From the mailbag: What can be done to make Starbucks lines move faster?

Salman Lewis writes to STARBUCKS GOSSIP: I am a graduate student working on my MBA at the University of Central Florida. For my Strategic Marketing Class we are studying the Harvard Business School Case study on Starbucks and their customer service. From the case, the biggest problem for Starbucks was customer waiting time based on company surveys. The reasons for the long wait times were the introductions of new beverages in stores that were more complicated requiring 10 steps to make. The second problem with wait time was that frequent consumers of Starbucks were customizing their drinks which was taking longer to make and consequently increasing wait time. Our group is presenting our research to the class on Monday and I was wondering if Starbucks employees and customers who read your website could offer suggestions on decreasing wait time and other customer service suggestions.

Salman: I'm sure at least some of my thousands of daily Starbucks Gossip readers will help you out.

Comments

[Joost Schuur]

I would love to see a way to encode my usual morning Starbucks order into my Starbucks card. They'd scan it, I'd say 'Drink #1' and they immediately know the exact drink.

Otherwise, with the normal level of noise when you're placing your order, it seems like they have to repeat your order back to you every time to confirm they got it right and maybe 5% of the time there's some error in my order.

You could configure your list favorite drinks online.

[JustABarista]

Menu simplification would really help. Dropping hot tea (nothing worse than making a hot tea during a rush). Also, a stand up sign with the menu on it about ten feet back in line (the menu is often times hung behind the counter, so many customers often don't get a look at it until they are at the register). A lot of time is spent explaining items to new customers, which is good and all, but a touristville store like mine, it eats a lot of time. We could also use more labor or at least have cafe cleanliness not count for so much at the instant the snapshot is done. Customers could also help us out in a few way. Some of the girls that work at my store get cornered by guys trying to hit on them and they just go on and on eating up a register partners time. Seriously, at my store at least, a barista has NEVER dated a customer. Also, hang up the phones. Another thing, it isn't "easier" for us to wait ten minutes while you go purse diving for 23 cents. I know these aren't bad natured gestures, but I'm just stating the impact everybodies actions has on the speed of service.

[Lauren]

1 word: deployment.

[Sheik]

Putting a customer's "regular" onto a Starbucks card would be a TERRIBLE idea.

We'd have to scan the card once to find out the "regular" (or in some cases two three or four regulars) on the card. Then we'd have to hit which one of their "regulars" they want. Then we'd have to swipe it AGAIN to pay for the drink. Then Heaven forbid the card is out of money they have to reload the card. THREE times the card would need to be reloaded.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Lines are a part of life! We are humans... NOT robots.

[Sheik]

Oops I meant to say "Three times the card would need to be SWIPED"

[coffeeguy]

The best thing to decrease waitimes are either to increase the amount of labour being paid (aka have more people serving customers) or to ensure that the people who are on the floor are using proper deployment.

Oftentimes I've seen people trying to help others accually slow down service times by not putting their area first and communicating with others.

for an example let's say that a customer orders 3 espresso beverages and one frapuchino. The man after him orders 3 venti coffees of the same blend.

Now often when that occurs the partner on the till will slide onto cold beverage after taking the coffee order to get the 3 espersso drink order out faster. But what they forget is that they are now almost out of the coffee that the last customer ordered.

Now let's say they finish the frappucino and move back to till to help the next customer who orders a tall coffee of the same blend as the previous customer. Uh oh...were out of coffee.

What the till partner should have done is taken care of the brewed coffee first before helping make beverages. True the frappucino would have taken a few extra seconds to get out but that is preferable to running out of coffee which slows down the line more then anything else.

As well another case can often occur were a customer wants some whole bean coffee they just purchased ground or have an order of multiple starbucks cards. In the case of having only two people on the floor the person making drinks cannot slide to grind the coffee or fill the card order without slowing down the beverage production. By the same respect if the till partner moves to fill either order while the beverage partner can make beverages ahead of time it still slows down the line and people paying for their coffee.

For these reasons I would say the best thing Starbucks could do to increase service times is simply to ensure there are 3 people on the floor at all times. Or 2 people on the floor and one person off the floor that can come on the floor when it gets busy.

So there you have it. The keys to increase service speed lie in proper deployment and proper staffing.

[averrycafinatedbarrista]

I have four ideas for faster lines. two that are serious answers and two that are reltively humerous and two that are serious. the ones that are not serious answers at all.

1. Telipathic Barristas.
This way, we dont have to guess when people call drinks out of order, we know exactly what you want before you even walk into the store, have it ready for you, and only expect the 5.20 for the venti Peperment Soy Mocha with whip that you were lusting over on the way here.

