In an age where cafes are trying very hard to build customer loyalty and get people to hang out at their outlets, one little cafe chain seems thinks that it is not really worth it.

Roderick, my colleague and I, met at Cafe Galilee @ Bedok Library yesterday for a discussion. We each bought drinks and sat down at a table. The discussion went on for about 2 hours plus. Then came along a staff and told us that we can’t sit for too long without ordering more food. Not to say that the drinks are really cheap coffee shop prices. I would understand it if there are limited space and we are actually preventing more customers from patronizing the cafe. But I looked around only to find many more empty tables (!).

So I did the right thing. I smiled at the staff, we packed our things and moved off to Mc Cafe, which is just a short walk away. And guess what, we bought more drinks AND food from there because we got hungry. Too bad for Cafe Galilee.

That one act of asking us to buy or go made us, as customers, feel that Cafe Galilee is 1. not a friendly place 2. doesn’t give staff much training on customer service and 3. basically don’t really give a hoot about its branding. And now all their flaws are amplified in my mind. I frequented a few Galilee before and this is what I can say: their staff are always chatting and playing around with one another in front of customers. None of them ever smile much. And their pasta are almost as bad as those straight off the bottle sort. I have been ok with all these until now…

I think the Managers need to sit down at Starbucks and Coffee Beans and figure out why it’s so popular. Or maybe they did, but couldn’t see how they are so far behind the other cafes.  Then they need to wear new glasses because they are just being myopic.Or maybe they are suffering from ‘but we are different, we are not like them’ mental disease. Then they need to realise that as long as they call themselves cafe, it’s all the same for the customers. What customers think is what really matters.

Cafe Galilee is definitely NOT “My Galilee”

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