Learning More About My Morning Cup

I started drinking coffee on a regular basis before high school.  My husband claims that's the reason why I'm vertically challenged (short); I beg to differ considering all the women in my family are short, too.  I remember going to the local boutique coffee houses in the neighborhood before a Starbucks opened up and admiring the smells and sounds of coffee being roasted and brewed, milk steaming and the pumping sounds of the espresso machines.  When a Starbucks opened up, I knew that I wanted to work there.  I eventually did and was a Starbucks Barista for three years in high school and into college.  I knew that Starbucks was always willing to keep an open ear and an open mind to customer suggestions, praises, and complaints.  Even internally, every Starbucks location was subject to a "snapshot," or internal review of how their store was being run.  A secret shopper, from the company, would come to the store and order a coffee drink, while taking note of how the store was kept clean (or not), if the bathrooms and condiment counters were stocked, how they were greeted by the Baristas and the Barista's knowledge of Starbucks products, and finally how the drink was made (the drinks were actually weighed to make sure the appropriate amount of foam and milk was being used to make a latte).  However, this information was only for internal purposes only and when I worked for Starbucks, the social network was in its infancy.

A praising "retweet" on Starbucks' Twitter site.  This is an example of good customer feedback in tweet-form.

Now, though, Starbucks has their presence known far and wide in the physical world and in the online world.  Starbucks, of course, as a prominent website.  Users can browse the menus, look up nutritional information, find information about Starbucks products sold in the grocery store, and new items being promoted.  What I didn't count on finding was a vibrant and prolific virtual "Suggestion Box".  In Balwani's article, 10 of the Smartest Brands in Social Media (2009), Starbucks is top on the list with their popular site, My Starbucks Idea.  Users can log in and suggest anything and everything to Starbucks.  Users can also vote on other people's suggestions or comments and their votes give these suggestions more prominence when the site is reviewed by Starbucks corporate management.  There is also visual feedback, showing the top suggestions and whether they are under review, their review has completed, the suggestion is "in the works," and if it has been implemented.  This allows Starbucks management to keep a close eye on what their customers are interested in seeing out of their company.  I know that when I was a Barista, the physical suggestion cards were totally ignored, but having this promoted on the company website and on the company's other social media sites (Facebook and Twitter, for example) put the power of change into the customer's hands.

A scathing tweet found via TweetScan.  Tweets like this, although criticizing, might not be high on the radar of Starbucks' PR team.

Starbucks also manages more than one employee blog, linked directly on their company website.  This element of transparency brings a sense of humanity to a highly recognized world-wide company.  Starbucks' Facebook and Twitter pages are all alight with users looking for information about their favorite drinks, submit complaints about their local stores (or lack thereof), and even an exclamation of gratitude for their favorite coffee drink to wake them up in the morning.  Using tools like, TweetScan and SocialMention, I found that the majority of people talk about Starbucks primarily on Facebook and Twitter.  A diverse mix of praises and complaints and wonderment fill the online airwaves.  While I'm sure Starbucks executives don't have the time or manpower to look at what everyone is saying, let alone try and comment on complaints, I am sure some of the more important information makes it to the ears of Starbucks .