What's Your Starbucks Idea?

I built my brainstorming/beanstorming business around meeting with people in coffee shops. It was just a natural match to create ideas over coffee and conversation.

Starbucks was (and is) one of my favorite locations for this process because of their commitment to the entrepreneurial spirit, so it came as no surprise when I saw a small promotional piece in my local Starbucks to visit a microsite dedicated to collecting ideas on improving the Starbucks experience from their best resource -- their customers.

Kudos and congrats to Starbucks for making this move. It's certain to benefit both the company and the customers.

$14 Experiment in Customer Service

Billy Chasen took a free drink coupon and turned it into a quest to find the most expensive drink a person could order at Starbucks. You can read the full scoop here, but in the end his creative caffeinated concoction rang the register to a tune of $13.76. This very expensive Venti was mainly accomplished by adding 13 shots of espresso, and one commenter to the blog post rightly points out that you wouldn't say the most expensive pizza was attained by simply adding toppings -- but this discussion travels down a different path than my own.

I simply think it's impressive that the employee honored the coupon.

Most coupons state they must be presented prior to ordering (Chasen used the coupon after the drink was prepared) and a Starbucks employee states there is a $5 limit to one of these coupons.

According to Chasen report, the employee didn't whine or cry or seek out a manager. "She laughed and comped the entire drink."

When you consider that the drink coupon was originally given to Chasen to make up for a less than desirable service experience to begin with -- this attempt to create the most expensive Starbucks drink could have had the exact opposite effect. Resulting in another bad experience with the company (even though Chasen was kind of asking for it.)

In my opinion, the Barista is to be congratulated for not making a mountain out of a molehill. For is she had raised an issue and caused a commotion over the situation, it would have come across as another bad experience for the customer -- and while the employee would have been "right" the result would have been upsetting a customer who already had one bad experience, and may have chosen not to return. If you prove yourself "right" but lose a customer in the process, being right doesn't amount to a hill of (coffee) beans.

It's About The Howards

Is one of the qualifications for running the king of caffeinated stores that you have to be named Howard? Do they just throw away your resume if your name is Mike, or Joe, or Don?

The other Howard (Behar, not Schultz) has written a new business book based on the learned leadership lessons of a life among the beans and brew. "It's Not About The Coffee" focuses on the ten principles of personal leadership to which Behar attributes the success of the company -- and there isn't a reference to coffee among them:

10 Principles of Personal Leadership

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1. Know Who You Are:

Wear One Hat

2. Know Why You're Here:

Do It Because It's Right, Not Because It's Right for Your Resume

3. Think Independently:

The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom

4. Build Trust:

Care, like You Really Mean It

5. Listen for the Truth:

The Walls Talk

6. Be Accountable:

Only the Truth Sounds like the Truth

7. Take Action:

Think Like a Person of Action, and Act like a Person of Thought

8. Face Challenge:

We Are Human Beings First

9. Practice Leadership:

The Big Noise and the Still, Small Voice

10. Dare to Dream:

Say "Yes," the Most Powerful Word in the World

Download a complete PDF file of the list by clicking here.

I've just started reading the book, and I have a lot of favorites on the list -- but more importantly, I've selected the one I know I need to work on the most. Ironically enough, it's Principle #3, "Think Independently."

It's not that I personally have a problem with thinking independently, it's the second part of the principle I struggle with: "The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom." I can be such a control freak about the execution of my ideas, I feel that I probably try to give too much specific direction on how to accomplish the implementation. I'm a firm believer in the idea that the best concepts come from 'outside looking in' -- it's just tough to take my own advice sometimes. ;)

Take my advice on this, though: go get yourself a copy of Howard Behar's book "It's Not About The Coffee." It's sure to give you some strategies on which to reflect, and even if you're telling yourself that you already know everything -- ask yourself how GOOD you are at it. And be brave enough to tell yourself the truth.

Learn more about the book, and download bonus content at HowardBehar.com.

Hot Coffee Cool Links

A couple hot items from the Single-Serve Coffee blog...

First, the new JavaWand! It's promoted as an alternative to a French Press, and allows you to make fresh brewed coffee without lugging around a coffee-maker.

Seems to have some potential, and at $20 I can't be expected to pass it up. I'm ordering one today and I'll report back on its effectiveness.

Second, a recent episode of On Point with Tom Ashbrook (which airs on Boston's NPR station WBUR) featured the buzz on our favorite caffeinated beverage. They did an on-air coffee tasting, and had interviews with several notables including George Howell, founder of The Coffee Connection, which he sold to Starbucks in 1994.

You can listen to the archived podcast here.

High Five for Starbucks

Brandchannel.com has published its Readers' Choice Awards culled from surveying a market-savvy audience from around the world and asking them to nominate the most "high impact" brands.

Although fun to note that Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia also found lofty perches, its a bit predictable. What most folks might not have seen coming is that in both the Global as well as the US & Canada lists, Starbucks scored a #5 and a #4 placement, respectively.

How did Starbucks win such high placement? Starbucks opened 733 new licensed retail stores in the US. between October '05 and October '06. They've cultivated an attitude that it's not merely a coffee brand -- but a lifestyle brand that just happens to sell coffee.

Starbucks also owns and operates "Hear Music." A typical Starbucks only sells a few CDs within their store, but some Hear Music locations feature listening stations that allow users to purchase, download, and burn custom CDs (all while lapping up a few lattes!)

Truly caffeine and creativity at its best.