 seconds. What’s the tea the handbook always wants you to go to, period? Silver Yin Zhen Pearls. As I said, white tea isn’t just expensive-it’s sensitive. You’re going to introduce people to tea culture… with sensitive tea, and equipment that needs special care? Even if you talk them into it, they might not come back after not having the patience for it, or brewing it wrong and screwing it up. People come into a loose leaf tea store intimidated by anything more complicated than tea bags. Even if it gets you an initial burst of money, if you justify their fears that loose leaf tea is more trouble than it's worth, you're losing customers.
5. What’s wrong with selling drinks? A lot of people are on the go at the moment and are more than willing to pay the markup for a prepared drink, no matter how much you tell them it’s cheaper to make the tea at home. Starbucks has shown this to be very successful. They want a drink. They may not be ready for the tea culture or whatever, but they want a tea to drink. And food and drink (without being preoccupied by a sales pitch) is a great opportunity to tell your friends “Oh, want to go to ____? I feel like an iced tea.” And that right there is the power of word of mouth.
6. It’s a minimum wage job that exhausts its workers through the amount of attention and effort they have to put into every. single. person. who steps inside that store. Scratch that. Make that very single person who passes by. When a customer walks out having bought nothing or too little after that huuuuge store tour, there may be a manager asking “What happened?” As I keep saying, the product is good enough to be passionate about, but that passion goes down the drain if the employee simultaneously lacks respect for the company after realizing she would be better off in a "regular" retail job that pays the same for less hassle.
The employees COULD be very friendly, very helpful, and they might be when you catch them while the pressure is not on, but that’s not good enough. When you have employees who come off as genuinely friendly and not aggressive, even when they are still selling and doing their job right, the customer is not defensive and opens up. The customer doesn’t feel the need to dismiss people firmly or use evasive maneuvers.
And now I’m bumping into things online saying even buying Teavana stuff online is problematic!
But, all in all, Teavana can and should be lovable. I understand why its tea has a following. Teavana doesn’t have to be so blatantly aggressive. It’s been said that if you do the sales pitch right, you shouldn’t come off as pushy, but the consistency of the complaints suggests otherwise.
It’s such a waste.
Best tea in the world? I don’t know. But there’s a lot of tasty tea in there to suit different tastes and preferences. I think there’s a lot of fantastic tea, but I know a lot of tea enthusiasts would disagree. Are the tea accessories top notch? I don’t know. There is good stuff to be bought, though.
The point is, the word “good” can be used, at least, for a lot of things. The tea and many of the tea accessories sold at Teavana ARE good enough for the employees to believe in them. They’re good enough for the employees to genuinely care about their work.
Teavana doesn’t have to sell the way it does. It has good product, and an attractive store filled with things that are new and exciting to a lot of people. It probably has a lot of workers who are genuinely passionate about the product, and could tell you a lot if they could step outside of the sales method. Even if there is better quality and a cheaper price to be found, if the store gives a pleasurable experience, people will go there instead.
Unfortunately, it often isn’t, and when it is, technically the employees are going against company policy. Looking up reviews for any Teavana on Yelp brings up consistent repetition of the words “used car salesman/dealership.” Customers are clearly uncomfortable and overwhelmed, and the sales process is designed to take advantage of people who are too nice to say no, or who don’t have the willpower to say no more than five times. Yes, it’s a sales job. Yes, it’s retail, and in the end it’s about money, but if the customers notice, you’re doing it wrong.
If the best defense for Teavana's practices is blaming the upset customer for being too weak/gullible/whatever, well, that customer is going to learn from that experience by never coming back, or at the very least coming back heavily armed with battle tactics for Teavana. Neither of these outcomes is healthy for the store's future.
I’ll bring up other stores for comparison: I like to shop at Lush, which I know to also be a sales job with goals and numbers and all. Now, since their products are pricey, I do plan which ones I’ll get (like moisturizers and shampoos that get spent slowly), but that’s more a plan for my own budget and not my battle plan for fighting the store tooth and nail to only walk out with what I’d planned to get. The salespeople are talkative and enthusiastic, and you’ll find yourself encouraged to buy a lot, but it’s never stopped me from going in there. Shopping there, and dealing with the salespeople, is still a pleasant experience. When I buy more than I’d planned, it’s more out of a sense of “Oh, hell with it! I’M GONNA LIVE A LITTLE!” It still felt like my own decision. If I didn’t want to get the whole regimen a salesperson recommended, I just said no ONCE and they backed off.
Now, let’s talk tea. I recently started checking out DavidsTea. David’s does a LOT of what Teavana does: there’s a wall of canisters behind the counter that employees grab tins from so you can see and smell teas, which they’ll scoop for you and sell by weight. There are reusable tins, exclusive blends, teamakers, teapots, a preferred sweetener, drinks make to order, etc.
I’ve gone to David’s multiple times. I’ve brought my friends with me. Why?
Because going to David’s is a pleasurable experience.
And because David’s isn’t that far off from Teavana in certain aspects, that’s how I know Teavana dosn’t have to run its store the way it does. David’s is able to survive without giving me the entire store tour, without automatically trying to get me to get certain amounts of tea, or immediately scooping up the most expensive of a type, or the sample. They can survive without minimum amounts. They can survive while letting me get away with a small sale, giving me a pleasant experience that has me coming back to try and buy more. I’ll probably go there for teas I know I could get elsewhere cheaper and/or better quality just because of the experience.
