STARBUCKS CUSTOMER SERVICE

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
NAME: HEMANTH KUMAR R SUBJECT: STRATEGY AND LEADERSHIP

LECTURER: JOHN LEO

DATE: 06/07/2012

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Starbucks captures people who are on the go into a slow and relaxing European lifestyle. With the potential to capture customers, Howard Schultz brought back the caf late. This was gourmet coffee introduced to America. Through tradition, advancement, rhetoric of advertising, growth of demand for gourmet coffee, customers become loyal to a Starbucks Nation. Within this nation, customers are able to spend as much time as they want, either reading a paper, or surfing the web. Starbucks customers are also allowed to enjoy its natural-looking habitat. Starbucks also follows a unique strategy wherein the employees have the power to take decision without taking up the issue to his/her manager. They also want to minimize the waiting time for the regular customers and take the customer and employee relationship to next level. Starbucks make sure that the employees are aware of the drinks and the preparation of the drink so that, if a customer wants to know the steps to prepare it the barista should explain them step by step. To increase customer satisfaction, the company is debating a plan that would increase the amount of labour in the stores and theoretically increase speedof-service. If customers have suggestions to improve Starbucks, they are able to input their own ideas on the Starbucks website.

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BODY: Key Findings: Starbucks is the leader in coffee shop retailing. They have accomplished this through superb products and priding themselves on customer service. By creating positive customer service, Starbucks has created a large base of loyal customers. Mr Schultz, owner of Starbucks stated, We arent in the coffee business, serving people. We are in the people business serving coffee. (Serwer, 2004) Directly alongside product quality is customer satisfaction. Starbucks wants to encourage purpose, commitment, and enthusiasm among employees. Starbucks has found that in order to accomplish this, they must have the best front line workers. Creating strong customer service begins with the employee. If the employee does not take pride in his/her work, it will be reflected in their service to the customer. One of Starbucks key concepts is, employees should be fully versed in how to make drinks and how to market them as well. They should be able to describe contents and, especially if its part of the job description, spell the item correctly on a chalkboard or a menu. Strategy of Starbucks Customer Service: Authority to take decisions: Employees are encouraged to make their own rational decisions when dealing with customer problems. Starbucks likes to see the employee fix the problem instead of running to the manager for assistance. Some people might be apprehensive to this, but Starbucks wants you to use your best judgment to create satisfied customers, and Starbucks will stand behind the decision you make. By giving front line employees this control, the employees feel more like their own manager instead of just a worker bee. The employees positive attitude is reflected on their work and relationships with customers. (Filipczak & Bob, 1995)

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Minimizing the gap between Customer and Employee: Starbucks wants employees and customers to interact on a personal level. In some stores, when a regular customer pulls up, they begin making the drink and have it ready by the time the customer has parked and reached the counter. This goes a long way in customer satisfaction. (Filipczak & Bob, 1995) Employees are more knowledgeable: Being knowledgeable, employees can point customers in the direction of the perfect coffee. If the product desired is not exactly on the menu, it will be altered to the customers preference. These concepts would not be attainable if the employees didnt truly love their job. Also by knowing the entire menu inside and out, drinks can be produced at a very fast rate leaving customers standing for a short time. This also helps with lines in the morning when everyone wants coffee before work. Most of the customers ask baristas how to make their favourite drink at home. Every barista asked has always taken the time to thoroughly describe the process and has never said, Sorry, Im too busy. (Filipczak & Bob, 1995)

By providing these strategies Starbucks has a competitive advantage compared with its competitors. These strategies also create a positive atmosphere and customers are immediately drawn in. Schultz stated, Starbucks is a place to feel comfort. Place to feel safe. Place to feel like you belong. (Starbucks) He goes on to say when speaking of a foreign caf he experienced, It was on extension of peoples front porch. It was an emotional experience. Schultz wanted this feeling in his own stores and through proper employee training; he has accomplished a high level of comfort with customers. Consider ways in which your brand can learn from your customers. Starbucks does a great job of listening and interacting with its people. Through MyStarbuckIdea.com, Facebook and Twitter, Starbucks solicits customer feedback and creates one-to-one and oneto-many relationships.

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Starbucks obviously values great customer relations. Unlike many companies who claim that good customer relations is priority-one but often fail to prove it, Starbucks continually lives up to this claim. That is why they are successful. Well, that and good coffee.

Limitations of Starbucks Customer Service: From training the staff, they might face with the brain drain which might create more rivals later on because they have chance to learn the firm core competence betray them later.

Due to an increase in number of Starbucks customers and highly customized drink demand, the workload per worker is very high. This fact results in a decrease in service time and conversation between Starbucks baristas and the customer, and more stress on baristas. Moreover, the research found that a large number of customers emphasize that they are treated as a valuable customer, friendly staff and fast service are the most important factors in creating customer satisfaction.

Starbucks has focused on various aspects in order to deliver excellent customer satisfaction. The key factor that they need to recognize is that they need to realize how they are serving their customer. Starbucks does have other factors that it ranks high in, but that is only part of the picture. Customer service is the key to Starbucks being recognized as the industry leader in gourmet coffee and coffee drinks for years to come.

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RECOMMENDATIONS: They must increase labour hours per store in order to solve the problem with the quality of service. Starbucks should also set up an internal strategic marketing team. This will allow Starbucks to have a proactive feedback of customer satisfaction and hence faster improvement. We also noticed that labour cost is high for Starbucks North American operations. To keep labour cost at reasonable level, Starbucks should reduce waste in making drinks, keep consistency in drinks, and improving productivity. (Lockyer & Sarah, (2004) Starbucks have the feature for the customer to provide the feedback about the service. However, every Starbucks customer does not get a survey completion receipt upon purchase. Its rare and occasional. They must give the survey to everyone so that, they have more ideas from the customer to look into it. Survey offered to the customer must be completed before the expiration date or else the valuable Survey receipt will go waste. They must work in this so that, the customer is provided with some considerable time to complete the survey. Risks of entering a scam Starbucks survey is there if the customers dont get into it through the official site. This is important for every Starbucks customer to know since it would be then wasting time in completing a survey questionnaire which will eventually get them nothing.

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REFLECTIVE COMMENTS: Starbucks' employees share common goals, such as believing in the product they sell. Starbucks employees are referred to as partners, and even part-time employees are eligible to receive health-care, owning stock in the company, and get free coffee! All Starbucks' employees are well trained. The investment in training obviously pays off, as Starbucks has a far lesser turnaround than the industry average. Employees should continue to be Starbucks' most important asset, and resource. The extremely low turnover rate of employee has contributed to the development of Starbucks' image, and brand image is vital to the future success of the expanding company. Employees are trained on both hard skills and soft skills when hired to work for a Starbucks retail store. This equal emphasis on the hard and soft skills further highlighted Starbucks strategy to make the experience pleasant for the customer. The soft skills were a way to teach the employees on how to connect with the customer, by establishing eye contact, smiling and greeting them with their names when the customers were regulars. In addition to that there was also the Just Say Yes policy for which the employees went beyond company rules in order to satisfy the customers. These again created a friendly environment for customers who felt special and in combination with the two points mentioned above increased their customer satisfaction.

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References

Filipczak, & Bob. (1995). Training.. Business Media , p. 73. Lockyer, & Sarah. ((2004). Full Steam Ahead: Starbucks Plans Strategies to Keep Growth . Nations Restaurant News, p. 4. Serwer, A. (2004). Hot Starbucks to Go. Fortune, pp. 60-64. Starbucks. (n.d.). Starbucks. Retrieved from http://www.starbucks.com