Customer satisfaction

This morning my family and I left the house early so we could get to Osaka for an early morning appointment. Not knowing if there would be a traffic jam due to construction on the highway we stopped at a Starbucks before we got on the freeway. Boy was that a mistake!

This Starbucks is the same Starbucks that I lost track of time last week with my good friend. It is the same Starbucks I use to go to before finding “my” favorite store in Okubo. This is why I am still miffed that this happened. It is normally a good store but for some reason something wasn’t working right this morning. This is actually a popular store in our area since they have a wonderful outside sitting area that gets some wonderful morning sun, as well tons of inside seating.

This is what happened. I went into the store instead of using the drive through since I wanted to use my tumbler. There was only one person at the register, this person was also wearing a headset for the drive-through. The third person was fussing around in the back ground with coffee and other food items but wasn’t filling orders. There were several people in line as well as several cars outside.

When it was my turn to order, I ordered my coffee and a juice for my son. From the beginning to the end this Starbucks partner re-asked me my order a total of 5 times. Each time repeating it incorrectly. Finally, the Batista behind the bar came over and put my order into the register for me. For what ever reason he couldn’t get it right. And how did that make me, the customer feel? Like my order doesn’t matter to the company.  Especially since his apology was robotic like at best.

Customer service is one of my main criteria for determining if I will be returning to a certain store any time soon. At best, the partner behind the register should make you feel pretty darn good for choosing to come in that day. At worse it should there should at least be quick Hello and coffee with a smile. After all I just chose to spend almost 500 yen for coffee. Part of that cost I figure is for quality service which is why I choose Starbucks over other places.

The question of the day is will I be going back to that store any time soon? Yes, I will give them a second chance.

I am interested in what things you find most important when being served coffee? Leave your thoughts!