And this is how Teavana shoots themselves in the foot over and over: they want to grab and wring newcomers for all they’re worth. But what’s the price of that?
1. If you know the samples are how they start the tour, which ends with them starting off the tea counter with scooping you pound tins of the sample, you’re only going to get the samples if there’s something new… but they don’t change out the samples regularly. Since you KNOW from experience you’ll be lured into the store for a tour that you have to fight to get out of, you might learn to avoid the samples, period, instead of going in and having a relaxed sample as you proceed at your own pace.
2. Even if you’ve readied your evasive maneuvers and battle plan, you’re still very deliberately planning your trip. You’re probably not going to walk in for the hell of it one day.
3. If you’ve been sold a pound, or even a half pound, of tea, especially an expensive one, you’re probably not going to be going back for a while, anyway, because you’re set for tea. Yeah, if you’re a tea nut you might have a lot of tea on hand at any moment, but for those new people, a half pound tin is a LOT of tea. Two ounces is a lot of tea, especially if it’s a tea you haven’t even tried.
Compare this to DavidsTea. Four ounces is not a small amount of tea, and is probably way more than one needs, but it’s not so large that it would take too long to run out. The tin is free with 4oz, and you’d be surprised how easily a freebee can make you look at a filled 2oz bag and say, “Oh, heck with it. 4 ounces with the tin, please.” I could have bought that tin for way less than the extra 2 ounces, but I wasn’t in defensive saving mode because there was no pressure at all! It was just available for me, and I took the bait because I was relaxed. It was an accessible little goodie. When it comes to “The 10% discount makes it like 2 ounces are free when you buy a pound, and the tin I want you keep it in costs $7, by the way. What? No, you NEED this tin if you want to keep your tea fresh! YOU LIKE FRESH TEA, DON’T YOU?” vs. “This 4 ounce tin is free when you buy four ounces. By the way, we give you a small discount if you bring the tin back to reuse it,” guess which is the easier ploy to fall for?
On top of that, at DavidsTea, you can buy however much or little you want. No minimum amounts (so, throw in that SINGLE OUNCE of a tea on top of that order of yours if you suddenly want to take home something without committing to it), and the baggies are the kind that keep your tea fresh. So, guess who will probably get more people coming back, eager to try something new, building further on a growing knowledge and experience of tea?
4. Yes, top-down selling is a good plan in a number of situations, but if you plan to introduce people to tea culture, you’re going to overwhelm them by starting with teas and accessories that are not only expensive, but complicated. Issues of having the time/space for dealing with cast iron aside, notice that the samples and indicators can be very fussy teas. Up until just recently, the two samples outside the door had white tea. The blooming tea is a white tea, and the Monkey Picked Oolong can be pretty sensitive, too. White tea and green teas are very sensitive to time and temperature, and it takes a little while to remember/get used to brewing sensitive tea properly. What’s the indicator green tea you ALWAYS have to show people when they ask for green? Gyokuro Imperial, the ultimate in fussy, sensitive teas that’s easy to burn, which you really can’t steep over 40 seconds. What’s the tea the handbook always wants you to go to, period? Silver Yin Zhen Pearls. As I said, white tea isn’t just expensive-it’s sensitive. You’re going to introduce people to tea culture… with sensitive tea, and equipment that needs special care? Even if you talk them into it, they might not come back after not having the patience for it, or brewing it wrong and screwing it up. People come into a loose leaf tea store intimidated by anything more complicated than tea bags. Even if it gets you an initial burst of money, if you justify their fears that loose leaf tea is more trouble than it's worth, you're losing customers.
5. What’s wrong with selling drinks? A lot of people are on the go at the moment and are more than willing to pay the markup for a prepared drink, no matter how much you tell them it’s cheaper to make the tea at home. Starbucks has shown this to be very successful. They want a drink. They may not be ready for the tea culture or whatever, but they want a tea to drink. And food and drink (without being preoccupied by a sales pitch) is a great opportunity to tell your friends “Oh, want to go to ____? I feel like an iced tea.” And that right there is the power of word of mouth.
6. It’s a minimum wage job that exhausts its workers through the amount of attention and effort they have to put into every. single. person. who steps inside that store. Scratch that. Make that very single person who passes by. When a customer walks out having bought nothing or too little after that huuuuge store tour, there may be a manager asking “What happened?” As I keep saying, the product is good enough to be passionate about, but that passion goes down the drain if the employee simultaneously lacks respect for the company after realizing she would be better off in a "regular" retail job that pays the same for less hassle.
The employees COULD be very friendly, very helpful, and they might be when you catch them while the pressure is not on, but that’s not good enough. When you have employees who come off as genuinely friendly and not aggressive, even when they are still selling and doing their job right, the customer is not defensive and opens up. The customer doesn’t feel the need to dismiss people firmly or use evasive maneuvers.
And now I’m bumping into things online saying even buying Teavana stuff online is problematic!
But, all in all, Teavana can and should be lovable. I understand why its tea has a following. Teavana doesn’t have to be so blatantly aggressive. It’s been said that if you do the sales pitch right, you shouldn’t come off as pushy, but the consistency of the complaints suggests otherwise.
It’s such a waste.