Page 128 - The Starbucks Experience

Embrace Resistance

2. When employees see that management actually cares
about feedback—positive and negative—they are
more likely to care as well. When they see that man-
agement is personally committed to addressing
issues, repairing and/or solidifying relationships, they
will likely be more committed as well [emphasis
added].

When Gregg was asked why a senior vice president at
Starbucks would take the time to respond to the author of a
column on a banking Web site, he noted, “You respond
because you can see the perspective of the customer, and you
obviously respond to get customer recovery. But the main rea-
son you take action is because it is an opportunity to learn
more about what we can do, how we can be better, how we
can approach things differently, how we can help our opera- 113
tors be better operators, how we can help our baristas be bet-
ter baristas and customer service advocates, and how we, as
leaders, can guide them more effectively toward the ultimate
goal, which is to provide that great experience.”
Gregg further explains that leaders should take feedback
like that provided by David and “process it at the senior level
and ask, are there enough data points in here that I should
shift strategy, that I should alter an initiative, or that I should
be looking at the business differently.”
When these complaints are shared with other managers,
strategies can be developed to fix commonly occurring break-
downs. Directing those same complaints back to front-line
staff offers employees palpable data about how they also can
be more effective.
As Gregg explains, “There is power in sharing the spe-
cific customer experiences with the folks down the line