I was browsing a Facebook group, and saw a post from a barista who was irked at this scenario: The customer complained that his or her beverage was wrong but did not want it remade.
I was reminded that everybody wants something different at Starbucks. No two customers are the same. Standing in your line, you’ve got all these personality types:
1) The Speed of Service Customer: He’s huffing and puffing that he has to wait more than 30 seconds to order and doesn’t understand why it takes more than two minutes to make a latte. He growls a lot. I never understand this person: I assume that he or she walks around with high blood pressure at all times and nothing is ever fast enough.
2) The Connection Customer: You know this type. They’re fine when there’s no line behind them, but you as a barista have to cut them off from talking when they’re at the register. They want to hear about your life plans, your education, your career, and talk your ear off. They have no concept of what 30 seconds is. I fear – this is true – I might fall into this group. Ugh. I’m working on improving. In some ways, they might not care what beverage you shove into their hands if they felt like they had a good visit. This is a regular customer.
3) The Perfect Drink Customer: Please make my foam perfect. I don’t want any bubbles. Can you do a half-pump of white mocha and a half-pump of mocha and add two Splenda? It’s a grande with one decaf shot.
4) The “I”m Broke” Treat Seeking Customer: This customer doesn’t come to Starbucks much. He or she considers it a treat and is appalled that the cost of an iced vanilla latte is more than buying a gallon of milk in the grocery store. He or she has to watch every penny and so may question the total charge every single time.
5) Any combination of the above.
What happens if the beverage isn’t correct? You’ve heard these words before: “My drink is wrong!”
1) The Speed of Service Customer: He or she grabs the drink (this person is also most likely to grab someone else’s food or drink) runs out the door, and has gone two blocks before gulping down half the beverage. This person almost never stays in the store to complain. Actually, this customer is the one that Starbucks risks losing permanently. It’s not worth their time to say anything. All they know is that their drink tasted off. They make a mental note not to go to Starbucks again and try some local shop. Starbucks doesn’t have the chance to recover this person. This is, of course, dangerous on a massive scale. Even a massive ship will sink with a thousand small holes.
2) The Connection Customer: He or she wants to be heard. They want their complaint acknowledged. They want to be thanked for their feedback. They want a genuine a response: “I”m sorry your Passion Tango Iced Tea wasn’t shaken. That’s a good point you brought up. I’ll be sure to remind others that the standard is that it’s shaken.” It’s quite possible, if this person felt heard enough, they don’t care about the drink being remade.
3) The Perfect Drink Customer: The drink should be remade. That’s all there is to it. No hassle about it. Remade three times if that’s what it takes.
4) The “I’m Broke” Customer: This isn’t everyone. But if you only go to Starbucks once in a while, it’s a confusing experience. The menu keeps changing. You aren’t really sure if what you ordered three months ago is even around anymore. And then, if you just spent $5 on a drink and you couldn’t afford to do so, a Recovery Certificate is going to make your mouth water. Remake the drink and possibly offer a recovery certificate. This person is also least likely to use a Starbucks card. He or she doesn’t go to Starbucks very much and so may not even be aware that there are rewards. This could be a good person to have a conversation with about the benefits of MyStarbucksRewards.
5) Any combination of above: This is tough because Starbucks kind of teaches a results-oriented solution to “My Drink is Wrong.” Just do the best you can.
The facts are this: With seventy million customers a week going through the doors of Starbucks, you are bound to see all of this at some point. It’s silly to think all customers want the same approach to an incorrect beverage.
Please share this! 🙂
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Wow! I’m totally a #2. My local baristas all know me by name and I’ve met their spouses/children. Amazing….
Have me met?
@Mike – Hi there! Thank you for the comment! I’ve wondered that if the readers of this site or mostly #2 – I would think that you would have to be fairly regular to even find a website like this.
The only thing I don’t understand is when a customer complains just to complain. Usually, if you have a complaint, there’s something I (or a manager) can do to correct the situation. Let us offer a solution! Give us a suggestion for a solution! Don’t complain just to complain.
