There MUST be an app for the iPhone called Customer Service. I am certain of it. It goes like this: I work near Bryant Park. I never go to the Starbucks on the corner of 42nd and Sixth, because it is one of the smallest Starbucks ever built, there are studio apartments in NYC bigger than this joint, which is really a testament as to why the brewmeisters at 'bucks have had their fair share of problems in the last few years: build a ridiculously small coffee shop for one of the busiest, most congested street corners in the WORLD.
Anyway, the line is never short here unless it's six thirty a.m. on a Saturday. So, imagine my surprise as I am walking by on a Thursday afternoon at 3:15pm, in a soft September mist, and I spy only ONE person on line. Well, I was desperate for a latte, a triple venti one, and, seeing the opportunity to spend $5.43 for an afternoon jolt, I leaped at the chance!
Cashier take my order, no problem, smiles happily as he takes my cash. Shouts out the beverage order, and uses a marker to write on the cup, indicating what sort of drink is expected.
I move down towards the corral, the waiting area, as I see the barista casually step forward to take the cup that was marked up for my drink. She remarks to the cashier-"you've got to tell me that again." And she takes the cup, and marks something else on it. Hmm, I think. Not a red flag- yellow card, maybe, but not a red flag.
Barista moves to the espresso machine. I am watching with soon to be caffeinated nerves, as she searches around for something. Must be the milk. She grabs the silver steaming pitcher. She's ready to make my drink.
She leaves.
What? She disappears? Gone! Where? She turned around, and with the look that something terrible was wrong, something so urgent, she bounds up a stairwell and disappears into the ceiling! There must be milk up there that she's retrieving. Something so imperative to ensure that my beverage is properly made, she cannot do without it! Go barista, go! Get the necessary tools for java perfection! I won't stop you!
Then: she's back! Here she comes! With steps of determination she descends, back to street level, to create a masterful brew to warm the cockles of my heart. She has the magic tool in her hand: it's her...iPhone!!!!!! What the f--k is that? Is the recipe for my beverage- a triple venti-no foam-soy latte, embedded on a file in her iPhone???? It must be! No, wait, she's putting her earbuds into her ears! She's scanning---her iTunes? Cues up a playlist?? She presses play, and then slides that $399 piece of 3G hardware into her pink hoodie pocket, and, to ensure workplace safety, removes one of the earbuds, the one closest to the cashier, so she can hear all of his precise instructions!
Now, she begins to steam the soymilk for my beverage, brews the espresso, and assembles the drink. She calls it out loud, despite that I am the ONLY person waiting for a beverage. Yes, there are two other customers in this coffee closet, but they are Germans, arguing in lots of syllables with each other over money, counting the singles in their palms, trying to define what a regular cup of brewed coffee goes for. Me, I am the all important one, waiting for the promise of 'if we don't brew your coffee just right, we'll make another one' to be fulfilled.
I get my drink from the pink hoodie. She fumbles with the lid, and acts as if it everything is secure, and I take the cup, and say thank you anyway...and I leave out the door, onto the crowded street, as I have to make my way to a meeting. I walk, and walk, and suddenly realize that I have coffee spilling on my thumb...and down the front of my nice WHITE shirt, there it is, the lid was NOT on tight, as the pink hoodie barista feigned it to be, and it could not be tight, as the rim of the cup was crimped slightly, a damaged cup, for which I have no backup plan. The stupid plastic sippy cup lid- which I despise, I prefer flip top flat lids, because I don't want my coffee tasting like melting plastic--was rendered useless due to the defective cup. I was now blocks away and already near tardy for my meeting, coffee stained, despondent over the spilled coffee that was lost and not going to be consumed, approximately 57 cents worth, I am sure- AND- I am pretty pissed off at the pink hoodie.
WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE THINKING? Is music so important, or necessary, to make a beverage? The most important thing there is the customer standing in front of you. Her actions were purely selfish, and that's what's wrong not only with just one element of Starbucks, but with many aspects of customer service in ANY industry, be it food, coffee, or retail.
Attention managers and district managers and executives AND servers, baristas and crew members and sales associates: treat every customer with respect, kindness and thanks for coming to your place of business, to spend their money and time to purchase your food, coffee, goods and yes, SERVICES. Share a genuine smile, and be appreciative- without that customer, YOU DON'T HAVE A JOB.
I've said this before: great service starts with the environment that the servers work in; if there is great management where service is the emphasis, where servers are taught EMPATHY, and to really understand hospitality. If this happens at the top, it creates an environment of great service--and then, our levels of customer service would be off the charts.
And we wouldn't need the iPhone-customer service app. Then again, the 3G network is so damned crowded and unreliable, you wouldn't be able to load it in time, anyway. Who at customer service can I talk to about that?
And that's the view from my table.
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