Teach Your Staff Logic and Manners, Starbucks

if you want cheap vietnamese coffee then just buy maxwell house and
save your $4.

This is a letter I could've written to the T! Starbucks is notorious
for long drive-thru waits. I was parked in line for 25 mins. yesterday
and same thing: slow service and once you're in line, you can't get
out. I seriously considered abandoning my car and walking 1.5 miles to
the caribou down the street. I've never gotten an apology for the long
wait. . .it's like they're too dumb to even see what is going on.

Logic? At a Starbucks? Anyone who would spend the amount of money
they charge for burnt-tasting coffee lacks logic. Even if they served
the best tasting coffee I've ever had, I still wouldn't pay what
they're asking. I'd prefer Dunkin' Donuts coffee, thank you.

It's all so pretentious anyway. Their employees are called
"baristas". Can you get any more pretentious than that? They are
clerks, servers, employees, coffee pourers, etc. This is along the
same lines as referring to Wal-Mart employees as "associates", or
Subway employees as "sandwich artists". Come on, let's not change the
name of the job to make it sound more important than it really is.
There's no shame in being an employee, cashier, clerk, salesperson,
etc.

What's next? A McDonald's employee being called a Burger Engineer? A
Dominos' employee referred to as a Pizza Technician? A cab driver as
a Transportation Manager? Ugh....

/rant off

Getting back to your complaint, perhaps it has to do with the economy,
and the fact that Starbucks is closing a lot of stores. Perhaps
people have less interest in satisfying the customer in the face of
possible layoffs/firings.

Reminds me of what happened at a fast food one time..except for, the
jerk in the car ahead of me wouldn't leave! He was apparently pissed
off about not getting a free gift certificate which was advertised if
you spend a certain amount of money or to that sort. I guess he didn't
meet the requirement,and the employee at the window kept telling him
that. The jerk got loud and verbally threatening, and started arguing
with the employee;10-15 minutes later, the jerk still sitting there as
if he would get his way, the employee shuts his window after having
enough with the customer, and actually had no choice but to shut the
entire restaurant down (turning off all the lights, this was late at
night)! and even then, the jerk is still sitting there, not
budging!The drive thru is now 5 cars deep, and no way out for me or
the others, and I was getting pretty angry because I was tired from
work, and mind you, very HUNGRY. We sat a good 10-15 minutes, before I
got out of my car and started yelling at the jerk! Everyone else
jumped in, and when he knew he was out-numbered, he finally left, and
left without any food, hah! As for getting my food that I ordered a
good 30 minutes before dealing with that moron? No, I went elsewhere
because I wasn't sure when they would open back up, but of course I
wasn't mad at them, I was mad at the customer! Its a shame how one can
ruin your night.

Next time put your car in park right where it is, shut it off, lock in
and march right in there demanding your fresh food. I cannot stand
people who order the whole store through the drivethru. If the order
taker sees that they have a big order they should tell them to come
inside or at least post a sign. But heck, a lot of people would
disregard it anyway. Like the one lady in front of me at the bank who
made a huge transaction in the drive thru.

This letter perfectly illustrates why employees who understand good
customer service are worth their weight in gold and those who don't
are an actual liability to the company.

There are two elements to this letter...one is the excessive wait and
the other is how the customer was treated after waiting all that
time.

If a customer chooses to place a huge order through the drive thru,
there's nothing a company can do about it except ask if they're
willing to pull forward. If a customer won't then the company is
stuck with no further options.

But...the company CAN do something about the people who had to wait as
a result. In fact, if they don't, they end up with letters like
this.

