Chapter 428 How many times have I said that we should consider the interests of the masses?

Qinghualou may not be the best restaurant in New Taipei City, but it is definitely one of the most prestigious.

New Taipei City is considered a food capital, so there is no shortage of good value-for-money restaurants or top-notch restaurants.

Qinghualou has been open since the 1980s. It can't be said to be an old brand. The decoration is okay but its age is there. It can't compare with the various high-end restaurants in the new district.

But he has a master inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of Linjiang cuisine, Sun Maosheng, who is in his sixties and is considered a leading figure in the Linjiang chef world.

On the one hand, he has won national gold medals and has many honors; on the other hand, when he was the head chef of Qinghualou at a young age, he made this restaurant the best in Linjiang for seven or eight years and has a glorious history; the most amazing thing is that he is both civil and military, he sorted out various old recipes of Linjiang cuisine, studied and learned from others, and came up with a complete theory of Linjiang cuisine, which greatly enhanced the influence of Linjiang cuisine.

This restaurant failed to maintain its status, mainly because the apprentices brought up by the old man were not very capable. Later, another branch was opened, and Sun Maosheng went to take charge of the branch business.

As a result, the branch store failed to get off the ground and the reputation of the old store was ruined.

However, Mr. Sun himself has a good attitude. If there are any VIPs or old friends coming to Qinghua Building, he will personally take part, but at other times he will just let things go.

It was not until the past two years when prices began to drop and cost-effectiveness was emphasized that customer flow began to increase again.

This Sun Maosheng is one of the chefs that Li Yan found.

Of course, the employees of Future Technology definitely don’t know about this.

The Ministry of Commerce has a small private team, all of whom are in their thirties. They seem to have an inexplicable liking for Qinghualou. From time to time, they will go there after work in the evening to order a few classic dishes, hoping that they will happen to meet Mr. Sun coming back one day.

“The old man’s fried shrimp balls are absolutely amazing, and this restaurant used to have the best boiled chicken in the world. Unfortunately, that was only when I was a child, and I’ve never had such delicious boiled chicken since then.” said the oldest man in the group of four, the man with glasses.

"I can understand what you said about stir-fried shrimp balls, but what's so mysterious about this boiled chicken? Doesn't it just depend on the quality, the cooking time and the dipping sauce?" another younger one laughed.

"I can tell from the looks of it that you've never had good food. There are so many tricks here that I can't explain it to you. You still have to have a bite and then you'll understand everything."

"Hahahaha, Old Chen, you make it sound like Master Sun is the one taking the field today?"

"You have to call him Chef Sun. He has a very high status."

"It's just that Old Sun didn't teach his apprentice well, otherwise how could the white-cut chicken be lost? I'm very interested in the fried shrimp balls."

"Well, I still say the same thing. If I can explain it to you in detail, I will be Master Sun's direct disciple."

"So, Lao Chen, since we've come to this point, why don't you order the boiled chicken today?"

"I've ordered everything. Even though it's not Mr. Sun who cooks, the reputation of this restaurant is still pretty good."

Several people were chatting at once. Lao Chen suddenly frowned and motioned for everyone to speak in a low voice. After a while, he whispered:

"According to the table next to us, today's boiled chicken is especially good."

Just as he finished speaking, a plate of moist and shiny boiled chicken was served. The appearance of the chicken made Lao Chen's eyes widen.

"That seems to be the meaning."

Before I could even start eating, another serving of translucent fried shrimp balls was served. The thin starch was evenly spread on the plump shrimp balls, and the bright color made me salivate at first sight.

Old Chen's eyes almost popped out, and he ignored the table etiquette and picked up a piece of boiled chicken, dipped it in some green onions and ginger, and put it into his mouth.

Then, with a look of disbelief, he added a shrimp ball, looked at it carefully, and put it in his mouth.

Looks very intoxicated.

"I'm in for a treat today. I'm sure it was old man Sun Maosheng who was there. If he didn't make it, then he must have personally checked it."

A middle-aged man at the next table turned around hesitantly, then gave Lao Chen a thumbs-up gesture: "Dude seems to be a gourmet, I think so too, but my boiled chicken is very good, and the stir-fried shrimp balls are just so-so."

Seeing this, others picked up their chopsticks and tasted the food. Some of them immediately relaxed their expressions, while others frowned and tasted the food carefully, and some ate too fast to appreciate the flavor.

Anyway, after a few bites, everyone thought it was delicious, and the lowest rating was "it's definitely different from what you eat outside."

After the meal, Lao Chen had a great chat with the middle-aged man sitting next to him. The two of them repeatedly emphasized that they had eaten dishes made by Chef Sun before. As they were talking, they suddenly became interested and wanted to go to the kitchen to visit Chef Sun.

"So sure?" someone wondered.

"That's how sure he is. Otherwise, Master Sun has finally brought out a good disciple."

