Long time readers know I’m a big fan of customer service. There are many articles about customer service, from the superior, to the hideous. We strive to deliver a world-class customer service experience at Thompson’s Realty, it is the foundation of our brokerage. This isn’t a revolutionary concept, in fact it is a simple as it gets ”“ customer service should be the foundation of any service-based industry.
A key element of providing customer service is getting feedback from your customers / clients. We here at Thompson’s Realty have not done a good job of that, yet. But that will change, soon.
Starbucks’ Customer Survey ”“ The Epic Fail
Bright and early this morning, my lovely bride headed to Starbucks to start daily the caffeine infusion. When she called and said they had a new drink offering ”“ the Toffee Mocha ”“ she got the green light to bring one home.
Our favorite (and outstanding) barista gave Francy a handout that had instructions for filling out an online survey about the new drink. Starbucks wanted our feedback. Makes perfect sense ”“ introduce a new product and see what the customer has to say about it. Nice of them to throw in a coupon for a free coffee and panda express coupons too!
So off I went to MyStarbucksVisit.com. Hey, who am I to pass up a free beverage? They wanted the feedback, they asked for it, and I was happy to provide it.
Here is what I saw after I entered the “customer code””¦
Hmmmm. . . not a valid code. Figuring I made a tpyo typo, I tried again. Same error.
So I tried a different browser.
Same error.
Who knows why, but I tried entering the code a fourth time. And guess what? I didn’t get the error! The site thought about my code for a few seconds and returns this”¦
Expired? My “invitation” said the expiration date was 11/30/2010 ”“ over two months away.
At this point, I suspect 95% of the population would have bailed out of this process. Actually, most probably would have said, “the heck with this” after having their code rejected repeatedly.
Being one to never give up however, and having this odd desire to see how this thing would play out, I called the toll-free number shown on the latest screen.
After all, Starbucks asked me for feedback, and they’re still saying “we’d still love your comments”. Damnit, I want to help them! (and I want my freaking free coffee).
Here’s how the phone call went”¦
“We’re sorry, this number has been disconnected. Please call 1-800-782-7282.”
Seriously??
At this point, I suspect 99.99% of the population would have said, “F this!” and given up.
But I trudged on. Calling this latest number, I was immediately delivered into voicemail prompt hell.
“Press 1 for this, 2 for that”¦” all the way up through number 47 or something. (OK, I exaggerate. But I’m annoyed as hell by now.) Naturally, none of the options really fitted what I wanted to do, that being GIVE THEM THE PRODUCT FEEDBACK THEY ASKED FOR.
So I made a selection that was the closest I could find (comments about Starbucks.com or a recent store experience) and a very nice young lady answered the phone. After explaining what was going on, she put me on hold to investigate.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
4 or 5 minutes later, she came back on the line. Very apologetically saying they would send me a couple of coupons for my trouble and they’d still love to have feedback on my “store experience”.
This lead to another discussion about how I wasn’t really looking to provide a “store experience” but that I was trying to give them my feedback on a new product. You know, feedback that they freaking asked me to give them”¦
“Sure, no problem,” says the nice young lady. And she commences to ask me a few questions. Where I live, what store I went to. What the store number was. Store number? Who the heck knows the store number? Were the baristas nice and helpful. Things like that. But not one single question on the new coffee ”“ the question that really started this whole thing.
Then she says, “OK, we’re sorry about the website hassle, and we’ll be sure to let the store know about your experience!”
“Uhm, don’t you want some feedback on the new product I tried?”
“No, I think we have everything we need. Have a nice day!” ”¦click”¦
Where Starbucks Went Wrong
Clearly this was a frustrating user experience. There are almost too many failure points to count. “Customer code” invalid, offer expired, phone number disconnected, no right category in the voicemail prompts, and finally once I got to a human being to give my product feedback they didn’t even ask product questions.
At this point, I have to assume the feedback Starbucks is getting on their new drink is at or near zero. Good on them for asking for the feedback, but if you make it impossible to receive said feedback, what is the point?
The lesson here is clear. Getting feedback from your customers is a very good idea. Acting on that feedback, changing your processes and procedures to improve the customer experience is an even better idea.
But you have to get that feedback first. Find a way to do that. An easy way. And for the love of Pete, TEST your feedback gathering process before you launch it to ensure it doesn’t evaporate into the ether”¦
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
Jay, what a series of screw ups – can't believe it.
I just wrote a post yesterday regarding the lack of social media from brokerages, mostly in fear of what happened to you. If your message does not match up with the reality, why shoot yourself in the foot. Or in this case spill a hot cup of coffee all over yourself.
http://www.realtyv2.com/2010/09/social-media-man-…
While written for the real estate industry any corporation better take heed. Otherwise it gets around pretty quick and causes far more harm than good.
On another note I am having trouble with an issue on Trulia. Within hours of tweeting my request I had a contact person and e-mail.
