Comments on: Four days in Paris: what I learned about customer experience

By: Jon King

Jon King — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:22:36 +0000

This is a topic that should be covered in some form of social edict class in high school… and so applicable to just living… sounds like a great trip. One of my brothers return from the Alps and was amazed to report he couldn’t get a coffee to go for the life of him. What happened to civility?

By: Kathy Milette

Kathy Milette — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 02:28:40 +0000

I love that you mention “Functionality should be predictable.” I feel that in our quest to be innovative and original, we are sometimes left not knowing how to proceed. Boundaries don’t hinder innovation…they just force us to be more creative.

By: Megan Lamb

Megan Lamb — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:30:55 +0000

In regard to your first point:
As a current Starbucks employee, I am witness to many customers stumbling over our very specific language. While there are any number of ways a person can stir-up our mish-mash of italian, english and seemingly made-up words, there are two different ways in which the employees respond.
The catty, grumpy and terse correction or the friendly commiseration. The unfortunate thing that some baristas don’t seem to realize, is that they are often the cause of the unhappy transaction to follow because, as you pointed out, a person is inclined to feel embarassed and defensive when corrected without tact. Another thing baristas seem to forget is that we are immersed in this Sbux-language for several hours every week and that we are obivously going to find it more natural than those first-time, once-a-week or even once-a-day customers.
A little humility goes a long way, we all have our anecdotes of feeling out of our element in stores or establishments with their own strong culture and it can put everyone involved more at ease when we bear this in mind.