Melody, thank you so much for another good post. As a Bar Barista I tend to call their drink out accordingly. For example. I Often call their name out first identify them then I said their drink such as Grande 1 pump TN,1 pump WM,Soy,NO WHIP, STIR WM. Then I said, please have a sip before you leave. That way, we could eliminate a lots of confusion.
Spot on!
I would also add the customer, who if their barista of choice does not happen to prepare their beverage, the beverage is automatically “made wrong”, regardless … LOL;)
I have customers that would wait until my break is over to make sure their handcrafted beverage is made by me… barista life :))
Yeah, I’m pretty much a #2 as well. Also, what do you mean “my drink is wrong”? I can’t remember that ever happening…
Melody wow this post hits home for me because just this weekend at a SB store not my local one actually two SB stores the partners just could not understand why I did not want my iced green tea shaken nor that I do not like lots of ice. I sometimes give up and just take the drink while other times I ask them to make it over. At my local store I guess I could be considered the Connection Customer but I tend to be quiet when I can see the long lines and the frustration on the faces of the partners. Very interesting post. Thank you.
I *do* understand, to a point, people who complain just to complain. I am usually perfectly capable of finding a solution myself, and often want to do so – I just sometimes need to vent to someone who will say “Wow, that sucks! :)” before I move on to solution finding 🙂 I don’t do that at store level though – I vent to trusted friends/family/work peers, you know?
I also sometimes don’t have my drink remade, but inform a partner if they’re doing something incorrectly – in the example – not shaking the passion tea? That wouldn’t make my drink unpalatable to me, but I would want to make sure that the error they made was a one time ‘forgetfulness’ thing, and not a consistent recipe error. I will tend to phrase that kind of feedback in a ‘just so you know…’ kind of manner though, so I don’t know if it would qualify as a complaint 🙂
I’ve been a partner for 8 years. I’ve dealt with every type of customer one hundred times over. I never don’t offer to improve the customer’s experience when it isn’t to their satisfaction, but it irkes me to no end when they try their drink (either they’ve had it a thousand times or it’s their first time trying it) and it wasn’t what they were expecting. If I offer to remake your drink, let me remake it. Let me feel like I’ve improved your experience. Don’t tell me you’ll “choke it down and won’t get it again.” At that point you just want something to complain about. Rant over. I love your blog! 🙂
Sometimes I do get a drink that doesn’t taste right, but I’ve never said anything about it. I figure the person who made it the first time is going to make it again, so if they didn’t do it right the first time, then they won’t the second… And I’ve never had a drink that was so nasty I couldn’t drink it, but I have had a few that were pretty bad.
I am none of the customers above… Maybe closest to #1, when I have my 3 yo it is more about chasing him around wishing my drink could get made faster rather than I usually drive thru or go to a Target one (where he is corralled in a cart lol!!) so mostly how long it takes doesn’t really matter.
This is so great! I fall between a 2 and a 3 – but I admit I’m always a 3, I just hate when I don’t have the opportunity to address before leaving the store. In fact I will never go through a drive through for that reason. I never explain it with a bad attitude either…I think attitude makes a big different. But I am the first to compliment when my foam is perfect…and always try to have something nice to say!
I’ll be interested to hear all the sides of this….barista and customer and the nuances between the types. It’s like the DISC profile of Starbucks! 🙂
I’m a 2/3 totally! I use to struggle getting extra foam on my drink, and I know, sometimes the foam doesn’t cooperate. After driving across the country drinking peppermint cappuccinos, I gave up. At my local shop, they all know what I like and make it so well!!! And yes, Aymee, I have my favorites. I always let them know if the drink is awesome.
I can be type 1, 2, and 3.
Sometimes I just want to get in and get out. Take the one store inside the Bellevue Square, it is a high traffic store. If the line didn’t move after a couple minutes, I walk away. There are Specialty’s Café and Tully’s in the shopping mall as well.
While I was at work, I went to the nearby Starbucks store in day-to-day basis. The baristas were nice and we chatted until there’s a customer behind me or during busy hours.
