Silver Tips Tea Blog

Bridal favors, Baby showers

Anupa — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:03:53 +0000

We were very aware of the cycle of life today. We did bridal favors for one customer and had a Baby Shower for another – twins no less! Lilac/lavender was the common color to both. The bridal favors had to be in white, pink/fuschia and lavender. Peggy, who arranged the baby shower for her daughter requested lilac and green for the linen colors. The African Violets were a great touch – brought in by the guests for each table. It was just a fun day and we were kept busy. We served mostly Iced Tea – Passionfruit/Orange fruit tisane (our famous South Pacific tisane), Blackcurrant, and Strawberry Lemonade. Instead of slices of cake, we did an assortment of mini desserts. Lots of tea, lots of gifts for the mom-to-be and lots of fun. May good health and joy go to the bride as well as the soon to be new parents. And thanks for sharing your celebrations with us.

Artwork on our walls

Anupa — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:44:42 +0000

Two more inquiries came in this week about our artwork at Silver Tips. How can someone exhibit? The easiest way is to contact the Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow Arts Council and they will co-ordinate the logistics. Occasionally we will take the space and accommodate something or someone special but the Council is our general modus operandi. Right now, we have some quirky artwork on our walls. An entire series of similar-sized frames with one theme – cups and saucer pictures mounted carefully with old photographs, each with its own story. Here’s one as an illustration.

Tarrytown’s Foreign Students

Anupa — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:58:54 +0000

On the beautiful grounds of Marymount College in Tarrytown, now part of Fordham College, is Tarrytown’s International School of English. Every 2 weeks, classes begin for intensive English study, both for general and academic use. Student breakdown is 55% from Asia, 20% from Europe, 15% from Latin America, 5% from Africa and 5% from the Middle East. For those of us located right in the heart of Tarrytown, it is not uncommon to see groups of foreign students walking together, visiting shops on Main Street and venturing down to the train station for trips to Manhattan.

Last week, one of these students, a 19-year old from Spain, paid us a visit at the Tea Room. We noticed him outside, carefully reading our logo and boards outside and then he made his decision and came in. He said he didn’t know how hungry he was so we recommended a Salad to begin. He ordered our Roma Salad (with sundried tomatoes and feta cheese), loved it and proceeded to add a Tarry Chicken Sandwich to his order along with Iced Tea. Then he contemplated the scones and said, “This scone – what is it”? We explained. He was not familiar with cranberries or blueberries so this was an education for him. After his meal, he carefully counted out his cash, paid the bill and mentioned very clearly that he had been instructed by the International School teachers to leave a tip at all the restaurants he frequented in town since this was no longer Spain but America. How nice to know they are receiving education in not just English but the ways of the world.

Online poll results

Anupa — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:28:13 +0000

Last week, we asked, “Which type of Tea do you drink the most“? Here are the answers:

Black Tea – 42%
Green Tea – 24%
Chai – 10%
Flavored Tea – 13%
Decaf/Herbal – 11%

Interesting to see such a high number of Green Tea drinkers. We thought Flavored Tea would be the 2nd most popular. Tea has obviously come a long way. We’ve put up a new online poll yesterday – please participate!

Honest Tea checking honesty

Anupa — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:56:18 +0000

What a great idea! Honest Tea launched a social experiment by providing pop-up stores serving Honest Tea bottles on the honor system. Unstaffed stores offered a bottle of iced tea at $1 each. A camera noted customer behavior. Boston did best followed by New York and Atlanta. Chicago, alas did not fare as well. Read the entire story here.

Initial Survey Results

Anupa — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:24:14 +0000

We’ve received an overwhelming response to our survey sent via Constant Contact e-mail – a 51% participation rate as of today. Thank you to everyone for taking the time. We’re also making it available at the Tea Room for those not on our mailing list and we will refresh the data in a few weeks. Meanwhile, here’s what we found:

45% of our customers visited in the last week or month while 38% visited in the past 3 months.
64% came to have lunch; 25% to have tea and dessert.
Only 20% knew we offered Tea Ice Creams during the summer.
The vast majority (87%) did not know we were available for Catering, Private Parties, private Tea Tastings or Meetings.
Most people had great things to say about the appearance of our store but several offered suggestions for our menu.
An overwhelming majority thought our staff to be professional, courteous and knowledgeable. They thought we could be more attentive to their needs.
As for our online presence, 20% had no idea we had any while 15% indicated they had no interest in our online presence.
91% were very likely to recommend us to someone else.

