Comments on: Starbucks Staff: “It’s not because our coffee’s any good”

By: Donna Papacosta

Donna Papacosta — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:15:49 +0000

Rob, I didn’t avail myself of the freebie yesterday, although I did receive several alerts about it. Your post proves the importance of front-line training. No matter how tasty the product, customers do care about how they’re treated and what’s being said behind the counter.

By: robclark

robclark — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:34:41 +0000

Hi Dan,
Glad your coffee break experience was on the positive side. Just goes to show that all the branding and marketing in the world is only as good as the person standing across the counter. Hope the manager of the Edmonds, WA store notices this and shares this with the staff.

By: Dan Mullene

Dan Mullene — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 23:07:25 +0000

Well, this is the complete opposite of my experience on “Free Coffee Day” (or should I say Free Coffee Two Hours?).

I visited my local store in downtown Edmonds, Washington, a quaint town about 12 miles north of the megopolis that is Seattle.

The young lady who greeted me when I walked in asked how she could help. I told her I was there for my free cup of joe, and she said no problem, but if I wanted a latte, she could make me one, by demonstrating a automatic machine she was exhibiting today.

She proceeded to make me a decent latte with two shots, and also told me that if I wanted a drip coffee as well, no problem!

I opined that the double shot latte was probably enough caffeine for me today, thank you very much, and went on my way.

By the way, no mob scenes at the store, just another day in SBUX land!

Full disclosure here: I do own a sizable chunk of their stock, so I might be a LITTLE biased, even if it has been going down, down, down as of late!