Starbucks

After evaluating (Exhibit A), Starbucks should invest $40 million per year to increase labor hours per store in order to solve the problem with the quality of service. Starbucks should also set up an internal strategic marketing team. This will allow Starbucks to have a proactive feedback of customer satisfaction and hence faster improvement. Labor cost is high for Starbucks' North American operations. To keep labor cost at reasonable level, Starbucks should reduce waste in making drinks, keep consistency in drinks, and improving productivity. The company needs to invest more money in automated espresso machines. Currently, sales of coffee beverages account for most of total sales, and therefore, Starbucks should increase its sales on food items and whole-bean coffees, and develop non-retail sale channels, which do not require as much special training as making coffee beverages.

Due to an increase in number of Starbucks' customers and highly customized drink demand, the workload per worker is very high. This fact results in a decrease in service time and conversation between Starbucks baristas and the customer, and more stress on baristas. Moreover, research found that a large number of customers emphasize that "treated as a valuable customer", "friendly staff" and "fast service" are the most important factors in creating customer satisfaction. Investing $40 million annually will help eliminate the problems of service time and customer satisfaction by reducing the blockage of labor time and help increase customer satisfaction at all levels. This, in turn, will generate a stream of additional revenues for the lifetime value of each customer with respect to his/her shifting from unsatisfied to satisfied and satisfied to highly satisfied status. Spending the $40 million will not only improve Starbucks' services, but also increase customer satisfaction, which in turn, will increase its revenues.

Starbucks' newer customers tend to be younger, less educated, and in a lower income bracket. They view the Starbucks brand very differently from the existing loyal customers. Younger consumers are not yet loyal to the 'brand' and since they do not fit the general demographic of a typical Starbucks customer (willing to pay a premium price, know the importance of quality coffee), this presents a marketing opportunity for Starbucks to capture this additional market segment by stressing Starbucks' benefits over their low-priced competitors where the consumers normally buy coffee. Starbucks should capture this new customer base to be their second permanent loyal segment via means of advertisements and promotional campaigns that emphasize on Starbucks' premium coffee and quality brand image. Using the quality emphasis will not only increase awareness of Starbucks' superior service and quality to all its customers, but also capture the 'new consumers' segment appropriately to make this the key reason they chose Starbucks versus lower price competitors.

Starbucks serves a wide range of beverages that take a relatively long time to make. The company needs to reduce total number of steps to make beverages, and increase the number of beverages made by automatic machines. By doing so, this will increase productivity and quality, while also reducing the total waiting time for the customers, as well as the workload of store employees.