Page 70 - The Starbucks Experience

Everything Matters

check the café every 10 minutes. It gives us a chance to get
out from behind the counter to make sure everything is clean
and orderly, and we become more involved with our cus-
tomers. I was doing this when a customer dropped a doppio
espresso. I picked it up and said, ‘Let me make you a new one.’
He responded, ‘No need to bother. I was almost done.’ I
commented, ‘It’s not a bother, so I’m going to make you
a fresh beverage on the house.’ As I came back with his replace-
ment drink, the man was amazed. Then he said, ‘It’s behavior
like this that caused me to buy Starbucks stock.’” At Starbucks,
the Everything Matters approach not only results in powerful
emotional connections with customers, but even encourages
customers to share in the success of the business.

Details Converge into a “Felt Sense” 55
about the Business
Often we can’t specifically describe what causes us to feel a
certain way, but we know our “global emotional reaction.”
Psychologist Dr. Eugene Gendlin coined the term felt sense in
his best-selling book Experiencing and the Creation of Mean-
ing to describe these general emotional responses. A felt sense
ultimately is the result of a myriad of tiny details that lurk
somewhere below our conscious awareness. For example,
without conjuring up specifics, the term ice cream is likely to
bring about a very different felt sense from the word vinegar.
When it comes to Starbucks, large and diverse groups of
people—partners and customers alike—often have a common
and shared felt sense about the brand and the stores. Con-
sistently, people experience Starbucks as warm, comfortable,
and pleasurable. Most of these individuals probably don’t
spend a lot of time thinking about what contributes to their