That my friend is the way to roll today and many don't have the wheels. Keep up the good fight and when your in San Diego I will buy you a cup of coffee!
I don't think I would have had the patience you had in this experience. For now on, just so I don't get tempted by a free coffee (which I probably would), and to save time, I'm kindly going to ask my Starbucks to save a tree, and keep the receipt.
I am willing to lay odds that you receive several drink coupons shortly. 🙂
Too bad, because three weeks ago I was thinking they were Real Coffee Purveyors of Genius. I received a box at the office with three bags of their new flavors. Apparently, word is out that I am "influential in my community." At least, that was their party line. I've been feeling rather guilty that I haven't reciprocated with a "Starbucks Rocks" blog post, as I have long since ingested the most fabulous new blends. OK, I regifted one. But the point is this.
I didn't feel the need to go out and spam my social network as repayment for the 36 cups of Joe (24 if you consider that one of my agents got the Cinnamon, and 12 if you consider that I use really big cups) because my special note said that I would be hearing directly from some chap named Dave (or Mark) to get feedback on my caffeination experience. They even said that Dave (or Mark) would be offering me free coupons to bestow upon my awe-inspiring social sphere. Never did. Zip. Nada.
Great idea, bad execution. But, just in case Starbucks is listening, I really dig the Vanilla and hope to see it on a grocery shelf near me soon.
Wow, hard to believe that it's Starbucks who blew it so big…
By nature I am someone with a lot of experience… This being said I would probably not have went through all of this to give my feedback! The again, the price they charge for their drinks are expensive I would probably of called just to get those free drink coupons.
Keep fighting the fight Jay. I do it everyday. It's the dumbing down of America. It takes phone calls and follow up to change it. Problem is we get tired of the fight. All you have to do in America is just show up and good things will happen. Work a little harder and success follows. Just like our industry. Good article.
Great storytelling, Jay. Too bad it's not fiction! Even sadder is that this is the kind of crap people go through day in and day out in this country because customer service is so notoriously bad. You just don't hear about it as often as you should because a.) not everyone has the patience of a saint to perservere like you did, b.) not many people go to the trouble of documenting their pain & suffering, and c.) a lot of the stories involve companies far less reputable and/or popular than Starbucks. When the comedy of errors that was my U-Verse install took WEEKS (not the 5 hours that was promised) to resolve, I simply endured the craziness. Afterall, who would be surprised that Ma Bell could screw up a simple installation so collosally? Starbucks, on the other hand, now that's surprising.
I'm a barista at Starbucks. Sorry for the lousy experience, there isnt and excuse for that. I am curious though, how was the toffee mocha?
Steven – I liked the toffee mocha. But I thought the chocolate was a little overpowering. I'm thinking one less pump of chocolate and one more pump of toffee nut and it would be perfect!
Thanks for stopping by!
Its what happens when a company has 1 following by a hundred zeros locations. ie a googollian locations. (Most people may not be aware Google was actually named after the number googol, and is an accidental mispelling of it.) Things sometimes fall through the cracks in a big company and the cracks can be huge. It may be their server is dyslexic and occasionally reads the numbers correctly!
I had a more pleasant experience at Starbucks this week. I was the victim of a drive through random act of kindness (vs a drive by, random act of violence). The Starbucks at Shea Blvd & 71 Street in Scottsdale/PV, where the person in front of me in the drive through paid for my drink. The baristas said it happens about 20 times a day there…..
Pardon the intrusion, need to test a new "subscribe to comments by email" plugin
Hey Marc,
I've been hearing a lot lately about these Starbucks "random acts of kindness". Pretty cool. I think I'll do it today 🙂 I use to be a big Starbucks fan, but the last few years, I'm about 50% consumption of what I use to be. No knock on their coffee, just don't go there as much.
Mike
Sounds like the whole project is clogged up in middle management hell.
The suits ruin everything.
So it has been a few days now since you posted this….has Starbucks contacted you yet? I would expect that with your blog traffic, someone who in customer service, would have contacted you and fallen all over themselves apologizing. Any buckets of free coffee arrive mysteriously at your door?
Not a peep Carmen…
Jay, that is really very interesting. You would think that Starbuck's would know better than let this go on.
It is not like your posting on a neighborhood blog read by 4 people. I think I sense a really good lesson in social media unfolding.
Im not a big fan of Starbucks… or even coffee at all for that matter. For a company that big to fail so miserably at redeeming a free drink coupon is beyond me. Pretty funny, though. I wouldn't be suprised if you got a years supply of free coffee if the word got out about this. I also bet their technical dept. is working diligently to correct the issue before it happens to another Starbucks coffee drinker.
Jay,
I love you sharing your experience which should be a huge wake up call to a very powerful major coffee brand. The funniest thing is when you google "Starbucks Customer Survey" or anything related to those keywords guess which blogging mogul has reached the top 3.
