Te'amo Boba Bar Doubles Revenue Using Chowbus Kiosk

Mia opened the first Te’amo at the University of Chicago. Today Te’amo already has opened three other locations in Chinatown, Michigan Avenue, and Schaumburg, and there are three more locations are coming up this year. Besides their healthy drinks, Te’amo is also known for supporting many all female-owned enterprises and being committed to empowering women in business.

Mia is the founder of Te’amo Boba Bar, a Chicago-based bubble tea chain. “Te’amo is from Spanish Te Amo, which means I love you. I use this name to express the love for tea. ” Te’amo promotes a healthy lifestyle and uses organic non-dairy ingredients. The store doesn’t use a heavy amount of cream like other traditional milk shops do but recreates organic ingredients.

Mia has great business acumen and is deeply aware that building partnership with other businesses is crucial to a small business. She has sniffed the potential of the K-pop fans segment and worked with United Center to sell drinks to fans inside the center. With her own success, Mia also wants to help other female enterprises. She shared partial profit with local organizations, for example, the Kawin organization, to support local women's businesses.

In their continuous efforts, Te’amo is popular and expanding fast. The opening of their Schaumburg location caused traffic jams in the mall.

But there is one problem that keeps Mia awake at night. “During the pandemic, it was so hard for us to hire a cashier. A good cashier who is patient, friendly, and knowledgeable about our products.” That is when Mia started looking for a solution to this staffing shortage problem. At first, she used kiosk from another brand but soon switched to Chowbus.

According to Mia, the Chowbus kiosks provide safety to retain dining customers and increase operational efficiency. “Kiosks are a perfect match for boba tea shops,” said Mia, “you know customers always have lots of customization, like ice level, sugar level, toppings and etc. One order could take a lot of time if taken by the cashier and there could be errors from communication. Kiosks really help us save time and reduce errors.” Additionally, Chowbus kiosks present pictures well and show consumers exactly what the products look like. It makes reading menu so much easier. “It saves customers time to read the menu and help those feel confused about specific products,” said Mia, “additionally, Chowbus team helped with taking pictures. That helped a lot!”