2. RFAID tags.
this way, people do not need to go digging around for money, they just hold up there arm and vola, credit card has paid for you drink, no hustle and busle for a card, no digging around for loose change. all thats missing is your personal freedom and the goverments records of how much money you are spending at starbucks...

ok, now for the serious ones.

1. Deployment and Barrista effectiveness.

the right tool for the right job makes all the difference in the world. If i have two barristas that know what they are doing, allways restocking milks and makeing sure that there is milk available. that the barista is preparing drinks before milk and shots are added makes a helluva difference than those that sit around and wait for you to call out to them. i find that the greatest wait times happen when the person, or persons on the bar do not have what they need to get the drinks done.

4. Customer Awareness.

i feel like there should be some kind of Starbucks newspaper that introduces new drinks to the customers and e-mails them about our daily and new offerings. maybe a weekly thing that is keyed to the local store that you go to that tells you what we are brewing this week and new information based per store sent directly to the customer.

oh, and if starbucks actualy does do that. i want some kind of credit here...

[mkebarista]

I would expand on the memory card idea.. It has been suggested in the past and when Howard Schultz was on CNBC about a month ago he mentioned the company was exploring options to go that route. A person would have their card swiped, select which pre programmed drink they want and pay for it, all with ONE swipe.

deployment is a HUGE issue.
and having experienced baristas really helps!
having a floater.
no one playing both bars.
and making hot tea in a rush is the LEAST of my worries.
pick on the quad long americano people, please.

[averrycafinatedbarrista]

oh, and a minor comment to coffeeguy, people do know that you can order multible starbucks cards from starbucks.com. we were told to send people over that way insted of having them hold up the line.

[Sheik]

I can't believe I forgot to mention this previously.

Seriously though, the reason why lines get so long is ...

Barista: "That'll be $3.71"

Customer: "Here's 3... Oh! I have the 71 cents.. Let......me...... just..... dig........ in my...... pocket....... OK.... here's a quarter...... a dime..... another quarter.... two nickels......... Uh, oh here's a penny in my pocket.... THERE!!"

[Sheik]

...

Customer: "WAIT! let me give you a $20 so I can get some bills back and ...

*Cell phone rings*

'Oh Hi Molly... Yea I can get you a Quad Grande Caramel Macchiatto with Soy Milk and ... oh yea, ICED?'

Could you add that to my total please? Give me back that 71 cents I just carefully laid out on the counter."

[K]

Gotta agree with deployment--not only number of bodies, but deploying people to the best of their ability. We have one person who's wicked fast on bar, so in a rush that's where he is. I run around like a nut, so I often expedite. It really helps.

The thing is, though, that you can't control the customers--that the person in front of you who ordered for their entire office, or who roots around in their purse saying, "my credit card was right here, I know it...".

[nosugarplease]

Justabarista, you are right on with the sign. I've been to Starbucks a million times and if
I don't know EXACTLY what I want I have to wait
until I get to the front and ask questions and
that holds up the entire line. Even when there's
no one behind you it's still kind of frustrating.
Although I must say Quizno's has THE WORST menu
signage in the history of retail but Starbucks really needs to have something better too. We're aren't all ten feet tall and able to look over an espresso machine!

PUCHASE A STARBUCKS CARD
GET AUTO RELOAD
WHILE YOU ARE WAITING IN THE LONG LINE - DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT AHEAD OF TIME
GET OFF THE PHONE
STOP SIFTING THRU PENNIES
STOP ASKING TO GO SEE WHATS ON THE RADIO
OPEN YOUR 10SPLENDAS YOURSELF

THAT WOULD HELP..EVEN IF JUST THE FIRST FOUR

[coffeeguy]

It's totally unfair and unrealistic to expect the customers to stop giving you change or get off the phone (although the later is kind of normal for polite people)

Look at it this way. If that guy gives you a ton of change to pay for his drink rather then a 50 you don't run out of change so fast later on. Glass half full. People are always going to be people. You can't change the customers.

What you can change is your ability to deal with that which will happen.

We are in a store that is in a high business section of town, and we often will get people ordering multiple beverages on one bill. It looks like we might not be busy because we only have three people in line, but when each of those three people are ordering 4-5 drinks each, all of a sudden the three customers turn into fifteen drinks. We try to communicate to our customers that there are so many drinks ahead of theirs, which gives them an understanding of why they might have a longer wait time.

As well, we have a lot of new customers with lots of questions, and it takes time to help them through.

