Starbucks Delivering Customer Service

Adopting a qualitative approach, this report provides an evaluation and critical analysis of the service process and service environment to evaluate the specialty coffee house chain, Starbucks Singapore. The report evaluates the purpose and value of the Starbucks servicescape design, a descriptive illustration of the service environment with a detailed and clear blue-printing of the service process

starbucks Corp., an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington, has expanded rapidly since its opening in 1971. These outrageous success was due to its well-developed strategy vision which lay out the company's strategic course in developing and strengthening its business. Starbucks is a global corporation that sells authentic coffee in 30 countries, reporting revenues of nearly $5.1 billion in 2006. The main goal of Starbucks is to embrace diversity by applying the highest standards of excellence. Starbucks strives to perfect the relationship with the working class by making the service as fast as possible because they believe that every customer has their own personal rate. One

Customers enable the organization to treat each customer in a different way on the basis of the contribution they make towards the firm (Kleinaltenkamp & Wengler, 2007). The analysis of customer lifetime value aids the organization to rank and order customers on the basis of their contribution to organization’s revenues. It also helps the organization to determine as to how much it can invest in retaining customers to gain positive returns on the investment.

People love to drink coffee. Coffee shops, independently owned or chains are every corner. Statistics show that people are taking more coffee every day. It is a very profitable business.

Additionally with its growth strategy Starbucks seemed to have lost the ability to communicate its values to its customers. Note that Starbucks research team discovered that between 2000 and 2001 there was an increase in customers who felt that Starbucks primarily cared about making money and building more stores. This is an indication that the company lost sight of the components making up its value proposition. Customer service was a major component of Starbucks value proposition but according to the research team by 2002 it discovered that Starbucks was not meeting expectations in terms of customer satisfaction. In fact the data collected by the research team indicated that 10% of customers would like to see improvements in service especially speed of service and 19% would like to have friendlier more attentive staff.

Property, plant and equipment are the major source of future service potential to companies. The major objectives of property, plant and equipment accounting is to provide information about companies’ stewardship, accounting for the use and deterioration of property, plant and equipment, plan for project costing and budgeting, provide information for tax authorities, and provide rate-making information for regulated industries (Schroeder, Clark & Cathey, 2010). To help determine how effective and efficient companies utilize their property, plant and equipment, the asset utilization ratios are being calculated. Asset utilization ratio is a measure that determines whether the company is efficiently utilizing its assets to generate income or just wasting it (Hartman, 2015).

ticket size) X (4.4 customer life years)] $921.78. Calculating sales amount for the highly satisfied customer using the same method shows an amount of [(7.2 visits/mo) X (12 months) X ($4.42 avg. ticket size) X (8.3 customer life years)] $3,169.67. The sales figure for the highly satisfied customer is nearly three and a half times as much as the satisfied customer. This is why it is very important for Starbucks to figure out how to provide more customer satisfaction. The company needs to do research to find out if quality of service has actually declined. There is always the societal perception that a large mega brand is incapable of delivering customer intimacy. This perception is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. It’s just a matter of Starbucks collecting accurate information regarding both quality and quantity of its customer service. The company needs to take a look at itself and determine if its customer service strategy had changed from 1992 to 2002. This is an era indicative of the massive growth. Starbucks needs to answer the question, “Did we lose our focus on customer service quality by concentrating too much on opening more stores?”.

By analyzing the qualitative aspects of Starbucks, the reader can gain a better understanding of the why and how of the organization. This report will examine the company through four integrated lenses: company history, leadership, culture, and strategy. These four components of the company build off one another and help to provide a holistic view of the Starbucks Empire and the health of the company. The history of Starbucks provides understanding of how the company has evolved into a global brand and the direction of future direction. The Starbucks company culture offers insight into the values that drive the company and how members of the organization interact with each other, customers, and other stakeholders. Starbucks’ evolving strategy incorporates the company’s history, both successes and failures, to refine approaches that worked in the past and improving those that no longer serve the company well. Additionally, the innovation and commitment to consumer experience embody the corporate culture,

B. Industry Analysis C. Company Analysis I -Target Market & Position -Company Strategies -Competitive Analysis -Strength & Weakness D. Stock Recommendation

