Why is luckin coffee staff review pressure causing complaints?

Luckin Coffee stores in some regions are being required to take part in an internal review competition called Ten Thousand Smiles, which tracks each store's positive review rate. Because the ranking affects employee performance scores and disciplinary rewards, frontline staff have begun asking customers at pickup to leave positive reviews, and in some cases asking regulars to post fake ones.

The practice has drawn pushback from customers who say reviewing is their own choice and have threatened to complain to 12315. Employees describe the same dilemma, saying the mandatory target leaves them little room to refuse. The episode sits inside a broader competition coffee push for ratings, showing how review metrics can strain the relationship between stores and the people they serve.

Recently, many Luckin Coffee customers have encountered an unexpected situation when picking up their orders in-store: normally quiet staff members would proactively speak up, asking customers to leave a positive review. Behind this phenomenon is Luckin's internal "Ten Thousand Smiles" competition targeting store positive review rates. Stores in some regions are forced by management to participate, and positive review rate rankings directly affect employee performance and disciplinary rewards and penalties, forcing frontline employees to solicit positive reviews from customers picking up orders, and even asking regular customers to help post fake reviews. However, the frequent solicitation of positive reviews has also triggered consumer annoyance, with some customers bluntly saying it is "annoyingly dreadful" and even considering complaining to 12315. Employees are equally full of complaints, believing that this mandatory requirement puts them in a dilemma. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of the conflict between stores and customers caused by this positive review assessment.

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Recently, many Luckin Coffee users have reported that when picking up orders at stores, normally silent and reserved staff would proactively ask customers to leave a positive review. Such situations are actually common in the food service industry, since customer reviews usually directly affect employees' income, so it is not hard to understand why staff want positive reviews.

However, Luckin store employees seem to never tire of it, making the same request to every customer who comes to pick up an order. Some customers who have been asked repeatedly are quite dissatisfied with this practice of "employees forcefully soliciting positive reviews," bluntly saying, "They grab you and demand a positive review, it's annoyingly dreadful!!! Can I complain to 12315?"

In these customers' view, reviewing is a consumer's right, and whether to give a positive review should be decided by the customer independently. They find it hard to understand why Luckin employees would proactively beg for positive reviews. In response, Luckin employees quickly explained in the comments that soliciting positive reviews from customers was not their own intention but out of helplessness.

According to employees, Luckin has an internal "Ten Thousand Smiles" competition targeting store positive review rates, awarding or criticizing based on the positive review rate rankings of stores in each region. In the past, this competition did not require stores to participate mandatorily; each store could decide whether to join based on its own situation.

But this year the situation is different. Stores in some regions are required by management to participate, and regional managers and others also keep a close eye on store positive review rates. Once a store accidentally falls to last place, all employees at the store will inevitably receive a scolding, and employee performance will also be affected to some extent.

For this reason, employees at these stores forced to participate can only find every possible way to win more positive reviews, such as soliciting positive reviews from customers picking up orders, asking easygoing regular customers to help post reviews, and so on, in order to meet the daily positive review KPI and avoid becoming last in positive review rate.

Some workers bluntly say that if they were in the consumer's position, they would also find this behavior of soliciting positive reviews annoying, so most of the time most people would not proactively ask for positive reviews, only hoping not to receive negative reviews. But now, being pushed by the positive review rate to do things they are unwilling to do, many feel resistant and complain endlessly.

"When I'm serving orders, I don't want to say an extra word. Work is already tiring enough, and now there's this kind of activity," "A store with over a hundred orders a day is required to get 20 positive reviews a day; an introvert would go crazy," "As an employee, I hate it too, it's annoyingly dreadful every day."

Some employees pointed out that if the reason is explained, customers are basically willing to cooperate with one or two occasional requests for positive reviews. But over time, soliciting positive reviews will annoy customers, resulting in shooting oneself in the foot: not only failing to get a positive review, but instead receiving a negative review with the content "asking for positive reviews."

After a week of torment over positive review rates, many stores simply give up and completely abandon maintaining a good-looking number. However, some stores are forced by management to continue maintaining a sufficient number of positive reviews. Perhaps until the competition ends at the end of the year, workers will have no choice but to ask customers entering the store in a cutesy voice, "Could you give a positive review?"

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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