STARBUCKS

Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service

Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service

Problem Statement

Year 2002, Starbuck market research has shown that business face gaps to meet customer expectations in terms of their customer satisfaction (Aminattaheri et.al, 2013). On interpretation n of market research, company senior vice president Christine Day concluded that service speed was the main reason for declining customer satisfaction. She proposed that the company has to improve its customer service, and each order should be delivering within 3 minutes. However, this solution was would cost the company around 20 additional labor hours each week thereby $40 million each year. I this paper I will try to analyze that, Is 20 seconds increase in serving time really worth cost $40 million each year? In later part of this paper, I will seek alternative approaches in order to achieve higher benefits.

Situation Analysis

Customers

From the last couple of decades, typical Starbuck consumers have changed drastically. Research indicates that newer customers of Starbuck are less well education, young, lower income and frequently less visited to Starbuck Coffeehouse (Sica, 2009). There are several factors that influence customer satisfaction; service speed and overall service were identify as most influential (Appendix Exhibit A).

Competition

In both profitability and operation size, Starbucks is clearly ahead of its competitors. Main competitors are small scale coffee chain life Caribou Coffee and bagel chain like Dunkin Donuts (Exhibit 6). We observe that there are many coffee houses on rising, but Starbucks still hold their edge.

Company

The overall objective of a company is to establish itself as a most respected brand in the world by focusing on its product innovation and retail expansion. Starbucks had around 20 million customers and more than 5000 stores all around the world (Exhibit 2 and 6). Historically, company spends fewer amounts on its advertising. Company also focuses on employee friendly organization that motivates employees to show a positive attitude. Results show that Sawbucks market share in coffee grew by 30% between the period of 2000 and 2002 and it also expected to grow by further 62% by year 2005 (Sica, 2009).

Context

Starbuck continually investing in new product innovation is to improve business growth (Exhibit 1). However, current market share indicates that customer service perceived unsatisfactory.

Alternative Remedies Or Solutions

SWOT

This study is considering as an efficient tool that has primary driver to developing and evaluating alternatives.

Strength

According to survey 2002, Qualitative Brand Meaning and Top Attributes Consumer Associate with the Starbucks Brand show the company strength. According ...