P.3-4  Starbucks also sold coffee products through non-company-operated retail channels; these so called "Specialty Operations" accounted for 15% of net revenues. About 27% of these revenues came from North American food-service accounts, that is, sales of whole-bean and ground coffees to hotels, airlines, restaurants, and the like. Another 18% carne from domestic retail store licenses that, in North America, were only granted when there was no other way to achieve access to desirable retail space (e.g., in airports). The remaining 55% of specialty revenues carne from a variety of sources, including international licensed stores, grocery stores and warehouse clubs (Kraft Foods handled marketing and distribution for Starbucks in this channel), and online and mail-order sales. Starbucks also had a joint venture with Pepsi-Cola to distribute bottled Frappucino beverages in North America, as well as a partnership with Dreyer 's Grand Ice Cream to develop and distribute a line of premium ice creams.

Two shots of espresso, a dash of white chocolate flavored sauce, 16 oz. of steamed milk, a swirl of sweetened whipped cream, and one happy customer. Coffee has become the crutch that millions of Americans have held on to in order to get through their day. However, Starbucks has become the most successful brew in the business. On any given morning, it is guaranteed that a large line of groggy human beings will be impatiently waiting to get a hold of their precious grande white mocha described above. In fact, “more than 70 million people worldwide enter a Starbucks café every week”(Lorenzetti). But is it just the beverages that keep the customers coming back? The Starbucks coffee company has found a way to not only sell drinks, but also a lifestyle. They have created a brand power that even a non-coffee drinker is willing to see value in. A small shop in Pikes Place market has evolved into a global company. On one street corner in Washington, the green and white cup is sold on each side of the street. Although there are a variety of coffee shops to choose from, Starbucks separates itself from its competitors in a variety of ways due to its effective organization. The way they run their stores has guaranteed millions of loyal customers. Overall the organizational coordination and structure of the Starbucks Company has differentiated them from the other competitors, and has satisfied millions of customers throughout the process.

Customers: The demographics of a usual Starbucks consumer have altered extremely in the new years. In the Starbucks case documents innovative consumers of Starbucks are younger, a smaller amount knowledgeable, low pay, less frequent visited to the coffeehouse and had very dissimilar insights. The general outlook of Starbucks is very short on 25% by novel consumers while the consistent consumers stood in 44%.Although numerous features subjective customer satisfaction, generally service and quickness of service were recognized as the greatest significant; a rapid glimpse at Starbucks 's fresh customer satisfaction reveals that consumers did in

Starbucks’ front-line staff and main representatives are carefully selected, motivated and empowered to develop long-term customer relationships. A barista in any of their stores should reflect not only conscientiousness in service processes and etiquette, but demonstrate genuine care for customers (Starbucks Apprenticeship Barista Mastery and Customer Service, n.d.). Furthermore, Starbucks has implemented a three tiered rewards program to drive loyalty amongst repeat Starbucks card members. The Starbucks Card aims to provide convenience, and increase the frequency of purchases by members. Customers are encouraged to become members of Starbucks through receiving a free beverage upon joining, after which they recieve a free cake with a beverage purchase in their birthday month, and receiving a personalized Gold Card. This not only forms a deeper bond between Starbucks and their customers due to feeling like a “member” of their organization, but consistent maintenance of this deep bond through continuous reminders that members receive a superior and exclusive service experience from Starbucks. (Starbucks.com.sg,

Starbucks had a very tight value proposition that matched the needs of the well conceptualized target customer base. Its mantra was ‘Live Coffee’. Their unique value proposition was based on three elements, premium coffee, the right ambience and best service. Starbucks claimed its coffee quality to be the best in the world. A lot of their revenue came from the sale of whole beans. They strived to get a perfect ambience. The labors were trained on honing their soft and hard skills to provide “Customer Intimacy”.

The CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Howard Schultz pointed that the main reason from the decline of “Starbucks Experience” was that the number of Starbucks shops increased sharply from only 1,000 to 13,000 within ten years. Other people considered their brand has been commercialized, and the customers hadn’t had enough enthusiasms to appreciate every moment of their coffee any longer. He suggested that Starbucks should re-find its origin. Nevertheless, his advice apparently was opposite to the