Since English isn’t my native language, the barista might not pick up I wanted soy milk. If that’s the case, I would ask for a remake. One time I ordered a grande size Clover brewed coffee, but the barista made me a tall size. I didn’t want to waste anything so I took the tall size. He apologized and gave me a recovery certificate.
As I recall, licensed stores (e.g. inside grocery stores) offered sup-par experience.
I’m definitely a type 2 customer. The baristas know my name, I know theirs. I think even the store manager knows my name (or at least he knows who I am when he sees me).
I have not had a drink made wrong, but I have had them taste different then I expected or not everything was added. To me that’s not made wrong, even though it technically is. It’ll be something like everything written on the cup wasn’t done (like drizzle around the sides of the cup). Not something I would complain about or that I feel needs to be remade. Then again because it’s happened at my usual store, I feel weird about complaining for something like that.
You know, random fact. This is part of our barista-training. 😉
I think I’m 5! I visit about 5-6 shops regularly and wouldn’t go to the same every day. I get recognized by a few different partners but the tend to move around a lot. In the “We Proudly Serve Starbucks” store that I go to I tend to be a number 1, just get it quick. I would definitely ask for a different drink if it was very bad though!
Maybe I missed it, but there is also another customer (one that I try to be be): friendly, respectfully personable, low-maintainence, and always leaves a tip. All the customers listed above seem to be of the unappealing variety!
I agree with Brian. I think I’m that type of customer as well. Up until recently, none of the baristas at the shop I frequent knew my name, but the one barista always remembered my drink. She just recently asked my name, I noted I didn’t much care if she remembered my name since she always remembered my drink 🙂
Brilliant!!
I don’t quite agree with these broad descriptions because there is another customer that the GOLD card was made for: the Starbucks addict that loves a great caramel macchiatto once or twice a week or a great cup of shaken sweet tea and goes as an indulgence to have a quality beverage and to enjoy a comforting ritual of a drink they love. I bring my kids in too when they have specials and they even have their own rewards cards. I buy bagged beans every so often and K cups too when I am buying my beverages and I participate in most promos. If my beverage isn’t right I will ask them to make it again or add a splash of lemonade to my tea but otherwise I don’t complain and I drink it as I know my baristas and they usually do a superb job.
It was funny, earlier this year I bought myself a Technivorm Moccamaster. Combined with the Polar Vortex of 2014 here in the Midwest, USA and my new high-end coffee maker, I fell out of my normal schedule of stopping at my local STARBUCK’S store as regularly as I usually do (more beans bought for home-brewing, less early-afternoon stops for a grande-in-a-venti cup). One day, my nephew stopped in the store and a barista asked where his uncle (me) had been? He told her I got some fancy coffee machine and wasn’t drinking much coffee away from home these days! The barista told him: “There are plenty of people that come in here that we wish would stay at home and make their coffee, and your uncle isn’t one of them!!!”
I will gladly remake your drink a dozen times and/or give you a fat handful of recovery certificates. Ensuring you leave happy is literally my job! HOWEVER, you need to be able to tell me what’s wrong with it! I cannot tell you how many times I have had this conversation:
Customer: excuse me, my drink is wrong.
Me: okay, no problem, what seems to be wrong with it?
Customer: I don’t know. It doesn’t taste right.
Me: alright. Is it the temperature?
Customer: I don’t know. It just doesn’t taste like my drink.
Me: maybe it’s too sweet, or not sweet enough?
Customer: no, that’s not it.
Me: is there enough coffee in it for you?
Customer: I guess.
Me: is it the foam, or the whipped cream?
Customer: no. No. None of that. It just doesn’t taste right.
Me: does the milk taste sour or scalded?
Customer: I guess not.
Me: is this the drink you usually get, or do you try different things?
Customer: no, this is my usual. I have had this drink every day for the last seven hundred forty three days.
Me: can you describe how today’s drink tasted different from yesterday’s or the day before?
Customer: …………………
Customer: it just doesn’t taste right.
LOL. It happens all the time.
