Comments on: Re-Experiencing Starbucks: Transformation Starting

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:41:12 +0000

My experience at starbucks has always been nice. Except this one time, and it wasn’t because of the customer service. In fact, the girl who served me did an excellent job. My complaint was how SHE was being treated in front of me. The manager was having a hissy fit because he wasn’t keeping up on bar. There was milks cartons be thrown, he was rude and disrespectful to her when it was obvious she was trying to help. I understand that people get stressed out, but the manager chose to be in that kind of position and should be able to handle that kind of stress. I felt so bad for the little girl. I told her that she should demand some respect and her reply sadly enough was just a smile and “have a great day.” That just made me think, starbucks has always been on top for great customer service, but I never thought I’d wonder how they treat their own employees.

By: Re-Experiencing Starbucks: Update 3 - The Training « Customers Rock!

Re-Experiencing Starbucks: Update 3 - The Training « Customers Rock! — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:29:07 +0000

[...] Re-Experiencing Starbucks: Transformation Starting [...]

By: The Starbucks Customer FEEDBACK Experience « CUSTOMER U - Where Learning About Customers Never Stops!

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:33:31 +0000

[...] Paul Schwartz This “Starbucks” project is now in full swing with some new posts by Becky Carroll, Jay Ehret, Doug Meacham , and Maria Palma. We are starting to learn more about the changes that [...]

By: Starbucks - The Way I See It - Part 1 « NextUp

Starbucks - The Way I See It - Part 1 « NextUp — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:30:01 +0000

[...] an announcement by Starbucks of a couple of new initiatives. You can read Becky’s post here, but the bottom line is that Starbucks is going to be doing two [...]

By: phildarb

phildarb — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:24:15 +0000

The Starbucks story is a classic in that they were successful originally because they were different and have tended since(although not as much as some) to focus on perpetuating what made them different at the time rather than renewing and re-inventing so that they remain different in the context of the many “me-toos” now on the scene.

As someone on the ground in Europe I have to say that Starbucks are losing their shine compared to cometitors like Costa, Pret, Coffee Heaven, Republic etc. Too many Starbucks are very shabby and badly maintained. They could improve their position a little just by cleaning up a few of their places.

The Wi-Fi in the UK is a nightmare. After Central Europe where Wi-Fi is free everywhere its very annoying to find that to get on-line in Starbucks in the UK you have to pay AND download T-mobile’s software (which screwed up my computer settings). Not a good experience!

As for training – I’m not sure they are any better than their competitors here.

By: Boring Market

Boring Market — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:50:26 +0000

Starbucks is clearly going ‘back to basics’ with coffee being the focus and main concern. Howard Shultz is beginning the long road of recovery for his company.

By: David Morse

David Morse — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:52:27 +0000

Great post, Becky. It will be interesting to see if Starbucks can get its groove back.

‘ve never had a problem with the service Starbucks provides and agree that the baristas are usually great.

I think something structurally is going on with their business that is holding their stock price back (which is a big reason that the company brought Howard Shultz back).

Could it be that
-their coffee has become too expensive for “the masses?”
-the Starbucks experience isn’t ’special’ anymore?
-Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s are stealing business?