As a new manager myself, I find myself often trapped by our labour budget. Our store has a constant flow of customers, and not one specific busy "blackout period" where we know we will be swamped, so we have to stretch out or labour over the entire day, and do not have the ability to pad specific times. For us, this means that we always feel one person short, because someone is always on a break, or helping a customer with retail, or whole bean. Even with what I feel is great deployment at our store, we are all feeling like we are running a little ragged at the best of times. I wish we had more allowance on labour so that we could have enough people on the floor at all times so that we could send someone out to help with the customers when they had questions about machines, or we could have enough people to successfully help the customers get their drinks in timely manners. Having extra room for labour means we could deliver the legendary service we want to be famous for and have enough hands to grow the business, instead of having enough to just keep up.

[CuteBarista!]

correct deployment will seriously take care of 90% of the busyness. a floater is of utmost importance, and we also have a "runner" who works from 7-11 am every weekday morning. they take care of lobby sweeps, getting things for people at the bar, dishes and double bar if necessary.

also, knowing who is good at what is very important. i know we're supposed to have all the same skills and yadda yadda yadda, but some people are just better at bar, at register, etc. i'm one of the fastest and best people on the bar at my store, so surprise, i am almost always on the bar. good thing i love it.

[June]

Runner, we are lucky if we get three people for the morning rush (6am to 11am). You have a floater and a runner, no wonder it all works for you.

[Frapps]

1. Proper use of Starbucks employees. I have noticed in stores in my area that one person will be devoted to re-stocking the pastry display when the others are swamped trying to take & make orders. I can understand if a pastry is out, that more should be brought out, but I am not sure I see the need to restock pastries that have yet to run out, when this person could be helping make beverages.

2. Have "order kiosks" that customers can enter their order onto, it spits out a sticker with the order listed on it, take it to the cashier, cashier swipes the bar code & slaps the sticker on your drink cup. Even better, let me pay for my order at the kiosk by using my Starbucks card.

[Sheik]

"Order Kiosks" are you CRAZY? If customers can't figure out T-G-V means S-M-L on a regular menu then what chance do they have to figure it out on a computer screen??

[baristabarista]

People love getting frappuccinos, whether it's hot or cold or rainy outside, people will order frappucinos all year round.

Starbucks needs to look into ways of speeding up the process of making frappucinos, because believe it or not they are getting more and more popular with the age groups Starbucks is targeting.

Seriously, first you have to get the pitcher, then fill it with base, then add syrups and/or powders, then add ice, then put it in the blender, then blend it, then pour it, then whip it and/or drizzle it, and finally lid it and pass it off.

The people who are complaining about the problems with customers have unrealistic expectations. The customer shouldn't have to change what they do, Starbucks needs to change the things they do in order to get people's drinks out in a more timely fashion.

The bottom line of the story is that Starbucks needs to look at the methods they are using that might have worked in the past but could be improved on to meet the changing demands of the customers.

[Sheik]

Starbucks DID come up with a solution to making Frapp's faster: The Frappuccino Base Dispenser. Problem is is the dispenser requires like 900 daily cleaning tasks in order to keep it functioning properly. This includes cleaning and sanitizing the hoppers EVERY TIME mix is replenished. Ugh.

A good way to save time making Frapp's is if one girl in a group of young teeny boppers is ordering a Caramel Frapp with Extra Caramel... Ask the rest of the group she is with if any of them want the same thing (because you know it's so totally cool to order exactly what Kelly got). That way u can make 2 bevs in one pitcher.

[Von-Brucen]

1) Encourage customers to use a Debit Check/Card or an Sbux card, Cash is becoming obsolete, and it has always been inconvenient and ineficient.
2) Properly deploy baristas and utilize the expediter and cold beverage extra if you have enough coverage.
3) Open up more stores to relieve the congestion.

I am still amazed at the contrast between starbucks and indie coffee shops. It generally takes an indie coffee shop as much time to get through three customers as starbucks does for 15. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself. I think in many growth markets we simply arent able to meet the demand during peak hours as we don't have enough stores open yet.

The only problem with opening more stores is that they budget each store to continue to grow the business, sometimes to the point where it is impossible to meet the demands of the shareholders. For instance, in our little town we have 2 starbucks, one firmly established, and one brand new. As a town, we are beating last years sales, but as a store, we are barely even meeting last years sales, but expected to beat it by like 7 or 8 percent. These expectations are too much for our store, which is overworked as is. So to build more stores is great to help keep lines shorter, but it doesn't help the store meet their budget, which is always forecasted to exceed the previous years sales...Is there a point when a store has met it's breaking point?