I tend to stick to a couple regular drinks so I know what the drink I’m ordering should taste like. Sometimes it tastes a little off, but that’s not enough for me to complain about it and to have it remade. Or if it’s something simple, like the wrong drizzle on my macchiato, that stuff is easy to let go.
The only times I’ve gotten a drink remade is when I’ve gotten the wrong drink. For some reason, there’s this particular barista who keeps making me green tea lemonades when I want a green tea latte (I think she reads the marking on the cup too quickly and confuse the two) so that’s when I get it remade. I don’t drink green tea lemonades because otherwise I would let it go too… I’m not one of those people who want a recovery certificate but they seem to hand them out like candy even when you don’t really want them. I keep thinking I’ll use them, but I always forget about them and now some of them have been gathering dust for years…
While it doesn’t happen everywhere, argumentative baristas have turned me off of asking my drink to be remade unless it’s completely undrinkable. I have encountered more than a few who tell me the drink was made correctly when I tell them it doesn’t taste right. Things like the peppermint isn’t in my peppermint mocha, there is no caramel drizzle on top of the caramel frappuccino, the soy milk is chunky (or watery) because it wasn’t shaken first, sugar-free syrup was used, etc. Once, a manager apologized for his barista, remade my drink, and threw in a recovery certificate. Usually I’m left with the decision to continue arguing with the barista who insists the drink is fine or to leave.
Part of barista training? Sure does not seem like it at some stores! Also, I have not seen any recovery certificates in ages. Do they actually still give them out?
Great, fun read, as always, Mel! 😀
I must say that I’ve been fortunate to come across all sorts of walks of customer life. I say ‘fortunate’ now b/c I’ve learned SO MUCH from guests w/ their unique behaviors. LOL Often times, certain guests may irritate other guests in line &/or the partners, simply b/c of how they act & appear to be. (I’m guilty for this in the long-past. I’d get so irritated & felt disrespected by allegedly ‘rude’ guests) I just didn’t know how to deal with them @ the time.
Then, one day, I had an epiphany w/ the term ‘ignorance is bliss’ while serving a guest @ the register (he was on his cell phone, chatting it up & only had 2 things in mind: wanting to talk on his phone & getting his grande latte) I greeted him,
Me: “Hey, morning! What can I get started up for ya?”
Him: “Grande latte.”
Me: “You got it. 1 grande latte! May I get your name?”
Him: “Yeah, that’s it-that’s it-nothing else.”
Me: “I’m sorry, your name please?”
Any who, this gentleman was chatting it up, ignorant to the rest of the world @ that moment & appearing to be enjoying his phone conversation, while myself & other guests behind him were feeling irritated. That’s when it hit me! Ignorance is bliss! Surely, his plan wasn’t to wake up in the am, go to SBUX & then intentionally attempt to ruin people’s days by being an arrogant, inconsiderate person. He just wanted this phone conv. & drink so badly that, he managed to create an expressway to his WANTS, while blocking out EVERYTHING else in his environment-nothing could’ve POSSIBLY affected him negatively and he was content. I was like, “OMG! If he can achieve his personal happiness this way & shut out any negative things that can possibly affect him (despite it resulting from his sheer ignorance), this means it MUST be possible for me to achieve the same, but, on purpose! (Not by having a jerk personality, of course) But, I mean, a guest that I would’ve never imagined to learn from, I’ve learned something SO valuable-it IS possible for me to intentionally shut off the negative energies & not get affected!
Of course, no day will be perfect (though, I secretly fantasize that they ARE! LOL) Personally, there will be days where things don’t go as planned but… there WILL also be many days where thing DO! Since then, my motto has become, [Everything is temporary. If it’s an unpleasant situation, go through it QUICKLY, and, if it’s a wonderful situation, milk that cow & stretch out that happy milk beyond comprehension of its expiration date.] So, perhaps, I stretched the last part out #butyouknowwhatimean xD
Since that guest, I started paying more attn to different types of guests attitudes, giving them ample benefit-of-the-doubts. I didn’t realize it then, but I guess I was taking mental note of the different types & how to treat them w/ exceptional, efficient speed of service.
