I used to write a customer service rating blog, and David’s Tea was one of the few positive ones (good customer service is such a rarity these days!). To save me writing it all out again, here’s my review, written in January, 2009, completely unedited. And I’ve been going back ever since!
We recently discovered a new shop on Queen Street, David’s Tea. It’s a cute little shop (inexplicably attached to Le Château) at 336 Queen West that specializes in loose leaf teas. According to their website, they have over 100 different teas (side note: we’re determined to try them all – we’re at nine so far).
I first saw it driving by, and decided to visit the next time I went by that stretch. A little while later on a journey across Queen we stopped in.
My first experience there was a good one. We were there just before Christmas and the store was packed. But despite the large amount of people in the small amount of space, the staff were always right there making sure we had help if it was needed. That visit was a “just looking” one, and when we told them that, they left us alone – none of that hovering that can tend to deter me from wanting to continue to look around, not to mention ever returning. We poked around at the various items while sipping our sample of the tea of the day, and then went on with our day.
We went back on Boxing Day, as Kristen had decided she wanted to pick up a pot and a starter kit. Unfortunately, they were sold out of the starter kits. The person helping us was very eager to help, but almost in an annoying way. He ended up making us a custom kit, but only with a lot of him asking us questions and us repeatedly answering “whatever it was in the starter kit – that’s what we came here to get”. Since we were disappointed that they didn’t have what we came for, I decided this soured our experience and I decided not to “count” this visit.
We finally went back again this past Friday night and I got the experience I was expecting based on our first time in the shop, which is where this review really starts!
We went to the shop to buy a birthday gift of a pot and a few teas (as well as our own pot and some new teas to add to our list). The girl that ended up helping us was extremely knowledgeable. She could answer any questions we had without missing a beat – from tea pots to kettles to teas. We had her bring down about five different teas for us to “sample” (aka smell) and could tell us what was in every one of them. And it’s not like we were asking for your run of the mill teas – we wanted ones with this or that specific ingredient, and we also wanted to see specific teas off the shelf. She got a tin down for the “I want something with black current” as easily as the “can I smell the Apple Turnover one?” I find it amazing that someone can name off all of the ingredients of five different teas picked out randomly from a selection of over 100!
Overall customer service rating at David’s Tea (Queen St., Toronto): 10/10
I could not ever ask for a better experience – knowledgeable and attentive sales staff are an extreme rarity these days! Couple that with being just the right amount friendly (read “not fake”) and a “cool” environment, and you get a perfect score!