[MGR2]

There is an entire "line partner" program whose sole purpose is to increase speed. It's on the portal, and crazy easy.

[baristabarista]

Sheik, we don't have the Frappuccino Base Dispenser at my store, but it sounds like I'm not missing out on much!

And the thing about the teeny boppers is totally on target! At my store if we see a group of 3 or more teeny bopper girls coming in we try to guess how many Strawberries and Creme frappuccinos they will order.

[cornfrost]

A sidenote: the new warming ovens really slow us down. As do shift supervisors who micromanage the good workers but don't keep an eye on the slackers. Or who assign labor in dumb ways, like having the skinny weak girls take out the garbage while the hefty guys stay on till.

Here are some things that would help:

In general, good deployment, training and being stocked up (but not overstocked) are necessary. If we are overstocked, cups tip over, you can't find things behind other things, etc.

We should have color coding, like the new iced-tea pitchers. E.g., the whole milk pots should have a blue handle and the nonfat pots should have a yellow handle. This would be way better than those labels we now have.

Similarly, we need black grease pencils for the red holiday cups. But half the time we can't find them, so we use the red grease pencils -- which you cannot read. Also, if partners wrote legibly, we wouldn't have to wonder whether it means "caramel macchiato" or "caramel mocha."

Our store is very noisy and it's hard to hear, so orders have to be repeated multiple times. Curtains or better acoustics would really help.

Plus, we have many idiotic register partners who often get the order wrong and we have to remake the drink. This is separate from customers later changing their mind and deciding they want skim, not whole milk, after the drink is made.

Plus, there are ways to correct the easy wrongs, but we don't emply them. Often, someone orders a chai tea but is given a chai latte.

If someone orders skim milk for a drink that comes with whip (like hot chocolate), they should always be asked if they want whip. Ditto for the mocha frapp, which now comes with whip. It didn't used to -- and often that's the one that customers often want whip-free.

When it's super-busy, having a partner at the counter to identify drinks and pass them out to customers really helps.

We have a handful of partners who count as negative labor -- they are difficult, abrasive, argumentative personality types, and when they are there, everything runs badly. This may be an insoluble problem. You can't be terminated on grounds of being a jerk.

Today we did 64 people from 7:30am - 8am....with only 3 employees since one called in sick. So deployment definitely helps, along with knowledgeable baristas. I really do wish we did have a menu by the door so people could not only decide what they want, but also could start getting out their money.

I don't know if we have a different Frappuccino despenser then whomever was talking about theirs....but we only clean ours at night, we just refill it all during the day.

[Kate]

One line, multiple registers--preferably 3 going at a time. You see some crazy long lines on & near Michigan Ave. in Chicago, but with 1 line, multiple registers, things move along at a nice clip.

Starbucks near the USC campus has another trick that works well--most drink orders are taken while you wait to pay. I stop feeling impatient once I know my drink is in progress. That particular store is physically too small for the customer base it serves (i.e., the only official Sbux on the entire campus), but otherwise it does pretty well, efficiency wise.

[Bill]

I have noticed that I wait in line the longest when the customer in front of me doesnt know what they want when they get to the register...You are in line to look at the menu, not chit chat...Make up ur mind in line not at the register.

i don't understand how customers can stand in line for 10 minutes, get to the register, COMPLAIN about how long then line is, and then proceed to stare at the menu board for five minutes or get on their cell phone. digging for change is another pet peeve - i confess that i do it sometimes, but if i know i'm going to do that, i'll have my change ready and an idea of what i'm going to need.

i think the drink loaded on the starbucks card is a GREAT idea. i also think we should abandon frapps altogether in the winter. and shaking the damn iced tea, that's so annoying.

[CNYBarista]

In a store that easily does over 100 transactions in any given 1/2 hour period, I gotta say that knowing what you are supposed to be doing really helps. Everyone in their place, keeping on task is one of the best ways to keep things moving. I know that is easy to say, but it works in my store. As for people digging out change, telling you to hold on while they finish their cell phone conversations, or waiting for a friend to tell them what they want, there is no changing that. I have called past people on their cell phones paying me no mind in order to move the ine that is curled 3x around the store. I then explained that to the person when they were done. I understand it is kinda bitchy, but oh well, no everyone runs on the same time clock as these college girls.

[JustABarista]

Bill, this is true, but part of the problem is the customers inability to see the menu while in line. That's why I advocate a stand sign with the menu on it somewhere in line, so people can look over it in line.