For instance, I’m sure that many have witnessed this:
Barista: Good morning, how are you today?
Guest: Latte, large… (throws down money)
This guest appeared to be rude by going straight into his order, but then, I thought, “What if THIS has been the treatment that this guest has been accustomed to-poor, unfriendly customer service where ever he goes? Perhaps, his customer svc exp has been [Alright, who’s next… what do you want. Is that it? NEXT!]”
Any way, that’s my PERSONAL take on certain guests. Not all, but many, I feel have been molded by their previous poor in-store customer svc experiences & I use this as the best encouragement to show them that EXCEPTIONAL svc still DOES exist & YES, you deserve it, regardless of how they act & are! LOL! It’s the greatest feeling to me when guests emit the slightest gesture of appreciation for their visit. For me, something as little as the guest I mentioned above who’d always come in, skip over the greeting & go directly into his, “Latte… large.” If, 1 day, he even says, “Hi” right before “Latte… large”, when he NEVERRRRR greeted back before, to me, that’s a MASSIVE deal!
I know that every one has their own personal opinions & experiences that may be different from me. Simultaneously, thank you & sorry for allowing me to blabble out my sbux experiences.
I am a very lucky person (; Thanx a latte, have a grande. I never mean to write so matcha, but it seems to end up long, no matter how much I chai
I’m a #2 customer. (That just doesn’t sound right describing a customer that way – LOL!) But, rarely if ever do I actually complain unless there is something seriously wrong with the entire drink. Since the vast majority of my drinks are coffee on a Clover, it’s extremely rare that the drink is made wrong, unless they use the wrong beans. Which happens on a rare occasion. If I ordered Kenya and they made me Verona (and yes I can tell without watching them which coffee it is), It’s fine with me. But if I paid for a Reserve, I expect what I paid for.
It isn’t often that I need a drink remade. Sometimes a drink may need a slight modification, and that is usually Iced Coffee. The Iced Coffee is usually a bigger issue with my wife, because of the pumps of syrup. It seems the same partners are always consistent with how they add syrup. You have partners that always give the full pumps. Then there are the partners that always give the half or wimpy pumps. And sometimes you get the partner that is pumping an empty bottle of syrup, where in my wife’s eye’s, half pumps and pumps of air do not count. It is only then that I ask for a slight modification. Although I am a #2, I am rather tolerant of mistakes. I don’t feel that the mistakes are done on purpose, so I try not to sweat that stuff. It’s difficult being a #2 customer, because that connection is sometimes just as important as the drink is IMO. If they are that busy where you can’t make the connection, it’s like you’re missing out on something important.
This is a great customer service blog post. The short time that I was a barista I experienced all of these types of customers. I still get variances of these personalities in the thrift store I work at. Great customer service commentary 🙂
Purple1, I hear your comment. One of the first things our new manager did was to remove the Recovery Certificates. It leaves us feeling completely helpless on the floor when all we can offer is to remake a drink and a fuming customer has left our store. I don’t know why she did this. I asked once and was told that we went through too many which was not our experience on the floor at all. Removing them is not the answer. When I was manager, the strict instructions were to make a situation right whatever it took. The one customer that we dread is the one who calls up and says that their drink was made incorrectly and they will be right down to get another made properly. We once had a “business person” who claimed to have visited our store with 5 business associates from Chicago and had gotten her Venti Frappuccino made incorrectly. At that time I was the manager. I apologized and asked when they had visited, pulled up the stats for that day, and couldn’t find their drink whatsoever. Since there were several Sbux in the area, I asked if they had visited ours or another. She got incensed, called our DM. He offered her a $5.00 gift card. Well then, not only did she get a wrong drink but the five other people with her got wrong drinks. I had to send out 6 gift cards to an obvious scam and a local address. Oh, well. The life of Sbux.
