Page 41 - The Starbucks Experience

PRINCIPLE 1

It is through this listening that baristas like Angela antici-
pate the needs of their customers. Angela recalls, “It was Sat-
urday, and this poor woman who was just an emotional
wreck came through. It was her first visit. Our menu can be
a little intimidating, so she stared and then ordered just a
plain coffee. When we asked her if she was sure she didn’t
want to try something else, she explained that she was con-
fused and overwhelmed, and she looked like she was about
to cry. In the meantime, we had someone make a Toffee Nut
Latte, because who doesn’t like that? We said, forget the plain
coffee; we made you this Toffee Nut Latte—on the house
today for you to try. She was thrilled! She drove off, and we
didn’t think much of it other than that we were happy to have
made her happy.”
But the story gets better, as Angela explains. “A couple of
26 days later, we got flowers sent to our store thanking us for
‘saving her life.’ Her letter explained that she had been hav-
ing a really, really bad day. After she had visited our store,
she had a piece of joy in her and was able to take care of her
problems and even help someone else to feel better. She is
now one of our regulars.”
Angela and her colleagues took the initiative to create an
experience for a customer that was well beyond anything that
the customer could have expressed. That’s being genuine and
making the business your own.

Expectations and Service: Connect
Legendary service comes from a genuine desire and effort to
exceed what the customer expects. Repeatedly, customers
have shared experiences of Starbucks partners doing the
extraordinary—making a connection well beyond some for-
mulaic greeting. Take Lydia Moore from Oakland, Califor-