I will post an assortment of comments and suggestions in another blog. So our quick conclusions are we’re doing a good job overall, we can work on our service, our menu and promotion of our capabilities.

Online Poll

Anupa — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:14:50 +0000

We sent out our first survey to our in-store Tea Room customers and have already received many responses. We will aggregate the results and post some of the comments online after doing a rudimentary analysis.

Meanwhile, we have also begun a simple 1-question online poll which all of you can participate in. We will change it frequently to keep it interesting. All this gives us information on our customers and the way we do things. For instance, we already know that although we think we were doing a good job of telling our customers about our website, blog, Facebook page as well as our capabilities for Catering and Parties, a good many did not know of these opportunities. So there you go. We also see that customers are looking for fruit and healthier/simpler dessert choices. We will have to put some thought into this.

Do we have it good or what…

Anupa — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:53:51 +0000

Have any of you ever had a landlord who provided free ice cream for all their tenants?! Well, we are enjoying that very experience. Imagine our astonishment when our landlord, Mack Cali sent around a circular earlier this week with the subject matter, “Tenant Appreciation Day – Ice Cream Event” announcing the specific times an Ice Cream truck would be at each of their office buildings. Mind you, this is not a small office park. It comprises 23 buildings so it required two trucks which needed to be co-ordinated with military precision! Our building, 150 Clearbrook, was scheduled between 1 to 1.15 pm. Rodney at our office was in severe distress all day because today he is assigned to the Tea Room and would miss all the fun. We assured him we would pick up an Ice cream for him, something in Chocolate, he said. We took a picture to prove this entire story is true because I know some of you will think we are making this up for entertainment on a hot day. My selection was a Krunch Klondike Bar, Gina got a Taco Choco bar and we picked up a Chocolate Lover’s Big Dipper for Rodney. Now, back to work….

It’s Survey Time!

Anupa — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:36:19 +0000

Every year, we ask our customers for feedback. It’s taken many forms – paper surveys, polls, contests, mystery shoppers and comment cards. This year, we’re launching a series of surveys for our retail consumers, both online and in-store. We’ll be covering a range of subjects of interest to us – both general and specific. The first survey will gauge general satisfaction and target our in-store customers. We will use both paper and an on-line form to achieve maximum response. Subsequent surveys may focus on one specific aspect of our operations. You will have plenty of opportunity to provide open-ended comments and suggestions and we encourage your participation.

For our online customers, we will be starting with a simple poll which will be changed frequently. A more extensive survey gauging overall satisfaction with our site will also be offered.

We want to thank you in advance for taking the time to offer your opinions. We don’t want to conduct our business in a vacuum – we’re here at your pleasure and our aim is to change and adapt to ensure we meet your needs. Finally, all responses will be kept confidential. Results will be aggregated and shared with you. Random comments may be used for publicity but without divulging any personal details. Any customer information that may be derived through this will not be shared with any outside party for any reason whatsoever. This may be obvious but bears repetition – we reiterate this promise to you.

July Specials

Anupa — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:23:35 +0000

You will find two Specials at the Tea Room the next time you visit:

Quiche/Scone: Order a Quiche and get a Scone at Half Price. This is Lunch & Dessert for under $10. For $9.25, you get an individual Quiche (Mushroom & Onion or Goat Cheese & Herbs) served with a side of our House Salad with Dill Vinaigrette, and a Scone served warm, with Cream & Preserves. Can’t beat that! Add the Iced Tea of the Day for $1.99 or the Lemonade and you’ve got a nice refreshing lunch.

Bargain Bin is back: We pack a collection of teas in our assorted 2-oz. bags and offer them at a discount. 1 for $3.00 or 2 for $5.00. A varied collection each with a pretty label – straight, flavored, herbals. You may know we have a warehouse full of teas and as we add and remove teas and check our inventory, these are what we place on special. Enjoy – these are real deals – don’t miss them. When they’re gone, they’re gone.