Ethos Consultancy proudly presents the Service and Quality Awards for the Best Cafes in the UAE

Ethos Consultancy, the leading provider of customer service solutions in the UAE has announced the results of the Café Benchmarking Study undertaken in July 2006. To recognize the top performers in this aromatic industry, Ethos Consultancy in liaison with newspaper 7DAYS have awarded the victors the prestigious Customer Service Award to commemorate exceptionally welcoming café ambiance, aromatic experiences and outstanding customer service.

From Café Havana to Starbucks, 15 cafes were mystery shopped a total of 150 times. The coffee houses were visited and their products savored by a team of trained mystery shoppers in an effort to identify the best café experience in the UAE. The cafes were evaluated on the following criteria: Outlet Appearance, Employee Appearance, Health and Safety, Service Quality, Product Quality and Overall Impression.

According to the benchmarking study, the overall score for the industry is 78%, something that is below the satisfactory level for this industry. While the customers were fairly content with the outlet and employee appearance which scored a high of 94% and 93% respectively, they were disappointed with the product quality which scored a dissatisfactory 68%. The shoppers stated stale food and unacceptable temperature as some of the reasons for the low score.

The top scorers in this industry have paid attention to minute details be it presentation of food or adding that human touch to their service. Undoubtedly these cafes are proving that they are serious enough to compete on an international level.

The key objective of this study was to benchmark the performance of the café outlets across various categories and competencies to establish which brand and which outlets provide the best customer experience.

'While some cafes endeavored to have the manager visit every table and thank them for their patronage, the staff at other cafes couldn't remember what the customer who pays their salary ordered,' said Robert Keay, Managing Director, Ethos Consultancy.

This benchmark study is an independent research by Ethos Consultancy and as such no cafes were asked if they would want to be included in the study. The method of evaluation was based solely on customer perception and experience.