“If you don’t like customer service, you’re probably not going to like working at Starbucks. We’re in that transition of getting people to understand that,” Niccol said. “When I saw that in the Reddit thread, I was like, ‘OK, we’re making progress on what the standard of services that we want [are].’”
One complication with Niccol’s vision of a Starbucks filled with lingering patrons is that 70% of store orders—including 40% drive-thru and 30% mobile, according to the CEO—come from customers looking to grab a coffee and go. He said expectations of store employees to greet and serve customers is the same, regardless of how long they are actually in the store.
“When the ticket comes out…it doesn’t matter to [baristas] whether they’re doing a mobile order or a cafe order,” Niccol said. “What matters, though, for the customer is the mobile order expectation is, you’ve got to be on time and accurate. The in-cafe customer, they want a little bit more connection, and then they also want to know that you’re going to be on time.”
“This is still a craft business,” Niccol said. “I think it’s important for you to see the espresso shot get pulled, the milk get steamed, the actual handcrafting of the beverage. I know there’s a lot of people that believe you can have a robot do it. I just think it takes the soul out of the experience.”
