Starbucks is an important coffee chain of North America. It has chains all over the world and bears a good reputation for its services and brand name. In the recent past a survey of the market shows that there are issues concerning the service area. Starbucks operates across the world in around 44 countries. There are 1796 stores operated by Starbucks and other 2792 joint ventures or in other words, licensed shops. (Company Fact Sheet) The mission is to put people before product (in terms of quality and quantity). Here comes the role of servicing the customers. This establishes the guiding philosophy of Starbucks, whose priorities involve the interests of customers, staff and suppliers. The business has come across several problems related to its marketing system for offerings and consumer loyalty ratings.
The coffee shops of Starbucks face crucial issues like customization of specific drinks by the customers. One of the important motives of the company is satisfaction of customers, but customization consumes time unnecessarily and reduces the scope and speed of serving other customers. Increasing the number of employees working at hourly wage is one solution but the economic downturn that has taken place recently has reduced this possibility of hiring new people as well. Apart from North America the country has its wings across the metropolitans. Around one store every 20000 people are present in Pacific Northwest zone and there is one shop for every 110000 people in the Southeast region. Product differentiation is also very less in this company compared to the other coffee stores. It was supposed to be interested in making more profit with little investment and thus neglected customer servicing. The standard of customer satisfaction were deteriorating with respect to the pace of service. (Moon, Youngme and Quelch, 8)
