Starbucks Uses Surprise and Delight To Win Customers

People want more from us than they expect.  Our customers, whoever they are, expect certain things.  They require our product or service to meet some minimum standard in order for them to continue buying it.  However, what they really want is to be delighted and pleasantly surprised by how we do more for them than they would ever expect.  When we do this, we turn a customer into a fan!

The Starbucks Experience

I recently wrote an article titled That Is Not My Job! where I discussed how we are compensated exactly equal to the service that we provide.  I said that our goal is to make our customers say, “Wow!”.  After writing that article, I began reading The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Joseph Michelli.  Starbucks is an excellent, real-life example of a company that understands these principles and by consistently applying them, they have experienced phenomenal success.  According to the book written in 2007:

• $10,000 invested in the Starbucks IPO in 1992 would be worth $650,000 today!
• Since 1992, the S&P rose 200%, the Nasdaq 280%, but Starbucks rose 5000%!
• The company opens 5 new stores a day every day of the year!

Starbucks accomplished all of this with very little in the way of advertising.  Think about it.  How often do you see an ad for Starbucks?  The reason is that they don’t need it.  They don’t just talk customer service, they deliver it.  As a result, word of mouth has made them incredibly successful.  Their customers are so delighted with the experience Starbucks provides and the products they serve that they tell their friends and invite them to the stores.  Starbucks doesn’t have to ask for referrals.  People do it naturally because they are impressed.

Consumers want the predictable and consistent, with an occasional positive twist or added value thrown in.  ~The Starbucks Experience

The surprise in Cracker Jacks is the key.

This is the secret of Cracker Jacks.  People like and expect good caramelized popcorn and peanuts when they open a box, but they are delighted by the surprise that is thrown in as part of the deal.  Starbucks uses this same concept in its stores.  People expect high quality coffee that is consistently prepared when they visit a Starbucks, but they are pleasantly delighted with the attentive service and feeling of community in the stores.

Unfortunately, many companies focus too much on the basic ingredients and not enough on adding that extra something that differentiates them from their competition and builds brand loyalty.  ~The Starbucks Experience

This feeling of community and belonging is really the magic of Starbucks in my opinion.  I just like being in certain stores.  The company has created a culture where their partners, which is what Starbucks calls their employees, are trained to make people feel welcome and special.  They are empowered to make things right for the customer which creates an incredible sense of loyalty.

From California to Afghanistan with love.

In one great example from the book, a barista and family member of a soldier that was deployed to Afghanistan organized an effort through the store where she worked to provide twice-monthly shipments of free coffee to him.  This gave customers and other partners a way to show their support, but the story doesn’t stop there.  Sergeant Matthews and some other soldiers in his unit organized a makeshift Starbucks-like shop at their base.  Pictures of this makeshift shop with a Starbucks banner flying overhead made it onto the Internet.  When this caught the attention of the media, military legal officials tried to get Matthews to shut the place down in fear of copyright violations.  However, Starbucks responded by not only approving of the use of their name, but by asking, “Is there anything else you need?”  A coffee grinder was then sent from the Starbucks Support Center to the soldiers! 

I cannot tell you the joy this coffee shop brought us.  It was a surprisingly wonderful taste of home.  My fellow soldiers and I will be forever grateful to the baristas, the Atascadero store manager, Troy, and everyone at Starbucks for their support.  ~Sergeant Matthews from The Starbucks Experience

Talk about creating brand loyalty!  This example started with a partner in a store with an idea.  The idea could have easily been squelched by her manager.  Why let an employee be distracted by what some might consider a self-serving need to help a family member?  The momentum and goodwill created by this effort could have been crushed by corporate when it learned that the Starbucks name and logo were being used without its consent.  However, the culture and attitude preached from the top down in the company prevented this from happening.  Instead, the whole thing was written up in a national bestseller!

Once a business culture embraces the importance of generating joy, pleasing others takes on a life of its own.  ~The Starbucks Experience

If only more companies could get this and embrace it, then nothing would hold them back.  We would truly enjoy better service and a more fulfilling world to live in.  Way to go Starbucks!  Your effort doesn’t have to be quite as dramatic as this, but even little unexpected delights can make your customers say, “Wow!”

Photos by miskan and adamhenning and [ AndreA ]

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