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Executive Times |
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2007 Book Reviews |
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The
Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary by
Joseph Michelli |
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Rating: |
*** |
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(Recommended) |
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Click on title
or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Espresso Consultant
Joseph Michelli spent two years examining Starbucks and in his new book, The Starbucks
Experience, he presents five principles that highlight the reasons for
their success. The five principles are:
2.
Everything Matters 3.
Surprise and Delight 4.
Embrace Resistance 5.
Leave Your Mark Individual
chapters of The Starbucks Experience illustrate this
principles with example and explanation. Here’s an excerpt, from the
beginning of the chapter titled, “Principle 3: Surprise and Delight,” pp.
82-87: The idea behind the
Surprise and Delight principle isn’t a new one. In fact, one of the most
famous commercial examples is more than a hundred years old. In the late
1800s at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Businesses today are
increasingly being challenged to provide the caramelized popcorn and peanuts
as well as the “prize.” Consumers want the predictable and consistent, with
an occasional positive twist or added value thrown in. Psychologists who
study happiness (the correct psychological! research term is subjective well-being) often talk about
the importance of predictability for safety and security (the caramelized
popcorn, if you will), mixed with small increments of variety to offset
boredom (the prize). Unfortunately, many
companies focus too much on the basic ingredients and not enough on adding
that extra something that
differentiates them from their competition and builds brand loyalty.
Starbucks leaders, however, have made a firm commitment to creating an
experience of Surprise and Delight in many areas of their business. Starbucks
management seeks ways to implement subjective well-being for customers and
staff—which, in turn, has a profound effect on loyalty, community, and
profit. The Expectation Effect When Cracker Jack®
made its debut, customers were truly surprised. But much has changed in a
hundred years, and today’s consumers are far more discerning and far harder
to please. To complicate matters further, customers have developed a
seemingly insatiable desire for the unique and amazing. Thanks to
technologies and innovations that seemed impossible only a few short years
ago, we have come to live in an age of “I gotta
have it now, and it better be great.” Today, most of us expect a
Cracker Jack®—like prize in just about everything we buy, from televisions (high
definition), to tiny phones that double as cameras, to talking cars that tell
us when to make the next right turn. Most consumers have such a high
threshold for what constitutes a cutting-edge product that they thumb their
noses at almost anything that doesn’t “blow them away.” We all seem to be
waiting for the new wrinkle, the twist, the unexpected magical prize at the
bottom of some sticky box. Although it’s a bit
counterintuitive, leaders understand that even satisfied customers are
looking for their purchases to offer more pleasure, joy, or play. People want
more zing, but not necessarily a full-blown production. Starbucks leadership
shows how any business can accomplish this mix of the expected and the
unexpected. In the process, it demonstrates that you can and must remain true
to the spirit and values of your company. When a Business “Gets It” Customers naturally expect businesses to respond to their
needs when they are making routine requests during normal business hours.
However, when a business defies the traditional, when it “colors outside the
lines,” customers often receive exceptional experiences. It is this type of
nontraditional approach that surprised Michael Cage as he pulled an
all-nighter for a work project. As he writes on his “Marketing and
Entrepreneurship” blog, at 5 a.m. Michael decided
that it was time to get out of his house and take a break. His first thought
was to reward himself with a predictable favorite, a vanilla latte. He hopped
in his car and drove to his local Starbucks, anticipating his treat the whole
way. “As I pulled up to the
store,” he explains, “I knew something was terribly wrong; the sign was
still dark, and the lights were off inside. I stopped the car and went up to
the door to look at the hours. It was an hour before they opened, so I turned
around to walk back to my car and figured the coffee would have to wait.. . . And then the lock was thrown, the door
flew open, and one of my regular baristas stepped out and asked me whether I
wanted something to drink.” As Michael says, “Starbucks ‘gets it.” While no company, including
Starbucks, gets it right every time, Michael’s
barista certainly “got it” that time. His barista’s decision to open the
doors cost Starbucks nothing and gained it everything—a customer for life!
