our financial products online'.
It is not that multi-sensory stimulation is not a key part of the Total Ownership Experience. It is, but as you are about to find out, it's just one step in building a much deeper connection to your customer. Just ask brand- building legend Howard Schultz. In a memo Schultz sent to his senior management at Starbucks in February 2007 (later leaked to the media), he reflected on the importance of this relationship, and criticised the company for losing sight of it:
Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and what some might call the commoditization of our brand . . .
For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. 3
Schultz noted that the height of the new machines blocked the customers' view: they were denied the 'intimate experience' of watching the barista make their drink. He also criticised the new streamlined store design. Changes had been made to achieve greater efficiency and ensure that return on investment was satisfactory, but the result was that Starbucks coffee shops no longer had the 'soul of the past'. They felt like 'a chain of stores', said Schultz, as opposed to the 'warm feeling of a neighbourhood store'.
Do you and your people strive to make your service delivery 'romantic'? Are your call centre staff striving to have an 'intimate experience' with your customers? When you are faced with opportunities to gain efficiencies in your operations, do you first consider the impact they will have on how it 'feels' to do business with you?
As you expand and grow your business you have to hold on to what made you you in the first place. It is exactly this kind of authenticity that makes brands attractive. And as you will learn in this chapter, it is these intangibles, like the 'warm feeling of a neighbourhood store' that will differentiate your brand, your product, your business from the competitors.
Schultz, however, does not stop there. Later in the memo he goes on to say:
Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself . . .
In a world of corporate executives who usually seem far more concerned about their share options and golden parachutes than about customers or staff, you've got to love a leader who takes a full share of responsibility for moves that have put his company at risk, relishes the accountability of his position, and then uses it to rally the troops to join him in doing it better:
Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.
Let me stop a moment and say with unbridled admiration that these are the words of a true flipstar. Howard Schultz changed how the world drinks coffee and he obviously hasn't lost one iota of his imaginative passion for supplying customer wants as well as needs. And it is not just about the customer, it is as much about the staff, who by the way are not called staff – instead they are called 'partners'.
I once gave a presentation in LA about becoming a talentcentric organisation and at the session before me, two Starbucks partners shared their experience of what it was like to work for
It is not that multi-sensory stimulation is not a key part of the Total Ownership Experience. It is, but as you are about to find out, it's just one step in building a much deeper connection to your customer. Just ask brand- building legend Howard Schultz. In a memo Schultz sent to his senior management at Starbucks in February 2007 (later leaked to the media), he reflected on the importance of this relationship, and criticised the company for losing sight of it:
Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and what some might call the commoditization of our brand . . .
For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play with the use of the La Marzocca machines. 3
Schultz noted that the height of the new machines blocked the customers' view: they were denied the 'intimate experience' of watching the barista make their drink. He also criticised the new streamlined store design. Changes had been made to achieve greater efficiency and ensure that return on investment was satisfactory, but the result was that Starbucks coffee shops no longer had the 'soul of the past'. They felt like 'a chain of stores', said Schultz, as opposed to the 'warm feeling of a neighbourhood store'.
Do you and your people strive to make your service delivery 'romantic'? Are your call centre staff striving to have an 'intimate experience' with your customers? When you are faced with opportunities to gain efficiencies in your operations, do you first consider the impact they will have on how it 'feels' to do business with you?
As you expand and grow your business you have to hold on to what made you you in the first place. It is exactly this kind of authenticity that makes brands attractive. And as you will learn in this chapter, it is these intangibles, like the 'warm feeling of a neighbourhood store' that will differentiate your brand, your product, your business from the competitors.
Schultz, however, does not stop there. Later in the memo he goes on to say:
Now that I have provided you with a list of some of the underlying issues that I believe we need to solve, let me say at the outset that we have all been part of these decisions. I take full responsibility myself . . .
In a world of corporate executives who usually seem far more concerned about their share options and golden parachutes than about customers or staff, you've got to love a leader who takes a full share of responsibility for moves that have put his company at risk, relishes the accountability of his position, and then uses it to rally the troops to join him in doing it better:
Push for innovation and do the things necessary to once again differentiate Starbucks from all others. We source and buy the highest quality coffee. We have built the most trusted brand in coffee in the world, and we have an enormous responsibility to both the people who have come before us and the 150,000 partners and their families who are relying on our stewardship.
Let me stop a moment and say with unbridled admiration that these are the words of a true flipstar. Howard Schultz changed how the world drinks coffee and he obviously hasn't lost one iota of his imaginative passion for supplying customer wants as well as needs. And it is not just about the customer, it is as much about the staff, who by the way are not called staff – instead they are called 'partners'.
I once gave a presentation in LA about becoming a talentcentric organisation and at the session before me, two Starbucks partners shared their experience of what it was like to work for
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