[x]

partners also need to remember that they can take orders and talk to people while they are doing other stuff.

it drives me bananas when the register partner won't speak to the person at the till when they're brewing coffee, or grinding beans..

partners in general aren't as efficient as they could/need to be mostly due to lack of training, high turnover/being new etc.

deployment is key.

and for managers who say labour is too tight: it's your store, and only you can run it. if you need an extra body - use it. there has got to be a few stores in the district with lower labour costs, they will balance it out... talk to your DM, ask for an experiment.

i tell you: most times (if your team is pretty good, and you're not stoopid)the extra labour will pay for itself.
you can always use them for cleaning if the store can't afford them for the full shift...
"staff it and they will come"

[Cory Nickolatos]

If Starbucks had sent out a flyer to me in the mail about the specific recipes for the new drinks, I would have definitely studied them. Nothing sucks more than being the dork who stares at the papers on the wall, learning how to make a new beverage.

When it comes to the craft of drink-making, newbies are kind of out to sea. There's no 'Beverage 101' class that the company gives at the beginning... You just kind of learn. Which, to me, isn't a good business strategy. The customers become victim to every one of a person's little mistakes. Baristas become confused, look for help, and before they know it... They're kicked off the bar. Suddenly, you have an employee with lower self-confidence who still doesn't know how to make all the drinks properly. I see it happen all the time.

As far as customers filling all the boxes... That can't really be helped. But usually regulars order the same thing every day, so over the course of time, baristas learn drinks, memorize them, and suddenly, it isn't a big deal any more. The same people have to be working there, though! Bosses have to treasure and hang on to employees.

[John]

Express line for those of us who just want COFFEE.

[newbarista]

Well, while my store isnt the busiest, all of our customers come in all the once...never spread out.

I agree that while having more staff on could help, in a very tiny mall local...we end up trampling over eachother...and yes...spilling tea.

The menu could be fixed...so far, we can steam whole milk, nonfat, breve, soy, lactate...now we have nonfat eggnot and whole eggng AND cider...and when you get a nonfat, lactate, whole, and eggnog drink in the span of 2 mins...its hard to steam in a timely fashion when you have 2 wands...

But the worst time consumer I've found are those people who order a quad grande 2 pump soy no foam, extrahot no whip white mocha...and than have the nerve to complain that it doesnt taste like a regular white mocha...and that the starbucks down the street can make it better...want it remade..while you have 7 drinks in line already.

I mean, customers will be customers...but half the reason why lines are long is not because of our speed of service, its about the odd customer who had a bad day and needs to vent out on a barista...or has a brain fart at the register. All of my co workers do their jobs well, and quickly...and I have full confidence in them...but its waiting on indesisive or crabby customers who make the lines long...least...thats how i see it at my store.

[Idea]

Get rid of the registers all together.

have like 4 kiosk where customers can create their own drink and pay at the same time. and it'll give you a time estimate when the drink will be ready.

and the stores saves on labor to boot.

i'm surprised the ordering process isnt more automated.

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

My store does about 100+ customers per half hour for about 4 hours straight each morning. One morning we just had two partners for the first two hours however it was wonderful because we were highly skilled.
If I am on register, I always make a point of talking with all the customers and just ask them how they are doing.

"We are the people business that happens to serve coffee."

[nyc angry barista.]

I dont expect customers to not give me change. Just be reasonable. if you have the change ready and its like 35 cents...totally cool, thanks have a good day. But cmon...anything over 80 cents that you have to look for...break the dollar. Oh, and women...please...have your money ready. If you keep you wallet in your purse, and your purse in one of the 15 different sections of your duffle bag sized OTHER purse (you dont know which section it's in *tee hee* you have sooo much stuff!) and you dont bother to look for it untill i bring your grande drip to you...dont complain ever about a line. also dont go looking for your change purse which is seperate from your wallet and your purse and in a different section of your camping gear sized outer purse to give me nickels for the .98 cents. oh...and be sure to stand at the counter putting everything back in your russian nesting doll purse system at your leisure while 14 people wait angrily behind your inconsiderate mongoloid head.

if you all also stopped with the silly customizations...cmon..half soy half skim...i should scald you with a kids hot chocolate you moron. Just because you think it sounds cool or you want to make it your own doesnt mean you should. the grande chai half soy HALF F*CKING COFFEE?!? what the hell is wrong with you. Get a drink from the menu. know that 1% or 2% means you are getting whatever is hot...and dont ask for a flat lid after the fact or a bag, or tell me "that was supposed to be iced" or ask me for BUTTER TO PUT IN YOUR COFFEE (you weigh 800 pounds you dont need to put butter in your coffee).

we have two automatic machines...i have two hands...i can make a decent amount of drinks in an hour...im quite good and was trained on a la mazocco ive got it down...the only time you have to wait unreasonably is when one of you, you great customers you, screw up.

