Ok, so they probably didn’t read my blog entry from a few weeks ago about reacting to customer problems. .. but they did act in a way that proves the value of my point…

My wife and I were driving somewhere and she suggested (actually, told me) that we should stop so she could get her Starbucks ‘fix’.

We parked, walked in and proceeded to wait in line until it was our turn to order.

After we ordered we stood and waited for her coffee.  Then we waited some more.  After that, we waited some more.

I noticed that the people receiving their drinks had ordered after we did.

I mentioned this to my wife but she assured me that they had ordered ‘straight’ coffee and that her’s was special in some way and would take longer to prepare.

After another few minutes (I was starting to get annoyed), I urged her to remind the coffee maker (I refuse to say ‘Barrista’) that we were waiting.

Needless to say, the coffee maker was surprised that we had not been helped.  Clearly my wife’s drink was not special… we had simply been skipped.

60 seconds later we had my wife’s coffee, the heartfelt apology of the staff member AND a certificate for a free cup of any drink/any size for next time.

I went from feeling annoyed & ignored to feeling appreciative and impressed.

THEY GET IT!

We didn’t complain or act annoyed.  Starbucks simply seized the opportunity to create good will. It worked.  We went from feeling annoyed to feeling appreciated in about 2 seconds.

How can you exceed the expectation of your customer to create added good will?

Marc Bluestone