Page 244 - The Apple Experience

Turning a Commodity into an Experience

Walk into Funnel Mill Rare Coffee & Tea on Broadway near Ninth Street

in Santa Monica, California, and you’ll feel like you entered a traditional tea

garden. Soft music, a beautiful waterfall, and the aroma of freshly roasted
beans are just the beginning of the experience. Funnel Mill’s owner, J. C.

Ho, has banned the use of cell phones as well as the snapping of

photographs. He did so after some of his customers, film directors and movie

stars, made the requests. These are just some of the many ways J. C. has

transformed coffee from a commodity product into a remarkable experience

that has turned his restaurant into a popular coffee lounge for the rich and

famous Hollywood set.
First, the Funnel Mill experience begins with a vision to offer an

exceptional level of customer service. Ho told me that when he was working

for a computer company, he traveled around the world and enjoyed dropping

into coffee shops. But something was always missing. He never discovered a

perfect combination of quality and service. “The coffee shops would either

offer good food and horrible service or good service and horrible food,” he
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told me.

J. C. and his wife, Teresa, knew they wanted to start a business, and the

coffee experience—or lack of one in many places—offered an opportunity to
succeed on their own. Most people would have thought the couple was crazy

for entering a market crowded with national chains with far more name

recognition than they could hope to achieve. But Ho was undeterred because

he realized that a superior customer experience could spell success in any

field.