Along with your cup of joe, you get heaping serves of hope and cheer at this unusual F&B outlet.
COFFEES of Hawaii in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, seems like your ordinary Western-style coffee joint with its aroma of premium coffee and its menu of cheese cakes, pastries, bagels, and soups. It is only when you go up to the counter to place your order that you realise its uniqueness.
“I’ll have a cappuccino, please,” I tell the smiling waitress at the counter.
She smiles in return and indicates that she cannot hear. To make sure I am served correctly, she shows me a menu. I am to indicate what I want by pointing to an item.
Coffees of Hawaii is the first gourmet coffee chain in Malaysia to be operated entirely by the hearing impaired. It not only promises to bring the famous beany goodness of the Hawaiian isles to Malaysian shores, it also has the craziest franchise policy in the country, according to owner Allen Teh, 49.
“We are not going to sell the franchise to any rich investor. One of our criteria is that the franchise owner must be deaf. A limit of one outlet to one owner is another condition, and all outlets have to be run by the owners themselves. You tell me, which franchise concept puts down such restrictions?” queries Teh.
Hear, hear: Allen Teh is using his Coffees of Hawaii franchise to give hearing impaired people a chance to earn a living. — Photos by Grace Chen
You can tell, can’t you, that Teh is not your regular businessman? Known in the retail scene as a customer service guru, the father of two is CEO and founder of the Centre for Customer Service Care Malaysia (centreforcustomercare.com) and a vociferous advocate of service excellence since 2009.
His cafe venture will obviously be a test laboratory for customer service research but it is also the continuation of an experience Teh once had and is eager to repeat: in 1985, when Teh was working with Kentucky Fried Chicken, the fast food chain opened a 15-table restaurant in Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur, that was run by deaf staff and managed by Teh.
To penetrate the staff’s “wall of silence”, Teh at first resorted to walking around with marker pens and scribbling instructions on wipeable stainless steel and plastic surfaces. But to gain his staff’s respect, he had to enter their world and the first thing he did towards that was to place a sign language book on the counter, flipping the pages and practising the gestures as he went along. He even lived with them in a hostel above the outlet.
“I worked, slept and ate with the deaf in those nine months. If I had stayed any longer I might have even married one of them,” jokes Teh today.
On a serious note, he says that it was a significant time in his life, when he truly learned how to connect with people on a deeper level. One touching memory he has of his experiences there was when the staff threw him a surprise party. “They all lined up and each one gave me a present. I was so touched. Though I didn’t cry then, I did when I had to leave for another job,” confesses Teh.
With Coffees of Hawaii, Teh reckons that he has come full circle after 26 years. The Imbi experience left such a deep impression on him that now, after establishing himself as a motivational coach, he’s willing to begin again with a food and beverage career.
Once he had made the decision, though, Teh discovered that the process of staffing his outlet, which he did in the short span of three months, was not an easy one. For one, times have changed. For instance, grouses Teh, his young staff don’t seem to be as serious as the old batch in Imbi, citing their addiction to Twitter and Facebook as one of the many distractions he has to deal with. However, he’s learned to use this to his advantage by posting motivating messages (and sometimes rebukes) on their walls.
“The first thing I did was to stress that this is not a welfare organisation. To remain in business, the café must run at a profit. If they do not perform, I will have to let them go. But, you must remember that the deaf live in their own world and because they are faced with communication barriers, they tend to quit easily,” he explains.
Rather than blame society, he points the finger at their guardians who prefer to keep them under protection than allow them to experience life’s challenges.
“It is not uncommon for parents to offer their deaf children a haven the moment they come running for help. Most of them do not mind them staying at home and not working. This is hardly an ideal situation for a deaf person, as it encourages a culture of dependency which will limit their potential for growth,” says Teh.
Revealing their backgrounds, he says that only three of his team of five deaf waitresses have work experience, in bakeries and other vocational trades. The rest have practically no job exposure prior to their employment at Coffees of Hawaii.
While that was difficult enough to deal with, Teh says the interview process turned out to be a problem, too, as instead of Teh appraising a potential employee’s worth, he ended up being interrogated by their parents instead!
So, to assure guardians that their wards would be well looked after, there is a hostel above the shop lot and curfews and house rules have been imposed to ensure safety. This is so that those working the late shift will not have to make their way back home at night.
One of the outlet’s fledgling baristas, Rachel Lam, trying her hand at making a heart shape in coffee foam.
Like all new outlet owners, Teh’s optimisim is infectious. He has garnered the services of Cheryl Lee, Coffee Connection’s 2010 Grand Barista Champion, to train his deaf team to make lattes and cappuccinos.
Progress, says Teh, has been very encouraging, though it will take another three months before any of them would be able to make the perfect heart shape in cappuccino foam.
They have all been taught about the Hawaiian brews, though, and we are given a taste test.
We begin with Kona coffee, which is made from Arabica beans grown on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the Kona district. Rich and aromatic, those who are unaccustomed to coffee might find this a tad strong, intoxicating even. The beans imparted a delicious, earthy flavour to the palate, a flavour that is believed to be influenced by Kona district’s volcanic soil. The perfect accompaniment to this is the passion fruit cheese cake, a sure hit with fans of creamed cheese.
If coffee is not your type of brew, the outlet also offers the passion fruit tea. This slightly sweet and sour concoction is loaded with the vibrant yellow of the fruit pulp. Those who find the seeds disturbing can have it sieved.
The process of getting your food and drink here is almost as much fun as actually eating and drinking, though – if you’ve always wanted to learn sign language, this is the perfect place to begin.
By the end of your cuppa, you will know the signs for “espresso”, “cappuccino” and “latte”.
Of course, there’s always the option of pointing to the cake display and menu if you’re too self-conscious to attempt the signs, but that would be a pity, as conversation with the cheerful servers would then be limited.
If they can take the plunge and enter a world they can’t hear, surely the least you and I can do is dip a toe in their silent world.
> Coffees of Hawaii, a Deaf In Business project, is located at 11-A-1, Jalan PJU 8/5A, Bandar Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya, Selangor; tel: 03-7710 4752.
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