Starbucks lives on...

Hello, My name is Kyle Clay and I am the new owner of the BRH blog.  In a tribute to Glen Peoples, the former blogosphere extraordinare, I am going to talk about his favorite blog topic, Starbucks!

In a recent article from Inc magazine "How Hard Could It Be?: Good System, Bad System" http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080801/how-hard-could-it-be-good-system-bad-system.html?partner=fogcreek Joel Spolsky commented on the role created at Starbucks. 

Expediters are not really there to see to it that a customer's order is filled more quickly, they believe. Rather, expediters exist solely to prevent people in line from giving up and wandering off, maybe to go to the Dunkin' Donuts around the corner. Once a customer places an order, the logic goes, he or she feels an ethical obligation to wait for it to be filled, no matter how long the process takes. Expediters are there to lock in that order as soon as possible.

Has this happened to you?  Why do I need to give me order to the expediter when I still have to repeat my order to the cashier.  Does this really save time? 

Also check out starbucksgossip.typepad.com to get the dirt from Starbucks employees. 

The way I see it I would rather support the local economy by supporting locally owned and run stores like Fido.  http://www.bongojava.com/ My time at Owen includes a daily cup of coffee from one of these establishments.  Don't get me wrong when I have to get my fix I run across the street to Starbucks, but Fido/Bongo Java provides the relaxed authentic feel that Starbucks has tried to maintain, but has lost with such strategic decisions like empowering Expediters. 

Tell me what you think?  Feel free to weigh in on any topic. My first blog..I hope I made Glen proud.

Comments

[Matt]

Honestly...expediters? Really? I think this is the first indication of Starbucks jumping the shark. They have never had the unpretentious local feel of a Dunkin Donuts or Brueggers. Adding expediters to the stores is just another step in that same direction. As if I needed more thngs to make me feel like I am a commodity rather than a customer. They've ridden their I-like-to-pretend-I-don't-have-money motif to draw in customers for a long time, much longer than I ever expected, but this is too much. As I've said from the very beginning: Starbucks is a great stock to own, but a terrible place to get coffee.

[Jared]

Operationally, Starbucks has relied on their cups as a Toyota-style Kanban card. The cashier uses it to take the order, the barista uses it to fill the order and the customer uses it to confirm that it is indeed their order. Expediters are a radical step outside that line, causing an extra step of repeating the order when the customer hits the cash register. How is that enhancing customer service?

The answer is; it's not. Its an attempt at managing expectations by trying to normalize the wait times. Coffee shops like Fido, on the other hand, achieve this by utilizing your point of a distinctive, loyalty-engendering character.

It almost appears that the expediter position was more of a knee-jerk reaction to rising dissatisfaction with their service more than a well-thought out solution to the root cause of the problem.