"that was supposed to be iced"
"that was supposed to be skim"
"that was supposed to be no whip"
"umm...this tastes like coffee...i think i forgot to say CHAI latte...tee hee there is soo much to remember."

no one ever accepts responsibility. "That was supposed to..." is code for "f*ck i forgot to ask but i can never let the lowly barista know that it was my fault cause GASP! he might actually ask me to pay for it again!"

its not a problem starbucks can really address. If they want to find a place to cram in more espresso machines and give us more labor to operate them...well that will work. If they want to open another smaller starbucks within my starbucks that will work too. In my area of NYC there are at least 10 starbucks in a 10 block radius of my store. you will wait at all of them at some given time. I wait for the train. I wait for the movie to start. i wait for my egg sammich at the deli...fact of life is that we will be inconvienced at times. If we as a people remembered how to think of anyone besides ourselves for a minute we would all be better off.

[Deusx]

Frankly I think this trend to make it even faster to get a drink at Starbucks should stop. If you want fast food, go to McDonalds and if you want to run a fast food business Mr. Jim, then go BUY a McDonalds.
The concept of going into a coffee shop and expecting to get a drink in 3 minutes is insane unless the place is absolutely empty. It shouldn't even be an expectation and it is ruining the basic precepts of the company. It is a shame that Starbucks is forgetting it's roots to squeak out that extra 3% profit. So much for the third place.

[mymacchiato]

One of the number one aspects of our job at Starbucks is our customer service. If we add automated machines or a SBUX card that we swipe to know a persons drink then how are we being personable???? We NEED to be educating our customers. This will help in the future so that they can say their drink just as well as us. When we start conversations with our customers or even informing them of our customizations, we are familurizing them with our drinks and pretty soon they will have a regular that we can make for them when we see them in their cars ;) We do not need any of the technology that you are suggesting. We just need baristas with their wonderful, uplifting spirits. This will also improve your customers moods when you start conversation at till so that if they do have to wait they are already in a great mood.

[IcedSoyLatte]

I laughed recently when we got a snapshot and were deducted 6 points because instead of being 3 mins and under for the WHOLE process (entering store, waiting in line, ordering, getting drink)....my fellow partner and I did it in 3 mins and 53 secs. OMG! 53 secs over!!! The world is coming to an end.....*sarcasm* But seriously..... I think I agree with the person who said, "we are not robots, we're HUMAN." I think that is just something that needs to be remembered. Plus, deployment is key, but so is having partners who are knowledgable and willing to make the process go quickly and smoothly. I've managed a morning shift where I was the ONLY capable one who could work the bar.... now I don't mind because I enjoy bar.... but after 4 or 5 hours of making drinks because you can't trust another partner to trade with you..... it gets very difficult! I wish there was an answer for everything.... but don't we all???

[IMHO]

Some tips for partners:

Having been in a store that does over 200 in a 1/2 I would have to say that the key is definitely deployment. We're talking 13 partners on the floor at one time. Every morning. You bet every partner is needed and earned. There's enough labour to meet flowed tasks. Filler tasks are a different issue.

"Aces in their Places". Fast and accurate on cash? Great! Knock out lattes in your sleep while making conversation... Go on Bar!! Of course having more aces is the easiest solution but sometimes you've gotta use the hand you're dealt.

Be Legendary... knowing your regular's drinks helps A LOT especially if you're high drip.

Pre-steam. Have all your large pitchers steamed to 170. Sometimes we'll have 4 pitchers of whole milk hot and ready. All you have to do is pour with the bonus that all those no foam customers truly get no foam. If you're busy enough to pre-steam, you'll never have to re-steam a pitcher cause you're rotating properly.

Keep a small pitcher handy for steaming cappuccinos to order cause there's no other way to have a perfectly freepoured cappuccino unless the milk is freshly steamed. Stirring the foam back into the milk is close but still not preferable.

Pre-bag your pastries. We have a "display" muffin that doesn't move. The other 35 of that type go in bags.

Call down the line. Nothing makes people happier than having their bar drink waiting at the register by the time they get there. That 3 min wait time *is* possible no matter what the volume.

A tip for customers: Auto-top up Starbucks Card. Never fumble for change, not have enough to cover your bill, nothing to sign, no PIN to enter. Swipe and go.