However, customers are not brave enough to enter the kitchen, so they asked the waiter, who was in a difficult position and called the manager. When the manager heard that they were old customers, he could only ask.

Then they saw a tall and handsome young man coming out.

"Mr. Li?!" Old Chen was speechless.

Li Yan raised her finger and said "hush" and pulled them all into a small box.

Lao Chen and three other Future Technology employees were all confused. Was this an April Fool’s joke?
April Fools' Day is tomorrow, right?
So the other middle-aged man learned that Li Yan was the current hot CEO of Future Technology. He looked everywhere for a business card and finally took out a work ID.

It turned out that he was a section chief of the Rongxi District Cultural Bureau.

It was really hard for Li Yan to remember. He had just had a meeting with senior officials. Those who could exchange resources with him at the district level had to be at least at the district leadership level.

Maybe the opportunity came too suddenly, and this guy's brain was in a state of shutdown. He couldn't get a word in the whole process and just sat there listening to the story.

Li Yan briefly said that he was very interested in cooking, so he found a few great chefs to be his teachers. Sun Maosheng was very satisfied with him and occasionally suggested that he cook at Qinghualou to see what everyone thought of him.

Li Yan made some boiled chicken today. When she saw the people from the Ministry of Commerce were there, she fried some shrimp balls for them.

"I remember this dish from Lao Chen Kaie."

Old Chen was very shocked and felt overloaded with information.

The others laughed cheerfully and then suddenly realized, how did Li Yan know what Lao Chen liked to eat?
Everyone became reserved again.

However, Li Yan was very interested in their high evaluation, so she communicated in depth with the two "gourmets", and then said, "I'm still far from it, I'm just controlling the heat and the proportions of various ingredients accurately as the master said."

This is called "just"?
"I can't cook it as I please yet, so if you eat the same dish twice, you'll get tired of it. But when it's cooked by my chef, you can keep eating it."

...No one knew what to say, and it seemed that no matter how much praise they gave, it wasn't right.

After all, the Jiaolong mobile phone project has reached such a critical stage, how can the boss have time to learn how to cook and how can he appear in Qinghua Building to cook?

This is the root of all the outrageousness.

The next day was April 4, Friday, the day of the regular meeting.

It is also the day when the "Ele.me" team reports on their work.

Before the meeting, Sun Miao was still joking with Li Yan and looked very relaxed.

"Boss Li, I heard someone in the company say that several people from the Commerce Department had the meal you prepared yesterday? These people are playing an April Fool's Day joke, which is really disrespectful."

"it is true."

"Ah?" Sun Miao was embarrassed and scratched his head with a smile, "Then you are really amazing. They are very picky and kept praising you."

"It's okay." Li Yan smiled, obviously not thinking about this.

"But Mr. Li, you can still cook at this time. You seem to be very confident?" "Of course, I am 100% confident. The Jiaolong phone is a done deal. I am very relaxed." Li Yan said with a smile, "But I have to ask more of you. The first shot must be loud enough."

"Of course, we are also well prepared." Sun Miao nodded repeatedly.

"And do you think I'm just here to cook?" Li Yan glanced at Liu Liwei and Cao Haibin who were present at the meeting. "Qinghualou has agreed to join Ele.ba, and several other large restaurants have basically also agreed to join, some of which were not accepted at the beginning."

Liu Liwei stood up and bowed.

"I can be considered to have made inroads into the catering industry." After Li Yan said this, everyone laughed and the atmosphere before the meeting was very good.

The smile even infected Li Kai who was preparing a report, and he became more confident.

The web version of Ele.ba is already very complete. Except for the positioning function which is "waiting for the mobile client to be opened", other functions are the same as those of the mobile phone.

However, the pilot program of combining self-organized delivery teams is only open in Rongxi District - currently there is no sufficiently powerful and convenient navigation, and the responsible areas can only be divided in a grid manner.

The delivery team also first found part-time couriers. After all, food delivery is only available during certain hours, and the conditions offered by Ele.ba are quite generous, so there is no shortage of people.

The overall operation effect is good. With the addition of Bazhuo Restaurant, at least the delivery staff recruited are still quite busy in the restaurant.

It is not easy to promote online payment through this method. Although we have started preliminary promotion of the web version of the payment platform in cooperation with banks, it lacks mobile phone support and people have no reason to buy it.

Therefore, in many cases, the delivery person still has to pay the merchant first and then collect the money from the customer.

However, the confident Li Kai started to stutter after speaking for ten minutes.

Because Li Yan, who had been smiling at the beginning, now had a gloomy expression.

By the time he had been speaking for twenty minutes, Li Yan's face had become so ugly that it could only be described as ugly.

Sun Miao felt very uneasy and signaled to Li Kai not to say anything for the time being.

But Li Yan raised her hand and waved, "Go on, finish your talk first."

The emotions revealed by these words are all capital “dissatisfaction”.

The atmosphere in the entire conference hall was so low that even the two ministers of commerce who were present felt very uncomfortable.

