Page 101 - The Starbucks Experience

PRINCIPLE 3

wasn’t any issue about her jumping in to help. She could have
said, ‘I’m not on duty. I’m going home.’ But she didn’t. She
stayed with me.”
Michael, the librarians, and Peter all experienced welcome
surprises because committed employees did the unexpected for
them. But surprises don’t have to be spontaneous. In many
cases, the most powerful surprises are those that are planned.
A regular Starbucks customer, Mary, shares an experience
of a well-organized surprise—the kind of event that takes
advance planning to pull off successfully. Mary went into
Starbucks on April 15 . . . Tax Day! She was stressed. She
had just mailed what seemed like an overly generous payment
to the IRS when she encountered an unexpected corporate
Starbucks promotion.
As Mary put it, “Like I should be spending any money at
86 all, I went into Starbucks to take my mind off my suffering.
I walked up to the counter and told my barista, Thomas, that
I wanted a cup of tea. He asked if I wanted Calm tea, caus-
™
ing me to wonder exactly how frazzled I looked. When I said,
‘Calm would be good,’ he said, ‘Great, because today Star-
™
™
bucks is offering a free cup of Calm to all customers.’” Mary
™
adds, “Okay, the Calm tea didn’t wash away my IRS pain,
but to this day I remember that drink. They didn’t have to
give me the tea, but they organized the event, and I bene-
fited.” The difference between good and great can often be
the willingness of leadership to structure surprising moments
around calendar opportunities.
For the most part, great surprises occur in our lives and
the lives of our customers when someone, or some group of
people, does something unexpected. It’s not the “required”
surprise fortieth birthday party; it’s the occasional note to