If you're feeling adventurous, try a quieter time at your store, not during the morning rush to ask those burning questions. There's a reason why we sample... so people can try new drinks without any commitment. If the lines are long, stick to your usual. Your baristas and fellow customers will appreciate it.

And Cory, if you are trained to standard you do actually learn how to make *all* the drinks and how to call, mark, and make all possible modifiers thrown at you. Your Learning Coach/Store Manager isn't setting you up for success or helping their own cause if they don't train you properly.

Anytime a new drink is introduced, the SM is supposed to make a training cascade (formerly a learning tree) and have it completed before launch to teach their partners how to make it instead of relying on the job aid cards. We have non-coverage and training time for a reason. If your manager doesn't use either, your success is being sacrificed for the sake of their bonus.

[Memememe]

Overall, I think Starbucks is trying to do too much... too many drinks, too many pastries, too much merch. That is slowing down things. There is just too many options!

But- that is not going to change so....

Its all about the baristas! What works best is people who are well-trained, legendary and multi-taskers! And communication amongst all those on the floor is KEY!

[Chi-towns best/angriest barista]

omg! nyc angry barista, you are my new favorite person. i totally agree with you, and you made me laugh doing it.

i agree with the idea of using starbucks or credit cards to speed things up, but that seems to cut down on tips since i get a lot of customers who just dump their coins into the tip cube. maybe i'd take a decrease in tips tho, if it meant i didn't leave nearly every shift ready to tweak at the next person i encounter since i've had my fill of idiots for the day. in the first hour.
ooh, here's another suggestion: people stop trying to scam the system by changing your order after you've paid and the drink is half made. "Um, that was supposed to be a venti" well, why does my cup label say it's a tall then? "oh, i asked for 2 extra shots." customer returns 3/4 empty cup "this tasted funny. i think you burned it/it's too cold/i wanted vanilla/i asked for it iced/i actually liked what you made, but i'm just trying to get a free drink out of you. reamke it. now. before you finish those 7 others." i'm on to you, and if it were up to me, nobody would get a remake if their drink was more than 1/4 gone. because sometimes you accidentally grab the wrong milk or forget the syrup, but it doens't take drinking 12 ounces to figure that out. us "lowly baristas" are smarter than you think.

best customer question asked recently: "um, do you guys, like have, um lattes or something?"
and best drink order of the day: "grande non-fat extra hot latte, with extra hot 2% foam."
yeah, right....

[peevedmgr]

I think Starbucks has so many great ideas and they are open to so many business options that they forget how to successfully go about launching these things. Instead of bringing out 15 new merchandise items that you will need to train EVERYONE on each promo launch lets try three or four. Granted Holidays are the exception.

Fraps are a great source of income. Honestly they aren't going anywhere. But if we could figure out more efficient store setups for CLEANING the pitchers I don't think people would be so stressed out by having to make 1 of each of the different kinds of fraps from the menu all at the same time. Cleaning the pitchers is what slows me and most of my store down a lot. Even with the new pitcher cleaners (which breaks all the damn time) we are always struggling to clean the pitcher, clean the lid, get it back in line for the next drink. Also prep time for the frap mixes is out of hand. There has to be a way to take the three step process of mixing the fraps down to just opening a box. Afterall we already use strawberry/tang/palm/lemonade from a box in the same fridge why not find a way to box the frap mixes. And if we have to shake the lemonade/strawberry/tang/palm each use that too is slowing us down. Finding more successful mixes would be key. It may only seem like a few seconds each time. But even 2 seconds times 300 fraps/day is a lot of extra seconds wasted. And valuable time taken off your snapshot.

Store design- Dear god could we please pick like 3 designs and just go with it. I agree that it looks neat to have all the stores look different but customers are often so confused as to where to go to order. Then you spend extra time trying to redirect people or see if they have already ordered. I walked into a new store about a month ago and couldn't figure out where to go to order... and I work for the damn company. As it turns out the hand off was by the door and the register was in the middle of the room. It made no sense to me. I stayed and watched customers constantly go to the wrong place to order and then watched baristas as they became frustrated by customers who had no idea where to go or if the customer in front of them had ordered or paid yet.