Although "Li Yan is dissatisfied" is the norm in work promotion meetings, such dissatisfaction is rare.

"That's it... the progress report on Ele.ba's takeaway business. Over. Please, please correct me if I'm wrong."

It was April now, and the temperature and humidity had risen. Li Kai was sweating as he spoke, and he stood there a little at a loss.

"Li Kai, I have a few questions for you." Li Yan stared at him.

As soon as this sentence came out, Sun Miao felt pressured.

Li Kai looked at Sun Miao and then at Liu Liwei, his eyes full of signals for help.

"Did you encounter any problems?" Li Yan asked.

"What...what's the problem?"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes, there are some management problems, and we have optimized the system based on these problems..."

“If you have any questions, ask them.”

"Okay." Li Kai paused, "The biggest problem I've encountered recently is after-sales service. For example, the deliveryman delivers the food too late or takes the wrong food; for example, the merchant makes the wrong food and temporarily increases the price; for example, the customer suddenly changes his mind and refuses to pay, or is not satisfied with the food, or comments on the platform that a store is bad after eating, etc."

"continue."

"The situation here is quite complicated. Some may be business competitors who actually give each other bad reviews; some are customers who want to eat a free meal and bully the deliveryman; and some deliverymen return the food to the merchant, but in fact they or the customers have already eaten half of it. There are all kinds of messes."

"How to deal with it." Li Yan said lightly.

"It depends on system optimization. If the customer does not pay, the takeaway will not be given to the customer, but taken back to the merchant, who will refund the delivery person. The merchant takes photos when delivering the food for record, and the delivery person also takes photos when receiving the food for record. If there is any change in the food, the merchant does not need to refund. As long as the customer receives the goods, there will be no refund or exchange. If there is really a problem with the food, the merchant can produce evidence and make compensation according to laws and regulations..."

"Anything else?" Li Yan looked up at Li Kai.

"Uh... there is also the issue of operating income." Li Kai scratched his head. "Before, Ele.ba mainly collected a small fee for platform management and operation, and merchants who joined the system continued to pay usage fees. Now, because we have to pay the delivery staff, there is an additional expense, and the money earned is much less."

"Finished?"

"I'm done... I'm done."

Li Yan sighed and asked, "If a customer spends money and orders a meal, but feels dissatisfied or regrets it after watching it, the delivery person has made a wasted trip and the merchant has wasted a meal. Then what happens? How many meals are sold through takeout in a day and how many are returned? How do customers who eat on-site feel when their meals are returned?"

“But... we have to protect the rights of customers, right? Customers are the foundation.” Li Kai said.

"Then merchants and deliverymen are not human beings? Their rights and interests do not need to be protected?"

Li Kai was about to say something like "find a balance" but was glared back by Sun Miao.

"And you said you want to protect the rights of customers. I ask you, if there is a problem with the food, you need to show evidence. What is this evidence?"

"Go to the hospital to get a diagnosis of food poisoning or something like that." Li Kai replied.

"How many meals do you eat a day? Why should the merchants recognize it?" Li Yan shook her head. "I asked you to prepare an inspection station, but you have only introduced one so far. How can you build the food safety inspection system I mentioned? How can you convince the merchants and reassure the consumers?"

Li Kai still hesitated to speak.

"There are many and complex after-sales problems. Just the issue of 'on-time delivery' can lead to hundreds of problems. It is meaningless to discuss how to solve them now." Li Yan said, "The key lies in the idea. Summarize it in one sentence and tell me your idea."

"We need to clarify the responsibilities among the three parties: the merchant, the delivery person, and the customer. Whoever has a problem should take responsibility."

"What about the platform?" Li Yan asked, "Is Ele.Bar staying out of this?"

Li Kai was speechless for a long time, thinking that Mr. Li must be hungry. The real boss, his position suddenly became a little shaky.

"The idea is wrong. We are just starting out. The platform must consider the interests of the masses. The masses are not just consumers, but also merchants and deliverymen." Li Yan's expression was serious. "The platform must provide a guarantee. Only when there is a guarantee will others be willing to join."

"But in this case, the company's income will be..."

“Did I ask you to consider the company’s revenue?”

The whole audience was stunned.

"Making money is something that comes later. Why don't you do a good job in the market and expand it? Why do you start thinking about making money right away?" Li Yan frowned. "You are still considering the current operating income...Making money is a long-term plan, relying on mobile phones and the volume of business after it is rolled out."

Suddenly, Li Yan let out a long sigh.

"I didn't ask you for any revenue target at all. 'Making money' is not even on your current goal list. I just want you to do this well. From the beginning, I planned to use the money from buying the phone to support these preliminary projects. You are so thoughtful that you even did the math for me."

Sun Miao smiled to ease the atmosphere, but heard Li Yan say:
"I haven't thought about becoming a capitalist myself, but you've already thought about it?"

(End of this chapter)