Nearly all drive throughs are designed to accommodate four cars from
the menu board to the window. Therefore, it can be assumed three other
cars had placed their orders. In this case, because of the extreme
delay, the manager should have slid to the window to help the drive
through person move the line which most assuredly was backed up.
He/she should have greeted the next three cars with a warm smile, a
sincere apology for the wait and a free beverage. The next four cars
after that get a warm smile, a sincere apology and their order as fast
as possible and if any of those customers seem unduly upset at the
wait then they get a free beverage too. After that, the manager can
assume the original backup has been cleared, the line is back to
normal and he/she should get over to the next place they're need AFTER
giving the drive through person a big attaboy and thanks for their
efforts.

And, if somehow the manager cant get over to the window to do all that
because he/she is busy helping the front or something like that?
Well, I guarantee he/she is still aware of the huge backup and he/she
should call over to the drive through person and tell he/she to comp
the next three drinks after and the manager will be over to help as
soon as possible.

This is exactly the kind of situation managers are paid to handle.
Clearly, nothing of the sort happened in this customer's case. In
fact, it sounds like the drive through person was frustrated by the
extreme order and took it out on the next car which happened to be our
letter writer.

And for those who would say my solution is "fantasy" and this is "real
world", no, it's not. It's what any good manager who has a handle on
his business and knows what he's doing would do. I know...Ive done
it numerous times myself.

Teaching logic and manners isn't that easy. It isn't impossible, but
for an employer to do it in an efficient manner is quite a challenge.

I agree with those who said although it's inconvenient, it is a
first-come-first serve process, and while unfortunate, you sometimes
get stuck behind someone with a large order while you only have one
item. I wouldn't blame Starbucks; I'd blame the customer who used the
drive-thru for such a huge order. They should've gone inside.
Personally I think the drive-thru should be used for those with
standard orders.

Too bad Starbucks doesn't have an express lane.

I do agree with you about cold half-cup of coffee. And I also agree
that a little reasonable pleansantry from employees can go a long
way.

I get it was a pain that the OP had to wait so long, but the orders
are made in the order they are taken. Are they suppose to not work on
the big order until the drive thru is clear of all small orders?

It isn't like McDonalds since everybody is likely ordering coffee.
Why would one customer get preference over another one.

However, the cold, half cup of coffee is definitely a valid issue.

Ah, but I'll bet the other problem was that they are unable to help
more than one customer at a time. I'm guessing that until they fill
an order, they don't have the staff (or the right process) to take
care of multiple drive-in customers at a time.

It's the "first come, first served" method of working. And it's
really annoying to all the people that have to wait their turn.

Plus, can you imagine how irate the "large order" customer would be if
they made him wait while the Starbucks filled orders of people than
came in AFTER him.

There are occasionally letters, here, from people that were asked to
pull into the lot to wait for their order who feel that it's
unacceptable.

I happen to agree with you: they need a better way to do it and it's
definitely unacceptable to give you a half-filled cold drink.

I don't know if Starbucks asks customers to pull forward and wait for
large orders or not. When I was in college, I worked at a McDonald's.
There were many occasions in which we would ask a car to pull forward
and they would refuse. I remember one woman specifically who
commented, "No, I'm going to inconvenience you for a change."

It was no inconvenience to me. I ran the orders for the cars waiting
behind her out the back door.

Starbucks is closing a plethera of store across the country and this
may be one of them. I found unhappy employees at our Circuit City when
it was annouced that the stores were closing...they were rude,
obnoxious and could care less if made a purchase or not.

Maybe this is what is happening with this store since you said the
store was fabulous when it opened.
And common sense would dictate that you never take your unhappiness
out on a customer...but I am afraid with the economy the way it is and
the larger companies downsizing or going out of business, this is the
attitude we are going to be getting.

Over the years I've learned that the quickest service in the morning
hours at such places like Starbucks, McDonalds, Taco Cabanna (a Texas
outlet), etc... happen when you go inside. I hardly ever go through
drive-thrus anymore unless its on off hours. You "run into" too many
jerks who place large orders going through them.

I think the large order should have pulled ahead and the employees
could have brought the food and coffee out to his vehicle. Why hold
everyone else up who just wants a $4 cup o' joe?