Is Starbucks passing the buck to baristas on customer service?
When it comes to social issues, Starbucks has positioned itself as one of the more politically progressive chains out there, but that image doesn’t always hold when it comes to the company’s labor relations. The latest controversy surrounding the coffee giant concerns a customer service retraining initiative called North Star, which has become fodder for the company’s critics.
North Star is a two-year agenda to improve customer service at Starbucks and one of the few initiatives implemented under new CEO Kevin Johnson, according to Business Insider. The initiative has consisted of mandatory meetings at each Starbucks store. Mr. Johnson and Starbucks’ head of U.S. retail, Kevin Engksov, believe that North Star is encouraging baristas to better form an “emotional connection” with customers. But some baristas who have attended the meetings have come out infuriated.
Critics claim that the meetings are about blaming baristas for customer service hiccups, while failing to address factors that set baristas up for failure, including understaffing, difficult-to-manage mobile and drive-thru ordering and drinks that are time-consuming to prepare.
Accounts of the Starbucks experience paint a contradictory picture of the level of service. A Consumer Affairs page gives Starbucks an average 1.3-star rating out five possible stars. However, a study about foodservice customer service levels on Pizza Marketplace, based on 5,500 surveys conducted between June 2016 and May 2017, placed Starbucks’ customer satisfaction rating at 77, the average for quick-serve restaurants being 79.
Some of the most visible stories about service complaints at Starbucks lately have been political (and partisan) in nature, for instance, a viral story about a barista placing an anti-Trump slogan on the receipt of a customer wearing a Trump shirt.
Not all of the news about Starbucks’ customer service has been negative. In the wake of a point-of-sale outage last month, Starbucks won approval by allowing stores to give away free beverages.
Regardless, the question of whether North Star is the way to tackle the perceived problem remains open.
While Mr. Engksov asserted that the company is listening to employee feedback and working to better support baristas, one employee quoted in Business Insider referred to North Star as “company Kool-Aid.”
- Starbucks is quietly changing the business as furious baristas slam the ‘cult that pays $9 per hour’ – Business Insider
- Starbucks Customer Says She Was Bullied by a Barista – Cosmopolitan
- Starbucks: Consumer Complaints and Reviews – Consumer Affairs
- Fast food customer satisfaction remains unchanged, but high – Pizza Marketplace
- Did Starbucks turn its POS outage into a win? – RetailWire
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What is Starbucks doing right and wrong with the North Star initiative? How do you expect this controversy to shake out, and what can others looking to improve customer service learn from it?
Adrian WeidmannManaging Director, StoreStream Metrics, LLC
Adrian WeidmannManaging Director, StoreStream Metrics, LLC
Adrian WeidmannManaging Director, StoreStream Metrics, LLC
Adrian WeidmannManaging Director, StoreStream Metrics, LLC
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12 Comments on "Is Starbucks passing the buck to baristas on customer service?"
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President, Max Goldberg & Associates
Starbucks management is right to work on maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. The problem may be in the translation of that desire to its staff. Management would be wise to solicit employee feedback and act on the suggestions that increase customer and barista satisfaction. Front-line employees frequently have valuable ideas on ways to improve customer satisfaction. Helping them understand the pragmatic aspects of those ideas, while actively considering them, will build morale while improving service. Neither management nor employees always know best.
CEO, Beekeeper
I agree. There is a big disconnect between management and frontline employees. The latter deal with customers on a daily basis, yet their insights are not regularly heard. Management would be wise to conduct regular employee surveys to elicit feedback from frontline employees about operations and what challenges they believe are causing issues with customer satisfaction.
Chief Executive Officer, The TSi Company
Retail Industry Advisor, Softtek
Chief Executive Officer, The TSi Company
You and I are on the same page! I would add Apple to your list of stores with great customer service.
Strategy Architect – Digital Place-based Media
Without a plan for improvement there is no progress, so hats off to Starbucks for North Star (a guiding light). Some blame, let’s call it rebuke, can be expected which the developing barista should be inclined to welcome. But the onus of customer experience at Starbucks goes beyond staff performance and comportment. Customer experience (CX) is to engage consumers on topics of shared interest. It involves discovery, learning, play and acquiring as well as storytelling and respect for people, places, organization, listening and aspirations. CX is the feeling that you get in the presence of the brand. The barista’s welcome, smile and enthusiasm are just a part of telling and selling the Starbucks story and involving their customer in it. Otherwise it is just coffee.
CEO, Hanifin Loyalty LLC
A solid approach to improving any process is to identify the root cause issues that are creating inefficiencies that lead to poor customer satisfaction. It seems that Starbucks could have polled the barista community as to their opinions on the root causes and then addressed these issues with solutions in hand as part of the North Star meetings. Maybe Starbucks did take this approach, but it does not seem apparent in the articles here.
Principal, Retailing In Focus LLC
It sounds like Starbucks has some systemic issues to solve (scheduling, mobile payment, etc.), but the barista is really the face of the brand. Despite some pushback from some employees, I give Starbucks credit for ensuring that every associate owns the customer experience.
Founder, CEO, Black Monk Consulting
Professor, International Business, Guizhou University of Finance & Economics; Executive Director, Global Commerce Education
Managing Director, StoreStream Metrics, LLC
You can’t force customer service. It needs to be inherent to your employees’ behavior. It needs to be natural. The only way that happens is if your employees truly believe in what they are doing — and who they are doing it for! You cannot artificially create a great customer experience. While the barista plays a critical and “Venti” role in the Starbucks experience, the brand — and what it represents and portrays to the broader consumer audience — must be woven into the overall value proposition.
SVP Marketing, Theatro
Having a formal feedback loop is important for associates who interact with customers. North Star, or any other training and feedback process, is critical to drive success. What’s missing is contextual and actionable data that can identify root issues. Without this actionable insight, accountability becomes subjective and an initiative like North Star can feel like it is hard on the staff. Moving this conversation to be more data-driven will create better solutions and improve customer service AND improve associate morale. To do this requires new technology that connects every associate to the network, allowing for processes to be accurately measured and improved … without the Kool-Aid.