In March 2008 Starbucks announced it was launching an online suggestion box. “We are completely thrilled at the number of ideas (thousands!),” said Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks Coffee chief technology officer on March 21.
There are a number of interesting components to the My Starbucks Idea strategy. That Starbucks is running it at all is a brave step. The opportunity for people to rant and for this to take up significant management resources is substantial. However a bigger issue, as with all feedback systems, is the need to be seen to acting on what you are receiving. If you are not seen to be acting you take a big risk that you disenfranchise even the most loyal customer.
To deal with the feedback component Starbucks has implemented a couple of good ideas. Firstly when you create a log-in you are then invited to share, vote, discuss and see. Although they have received thousands of suggestions they try and find a way of funneling them so that they can manage them within categories. It is a good idea but in my opinion poorly implemented as the category titles are not sufficiently intuitive and some queries could fit in any number of categories.
Having raised an issue other users are then invited to vote on how important this idea is. This is clever. It puts the onus on the consumer to do the work before Starbucks has to get involved. The volume of votes is incredible and some questions have 50,000 points where every vote accrues 10 points to the idea. This is coffee remember.
In addition to the voting there are also opportunities for discussion where a blog type format allows comments against the ideas and finally the ’see’ tab. Here you can read about which of the submitted ideas are being acted upon. The language is great and it really creates a feeling of community. But it is not just the benefits of communicating with your consumers that this programme delivers. beyond the shallow requests for free stuff there are some real process issues identified. One I particularly liked is this one;
“I use my Starbucks reusable travel mug almost every time I order and this is what I often see:
- 99% of the time I don’t get the mug discount,
- some baristas have no real clue what to do with it,
- they stick a disposable cup inside it to take down the order and then throw the disposable cup away (I’ve seen stickers but they seem to be out of them a lot).
We need more people to use the mugs and reduce the number of disposable cups used. Push the sale of them (make them cheaper - why not just $5?) and then train staff on how to handle the cups!”
The issue offers Starbucks all sorts of opportunities for improvement. The issues raised range from process problems where inconsistency exists, to training issues, to environmental opportunities to branding and merchandising.
In my opinion Starbucks has failed in many ways to deliver the basic level of consistent customer experience that say Pret-A-Manger has. Unless this underpinning consistency is in place it is impossible to deliver exceptional experience. The programme Starbucks has put in place will equip it with the information it needs to recapture their brand based on experience - where it started. Whether they follow through on the actions they take will be fascinating to watch.
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