@Valerie – That’s horrendous. There are still customer service recovery coupons here in Seattle, and I’ve seen them used too. If that’s indicative of the operating beliefs of your manager, then I don’t know she will be able to maintain the high standards of the Starbucks experience. 🙁
Over the years, I’ve actually heard a number of horrendous, horrendous stories about the things baristas have done when mad at customers over their beverage order. There’s a learning curve, and a spectrum of how partners are able to address customer concerns. I know that the extremes are a tiny percentage of cases, but at least give the partner every tool possible to make the situation right.
And now then, I have heard these horror stories of everything from decaffing drinks, to intentionally making drinks extra hot to scald customers to get even, to one extreme case of keying a customer’s car. I know these extreme are a fraction of a percentage of cases. Most people are good people, regardless of which side of the bar they’re standing on.
Looks to me like 99% of the time, partners want to make things right!
Sorry for the ramble.
I’ve seen those coupons given out at the Starbucks I frequent the most. I have not seen one being redeemed, but then again I don’t normally see what a customer uses to pay for their order with anyway.
Because I’ve been in a Starbucks so much, I hear a lot of things coming out of customers mouths (or if I don’t get the full story, I know I can ask certain baristas and they’ll tell me what happened). I can’t believe some of the things people come up with. Someone once called and said their drink was made wrong. When asked when they’d gotten the drink, they said it was like a month ago. Uh yeah, you’re not getting a free drink from that.
I am a Starbucks Barista and have worked for the company for 10 years and I came across your blog and I have to say it is entertaining. I work for a very busy store in the SW suburbs of Chicago and needless to say we see alot of customer 1 and I can honestly say that I have never learned to tolerate customer 1. I bite my tongue the majority of the time, reassure them that we will make it as soon as possible and often find myself saying, “drink orders are made in the order that they are received. I do think that customers like this probably do walk around with high blood pressure and love to just hear themselves complain.
@Lisa Barrett – Thank you for finding my site. I’ll tell you, since there are over 900 articles on this site (it’s been around for years) there are huge variety of articles. You’ll find coffee tastings, new stores and photos of them, Starbucks tests articles, and more. And I’ve just published a booK!
http://www.starbucksmelody.com/buy-the-book-tales-of-the-siren-a-starbucksmelody/
I hope you’ll come back for more! And tell your friendly partners about this site! 🙂
I don’t think that people love to hear themselves complain. Research shows that most unhappy customers never say anything directly face to face to a barista or customer service person. They walk away without saying a thing. But in any circumstance, I definitely think there are PLENTY of customers who have unrealistic ideas about how fast their drink will be made. It’s a hand-crafted beverage!
I’m something between a #1 and a #3. I don’t think I tend to get anything overly complex (i.e. I don’t care about foam, I rarely get a sweetened beverage, and I try to keep my “special” requests to type of milk and decaf after 5pm). Mostly, I just want to order, get my drink and get on my way. However, when it’s busy and there are a lot of drinks being put on the counter I will definitely confirm with the barista that the drink I am picking up is the drink I ordered. This is less of an issue in the locations that take your name when you order.
I don’t know which one i am! I am definately a regular yet not chatty. I order the same drink every time- a venti bold redeye dark soy misto, and more often than not my drink is made and perfect with the only spoken words “The usual?” “Yes, thanks”
Which is perfect in my world and makes me very happy.
In stores where they have made my drink incorrectly I have only asked it be remade if they used dairy milk since its a dietary restriction for me.
And i have a very interesting collection of photos of my starbucks cups with creative – and hysterical- spellings of my name.
I apologize if you’ve already answered this, but I’m trying to figure out what to do if I buy a drink via the drive-thru and realize after I’ve driven away that I’ve received the wrong drink. Recently I ordered one of the holiday lattes but was given a different one. Can anyone offer a suggestion for the future? Thanks!
Teresa, it’s a good question. We have several locations in our county with drive-thru service. We have had customers come through and tell us that they received a wrong beverage or an unacceptable beverage from another store and we have gladly remade the beverage for them. All of us make mistakes and I would hope any store would help us out in the same way. If there isn’t another store nearby and this is one that you frequent, call and let them know. Chances are they saw the mistake shortly after you left so they do know about it. We would take your name and have a recovery certificate waiting for you.
Thanks so much for your helpful response!