Throughout the years, the Starbucks brand of coffee and sandwiches has become one of the most famous as well as one of the most loved brands in the world, especially so in the coffee industry. It has over this period moved beyond the walls of its existing stores in the same trade, offices as well as roasting and production plants throughout the world. Progressively more, people all over the world where the stores are located have come into contact with, experienced or at least heard about the brand of Starbucks (Haig, 2004). This is highly attributed to the company’s renewed quest for offering fresh quality coffee that is different from the idea of canned coffee like the one offered by other coffeehouses. Starbucks-brand is a worldwide chain of coffee shops, with branches all over the world selling over ten types of coffee together with a wide variety of sandwiches, cakes, muffins and croissants. With its headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States, the organization has grown in leaps and bounds to become the largest coffeehouse company in the world. It has over 17,000 stores in about 50 countries, including 11,000 in the United States alone, 1,000 in Canada and more than 700 in Europe (Guffey, 2006). Coffeehouses in this trade sell drip brewed coffee, espresso-based drinks, together with a collection of hot or cold sandwiches and gift items in mugs and tumblers.
Internationally, Starbucks is poised for significant growth. Though it was once viewed as a United States company that operated internationally, it has now truly been recognized as a global company. However, because of its dominant United States culture in its foundation, US market incentives, activities, trends and ideas are still an important factor in how decisions are made. With the mission of inspiring and nurturing the human spirit- “one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time,” (Guffey, 2006) the organization’s product has become a personal favorite of many with international acceptance in many countries.
Objectives
The Changing Customer
The customer base of the company has been slowly evolving. The primary objective of the company is to attract the newer, younger customers, which are typically less well-educated people with relatively lower incomes than the previously established Starbucks’ customers (Prahalad, 2004). Additionally, the objective is to encourage these customers to visit the stores more frequently, exercising their different tastes and preferences as compared to the established customers.
This objective can be measured through the analysis of the satisfaction the customers are getting from their experiences as well as checking whether there has been increase in the number of customers within each test group.
Performance of the strategy and success of the objective can be measured by checking the sales performance of organizational and departmental stores, taking measurements before and after the implementation of the program.
New and improved support services need to be implemented in the organization. Support services are used to show how often the quality of a particular product or service that is provided at the shops is judged by the customers as well as the employees of the stores. This quality does not only apply to the product or service alone, but also to the people providing the services, the processes of production, the organizational environment associated with it as well as its setting and location (Argenti, 2002). The quality of the service provided in the shops is judged not only on the basis of the employees working there but also on their efficiency and accuracy in dealing with orders they get from their customers.
Additionally, new support services have been observed, ensuring that customers who leave the do not go to another store that offers these products. This serves as an eye opener for the stores as they now aim to follow the needs of the customers to meet their tastes and preferences, assisting in the patronization of the company by their customers.
Customer Behavior
With regards to the behavior of the customers, the company has the objective of analyzing the various market behaviors that set in- either rural versus urban or new versus established- with the customers who visit tending to use the shops in the same way.
This objective can be measured from the analysis of the behavior of customers while in the company’s shops, looking to see whether there have been any changes in the behavior since the implementation of the objective strategies.
The performance strategy for the measurement of the success of the customer behavior is carried out by checking if any improvements have been made before and after the implementation of the program.
Customer behavior can be improved by increasing the Fitness for use and quality evaluation criterions that are used to measure how well a product performs the functions or uses that it was created for. In this case, it is the measure of how satisfying the coffee and other coffee-based beverages sold in the shops satisfy the needs of the customers as well as the level of satisfaction derived from the equipments that are sold there. However, this definition makes the assumptions that the intended use is obvious to both the customer and the employees. It also makes the assumption that the needs of all the customers who happen to have a preference for that particular product have the same tastes. In this respect, it makes the assumption that all of the customers that like coffee like it in the same concentrations and the same flavors. Thus, fitness for use is a user-based definition, in that it has the intent of meeting the needs of a relatively large group of people, not those of an individual.
Measuring and Determining Customer Satisfaction
Finally, another objective is to measure the extent of satisfaction of customer expectations in terms of service and products. These satisfaction scores have been considered critical to the correlation between the levels of satisfaction and customer loyalty.
Measurement of satisfaction is done through carrying interviews throughout the running of the organizations’ departments, looking to see whether there have been any improvements from previous interviews.
This performance strategy is measured is measured by determining whether the customers are satisfied. Satisfaction is indicative of the preservation of old customers as well as the attraction of new customers to the organizations’ shops and departments.