Deployment- We have a freakin class/workshop for everything else. Why can't we create a deployment workshop? I have had two store manager and two district managers. Each of them had their own idea of what deployment was suppose to be. And none of them worked all the time. Understanding the role of a floater is great, but when the floaters job is to call the line, connect with each customer, get the pastries, get the drip coffee and teas, write the cups, warm the sandwiches, and deal with the never ending 10 minute timer something is bound to get derailed. I mean god forbid if someone spills something in your lobby or you run out of an item in the middle of a rush!
Setting reasonable deployment expectations and teaching those expectations company wide would be most helpful. New partners could learn deployment from their learning coaches and learning coaches could learn deployment when they take the learning coach workshop.
Borrowed partners would walk into a store and know what to expect from their deployment positions rather then from having each store and each shift supervisor doing things differently. It would become a SMART goal in the learning process and it could be measured on a Partner Development plan. A partners understanding of development in each position could also then set them up for future Starbucks promotions because of their ability to understand how a deployment roles need to change with changing business needs.

We will never be able to change the customer. Our customers will always arrive at the hand off and say, "did i say decaf?" or "i meant I wanted it with soy and whip". They will always forget to tell us they want whip on a light frap until they see the visual without the dome lid.
And as long as we as a society have change as currency we can expect to have people digging at the bottom of their beach bags for that last penny. Customers can be trained, but we have offered so many options to our customers that now they want a novel written on their cups each time they walk through the door. We set up these options for our customers and are customers are the reason why we are here. We can't take any of that away now.

Even if we went to starbucks cards that read someones drinks there are just somethings you can't program. And how long would it take us/them to program the cards the right way to read what the customer wants?

Furthermore, customers would stop trying new things if their options were limited to what was on the card? We think we are confused when they change it up, imagine how confused they would be if they were trying to change the settings on their card and kept getting it wrong.

Starbucks is about customer service. We are about connecting. But it is mighty hard to connect when you are thinking well the two people in front of that third person in line were both on their cell phones, both took long to make up their minds, both changed their order twice, and then after I made their drinks they wanted them remaid with skim instead of whole milk. Now that third person in line after 1.5 minutes is just being greeted because you were making drinks, brewing coffee, doing a slide, and answering the phone. Even though the other two people are happy they got their drinks, even though they we were happy to remake drinks for them at no cost, and they had all their questions answered correctly. Now person #3 needs to order, pay, move over, and have their drink done in under the 1.5 remaining minutes while I connect over conversation at the bar too? And how are we then suppose to help customer #4 who is now waiting 2 minutes in line in under 1 minute. And you know #4 would be your snapshot.

I work in a store that was very slow until recently. We are now understaffed for the business we used to do. I don't want to hire warm bodies to fill the space I want to hire people who will deliver the ledgiondary service everyday every time.

The time crunch has brought our snapshots down. And the lower snapshot scores has killed the spirit of my 5 star baristas. I would like to see the time posted on a snapshot- but not counted against us. Granted no one wants to wait 10 minutes for their latte... but would you wait 10 minutes if while you were waiting a partner was offering you samples? Would you wait if your barista was talking to you about your family? Would you wait if the expectation wasn't corperate America and rather coffee shop image? 10 min is outragous for a latte, but I hope you see the point I am trying to make. Legiondary service is not one size fits all. It doesn't come in one pretty little nicely gift wrapped box. It is different for EVERYONE.

I know the origional question here was about reducing wait time in Starbucks stores I think the bigger question Starbucks needs to ask itself would be, how fast do we need to move in order to keep up with the speed of the world today? And is this pace the same pace we asked of our baristas 35 years ago when we first started? Because if we talk about how our values are the same then shouldn't we value our image as a coffee culture and not just the speed at which we push people out of our door?

[coffeegirl]

Quit being friendly.

I'm sort of serious. I worked at a big-city upscale mall store the size of a broom closet that did mad volume. Most of our customers were wealthy foreign tourists who didn't speak English and wouldn't get off their cell phones and take off their sunglasses anyway. We got good at deciphering accents and rarely made mistakes. Everyone was very, very fast. We likened our work environment to a combat situation.

We took the orders briskly, ran the bar full-tilt, deployed whoever was newest to all-frapp-all-the-time, and used the best person as floater. We didn't chit-chat. We ignored the merch, because we knew it was all going to get shoplifted by homeless people anyway.

Our snaps were all 3-star 100-percents. We didn't care and our manager didn't appear to care. With the numbers we were doing in the space we'd been given, no one really expected us to be legendary. They expected us to be really fast, and we were. I still get scary flashbacks thinking of the day after Thanksgiving.

I agree with IMHO and NYC angry barista.
IN a perfect world and in a real world... I can see both sides of it eaqually. (except if someone wants 2% i can mix the two because all the milk is always hot.
WHY CANT WE USE THE BIG PITCHERS???????????????????????????????????????????