I made a quick stop at my local Starbucks yesterday morning to see, first hand, if there was any noticeable changes after the training session Tuesday evening. Granted, this was 6:00 AM and the store was just opening up. I did notice a few more smiles and a more energetic approach to greeting the customers. It will be interesting to observe changes over the next few weeks.
In order to get a better assessment I searched the web for news stories on this topic. Not much beyond the basic reporting. However, I did come across this “fully tongue in cheek” article on the www.howto.tunafish.com website. It illustrates creative ways to really irritate your customers – who said that thy come first? (laughing out loud)
Click here – http://howto.thetunafish.com/?p=18 – to go directly to the article. I hope that you laugh as much as I did.
If you don’t have the time to read the complete article, here is an excerpt:
In order to better prepare you for this sort of “customer handling” we here at Starbucks offer these helpful tips:
Make sure the customer waits in line for a minimum of 5 minutes before receiving service- even if he/she is the only one in the café.
Anything over 8 minutes before the customer receives service is too long, the smooth jazz music will only relax him/her for so long, and they may leave with our money.
Be extremely apologetic with large dashes of sarcasm in the voice. Add different flavors of syrup or make the drink decaf if the customer talks back. You don’t deserve this kind of treatment!
Call out drink name very loudly, even if they are sitting at the table next to the bar. Walk away before they can ask you for a straw/extra syrup/napkins.
Correct the customer if they call a drink by the wrong name, even if it is only off by one word.
As the late, great political satirist Art Buchwald used to say, “I don’t have to use my imagination to be funny. I just report what actually happened today in Washington. I don’t have to make it up – people wouldn’t believe me if I did.”
Do you have a funny story about customer service? Share it with our readers.