You would think Major Corporations would have google alerts setup to monitor all of the outside word of mouth spread.
All of which goes to prove, as you so rightly imply, is that they don't want your ACTUAL feedback they want you to FEEL like you're being cared about enough to want to know your opinion. If they GOT your feedback, they'd have to do something about it!
Customers have told me that they use social media to get listings. Not to sell property, but to get listings. Their pitch: this is the "reach" we can offer you when you list with us. They are thrilled with the way their social media activity can be "re-purposed" into products. They freely admit they have the same chances of selling the thing as the next person, and that they have no legitimate use for the products other than to show them off.
Same thing as Starbucks. They just want to *look good… not have the work and effort of truly *being good!
LOL Fun post, Jay. Thanks.
Nice post. Crazy to think they could fail so miserably at something so simple. There's much better coffee out there anyway!
Jay, my response to your post – are you using Google Alerts?
http://www.realtyv2.com/2010/09/tip-13-social-med…
*Absolutely* use Google Alerts Jeff, and can't imagine why anyone in business wouldn't. Left on a comment on your article (good one BTW) with more details (it's in moderation).
Well good on Starbucks for doing the right thing. Received an email earlier today (reprinted with permission):
Janet just called. She apologized profusely (more then necessary actually), made no excuses and explained they were looking into the issues and had already addressed several problems. She clearly understood how and where Starbucks went wrong here and it was nice to see they actually did something with this feedback as opposed to just thinking, "Whiny customer who needs to shut up and get a life".
There is another lesson here — pay attention to what people are saying about you on the interwebs, and take a few seconds to reach out. A 2 minute phone call can go a long way toward addressing customer / client issues.
Jay,
That is terrible. They shot themselves in the foot on getting what they wanted in the first place. Good for you. I love it that you never give up.
@allstarmom3
Now if this didn't happen, what would you have blogged about? I sometimes look for situations like this so I can have material to blog about if I'm empty of thoughts. My wife says that doesn't happen very often.
Jay, your experience sounds like one of the reasons I never complete those online surveys. What a hassle. I hope you get your free coffee!
Although the Starbucks marketers who managed that survey may have failed, at least their social media folks have their finger on the pulse and responded to your post (but it still doesn't sound like they asked about the new coffee, lol!). Since it sounds like your local spot treats you well (you call in your coffee ahead? v cool), I'd say it's a common disconnect between the local joint and The Corporation. As a marketer, I cringe at these types of holes b/c even at a Starbucks status, hey that sh%! still happens (still no excuse); as a consumer, I empathize; as a Peet's patron, I smirk.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Always a good reminder on how important it is to test your systems first!
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That sucks. I've experienced that with another brand, and was lured by the promise of their promos and freebies, which ultimately lead to a let down. They should have stuck with personal exchange, of writing down a feedback in their stores, and in exchange of their coupon/codes, so there's less likely of a screwup
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Ha! Janet from operations called you? What a great ending to a ridiculous story. At least they're on top of their brand management. Go internet!
Those surveys are actually for you to tell them about the experience at that specific store. They use the surveys to score the store and if we get below a 90% we get in trouble. Managers and shift supervisors alike could get written up. Please keep this in mind when you fill these out.
Also unless you put high satisfied on the questions we receive a zero for that survey.
Starbucks should give you a couple months supply of drinks. What you provided them is worth thousands of dollars in learning for some green newbie. This should have never happen, but with cuts and downsizing these days big corporations are making small and big mistakes across the board. I had a similar experience at the Great Wolf Lodge resort that never did get resolved.
Anyway, regardless of the troubles you had I enjoyed your story. Keep up the good work.
Sometimes I get the feeling that asking for the store number, and stunts alike, is just to narrow down the people they have to listen to. Always when you are filing a complaint or such, they have five simple questions and 1 question that is impossible to answer. Quite clever, when you think about it… Thanks for posting!
Wow, I got irritated just by reading about what you went though. I think I would have just given up when my number didn't go in the first time, I can understand the need for free coffee though. Let this be a warning to all those who think that they might get free coffee from Starbucks. Lol
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Incredible story indeed.
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Great for the Business Operations Manager, Janet to connect with you. I had a less than perfect experience at a Starbucks in Virginia, that the manager made up for in multiple free drink coupons. I am now to wired to complain 🙂
http://greetingsvirginia.com/homes/413-virginia-n…
Your complementary beverage ID is: 73995
Customer surveys are the key to connecting with your customers, you can’t fall short! Starbucks really dropped the ball, maybe the ad on the receipts was old? Nbri
In Guad.Jal.Mx is the same [email protected], Never can redeem your receipt, the web page made the same crazy thing and the telephone odissey is worst, because the “Tick tock. Tick tock.” period is infinite or until you hang off.