Customer satisfaction can be guaranteed by allowing customers to get the best value for the price paid. This is defined as the quality that a consumer of the coffee in the stores gets after the consumption of the products sold therein. This definition makes a combination of economics together with the criteria of the consumer, in that it assumes that the consumer’s definition of quality is dependent on the amount they pay (Rubinfeld and Hemingway, 2005). For example, if we were to consider a consumer wishing to buy coffee in one of the Starbucks shops on the Southern region of London, then they have the right to first sample the price variations between the shop and other shops that offer similar services. If the customer then finds tout that there is a significant price variation, then he or she has the right to make a choice between the two. If he or she decides to take the less expensive shop, then they feel that they have received greater value for the price that they paid. However, value for price paid has the effect of compromising on the quality of the services and products procured since, in most cases, “cheap is, in the long run, expensive.”
Employee training
Employee training is important to ensure that they are compliant with the services that they are supposed to carry out as well as increasing the level of competence to their assigned duties. Ti is the process through which the employees of the organization can be able to connect or familiarize themselves with the different activities taking place in the stores as well as the flow of information throughout the organization (Schmetterer, 2003). It is a human resource management strategy that is used to increase the levels of service provided to the customers. Through these training activities, the management team believes that they are increasing the levels of knowledge and information that the employees have about coffee and its products, and in so doing giving them more confidence as they undertake to serve their designated customers. The training in these cases involves topics about brewing the perfect cup of coffee including the various combinations of coffee and other additional flavoring that are put into the beverages. Training also involves the differentiation of the Starbucks coffee beans and others that are available in the market. Quality control is done at this juncture (Rubinfeld and Hemingway, 2005)
Corporate Social Responsibility
A primary strategy that is used by the organization is that of implementing its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Stores within the southern parts of the city are implementing several programs and projects in line with the needs of their stakeholders, customers and employees. This has been stated as a strategic move towards fiscal responsibility as well as the strategic growth of the company (Argenti, 2002). All of the benefits mentioned above about the rewards gained from human resource management are also included in the social responsibility of the company towards ensuring the happiness of their employees such as stock options as well as a purchase program together with healthcare.
The company is also involved with helping the Caring United Partners (CUP), a financial assistance program that is involved in the aid of company partners (employees and other stakeholders) during times of sicknesses that are not covered within the healthcare plan. This also involves financial costs that are incurred during deaths of family members, natural disasters and other extreme circumstances such as those caused by fire or flood (Rubinfeld and Hemingway, 2005).
Stores within the region are also involved in the provision of financial and other related services to the members of their immediate community. One such program, called the “Make your Mark” program, was carried out in the year 2000 by Starbucks stores from all over the world by matching employees with a preferred customer volunteer in a non-profit organization with communications being carried out in cash and other necessary products such as donations and aid. The partners and the volunteer customers were required to give about 20,000 hours of their time which was thence converted into around $40,000, which was later donated to the various charities around the region (Schmetterer, 2003)
Another similar program, the “Choose to Give” program, was supported by the employees of Starbucks by giving cash or other material contributions to the organizations in the company. The partners were allowed to choose between one-time donations or be deducted through their payrolls. In return, the management of the company gives the employees $1,000 for every one of them that gives a donation (Schmetterer, 2003).The company is also involved in the lending of services to other non-profit organizations by allowing their management level employees lend a helping hand to other organizations that have seemingly been mismanaged.
Thus said, CSR has become a most important part of the development of the organization and has had a great impact in the development of the quality that is offered to the customers. It has also increased the level of communication between the various stakeholders and the customers, improving the connection and relationship between them. According to Schultz, the primary reason for the stores in the region implementing CSRs towards the employees is to seek their development and maintain work morale inside the stores (Schmetterer, 2003). Additionally, the process through which the stores are letting their employees join in on the CSR of the company will enable them to develop a sense of responsibility and ownership about the goings-on in their immediate society. This also has the unforeseen effect of increasing the social awareness on the presence and products available, thus improving the public image of the company: a definite turn-on for the customers.
References
Argenti, P. (2002). The Power of Corporate Communication: Crafting the Voice and Image of Your Business. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Guffey, M.E. (2006). Business Communication: Process & Product. New York, NY: Penguin Classics.
Haig, M (2004). Brand Royalty: How The World’s Top 100 Brands Thrive and Survive. Kogan Page.
Prahalad, C. K. (2004). The Future Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers. London: Harvard Business School Press.
Rubinfeld, A. & Hemingway, C. (2005). Built for Growth. San Francisco, SF: Wharton School Publishing.
Schmetterer, B. (2003). Leap: A Revolution in Creative Business Strategy. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.