For Michael, it was the surprise in his box of caramelized popcorn, a
surprise that enhanced his already positive relationship with the brand. Like Michael’s, most
positive unexpected events are natural and spontaneous, not artificial or
forced. There is a need, and—BAM—someone steps in and fills it. Strangely,
many customer needs are never actually stated, but determining them doesn’t
require psychic ability. It’s just a matter of being open and attentive. That
ability to anticipate the surprises that customers will enjoy is simply a
part of Starbucks service-minded corporate culture. A perfect example of this
comes from a neighborhood library branch that was relocating. A number of
librarians from that branch were daily customers at a nearby Starbucks. When
the Starbucks manager found out about the relocation, she decided that she
would buy the librarians coffee and take it to them at their new branch. She
also found the closest Starbucks store to the new library and introduced the
librarians to the baristas at that store. Leadership sets the tone for the
importance of anticipating needs and surprising those whom the business
serves. Whether it’s brewing
coffee, designing software, or mopping floors, a commitment to Surprise and
Delight literally transforms the very nature of work. Employment stops being
about the words written in job descriptions and expands to include offering
unexpected experiences. These unexpected
experiences occur often in a company like Starbucks, which is rich with employees
who are looking to give customers positive surprises. Dr. Peter Nicholls, a
British professor of cell and molecular biology, found this to be true when
he slipped and fell in the street outside a Star-bucks
in Since Peter had left most
of his money at his hotel earlier in the day, the store manager initially
paid for Peter’s care and got him medication and a sling for his injured arm.
As Peter puts it, “They clearly worked together in an astonishing way. At
least one of the baristas had just finished work, but there wasn’t any issue
about her jumping in to help. She could have said, ‘I’m not on duty. I’m
going home.’ But she didn’t. She stayed with me.” Michael, the librarians,
and Peter all experienced welcome surprises because committed employees did
the unexpected for them. But surprises don’t have to be spontaneous. In many
cases, the most powerful surprises are those that are planned. A regular Starbucks
customer, Mary, shares an experience of a well-organized surprise—the kind of
event that takes advance planning to pull off successfully. Mary went into
Starbucks on April 15 . . . Tax
Day! She was stressed.
She had just mailed what seemed like an overly generous payment to the IRS
when she encountered an unexpected corporate Starbucks promotion. As Mary put it, “Like I
should be spending any money at all, I went into Starbucks to take my mind
off my suffering. I walked up to the counter and told my barista, Thomas,
that I wanted a cup of tea. He asked if I wanted Calm™ tea, causing me to
wonder exactly how frazzled I looked. When I said, ‘Calm™ would be good,’ he
said, ‘Great, because today Star-bucks is offering a free cup of Calm’~ to
all customers.” Mary adds, “Okay, the Calm™ tea didn’t wash away my IRS pain,
but to this day I remember that drink. They didn’t have to give me the tea,
but they organized the event, and I benefited.” The difference between good
and great can often be the willingness of leadership to structure surprising
moments around calendar opportunities. For the most part, great
surprises occur in our lives and the lives of our customers when someone, or
some group of people, does something unexpected. It’s not the “required”
surprise fortieth birthday party; it’s the occasional note to a client or
colleague for no other reason than that he was in your thoughts. It’s not a
calculated marketing strategy; it’s just the little things people do when
they take the time to care. Starbucks leadership often
initiates a surprise event that is not primarily aimed at self-promotion. For
example, on one occasion, Starbucks partners surprised customers in their
stores with a product you can’t even buy there. To celebrate summer and
National Ice Cream Month, baristas served one million free cups of ice cream
at 6,000 Starbucks locations for an unadvertised “ice cream social.” Even
though Star-bucks sells ice cream in supermarkets,
it doesn’t sell it in its stores. So to make this event happen, ice cream was
sent to stores via FedEx overnight delivery. The ice cream social was
simply an opportunity to treat customers. Starbucks leadership sees great
value in creating positive surprises, as evidenced by the effort involved in
orchestrating the complexities of an ice cream social. And this extra effort
definitely worked to get the attention of customers. Martta
Rose appreciated the ice cream, saying, “I never expected to get ice cream at
Starbucks. It was wonderful, probably the best ice cream I’ve ever had. It
was a nice break from the day.” The event also succeeded in
bringing in people who had no plans to visit Starbucks that day. Jill Davis
admitted, “I was actually leaving my job at a rival coffee shop across the
street, and I was walking home. A Starbucks barista was standing outside
handing out samples of the ice cream to passersby. I am a Starbucks fan—as
well as an ice cream fan—so I accepted the barista’s offer and enjoyed it on
the rest of my walk home. How great is that?” You can drink
a double shot over the course of each chapter in The Starbucks
Experience. There may also be ideas to apply to your own workplace.
Mostly, The
Starbucks Experience tells some interesting stories about people at work.
Steve Hopkins,
April 25, 2007 |
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The recommendation rating for
this book appeared in the May 2007
issue of Executive Times URL for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The
Starbucks Experience.htm For Reprint Permission,
Contact: Hopkins & Company, LLC • E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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