From the mailbag: Fort Lauderdale Starbucks customer wonders why she's always getting free coffee

"Aunty Em" writes to STARBUCKS GOSSIP: I am a regular Starbucks customer in a regular town in regular America. [Her blog indicates it's Fort Lauderdale.] I drink regular coffee. Starbucks has been a regular part of my day -- every day -- some days more than others. I visit various locations, as my work as a driver takes me all over the area. However, I do have a "local," where they joke (or maybe not) that I have the award for the most refills. I have probably only been asked to pay for about one-third of the coffees handed to me by the various people who staff the front. And new people only seem to charge me once or twice. After that it seems as if they are told something. When I travel, or even visit another location nearby, I am ALMOST surprised by the fact that they have a totally different business model: They actually charge me for my coffee.

Why I get this treatment is something I've never asked about, nor is it something I have ever asked for. I always have my money in my hand; I am always prepared to pay. When I am waved off, I drop the money into the tip box. Maybe that's why they do it.

I would love to read a thread all about COMPING, since the earlier thread referencing this was combined with another topic and hardly satisfying. Could you please ask your readership: What's the deal on COMPS? [I wrote her back and suggested she ask the baristas why she's always getting free drinks. She replied: "I don't want to jinx a good thing."]

Comments

[Howard Schultz]

Customers need to understand that there is a positive psychological effect on seeing their regular customers and doing something nice for them. We could be getting our butts kicked all day long, but when we see your face, it makes us feel better because we know you arent going to give us attitude and send your drink back because YOU thought that a blended caramel macchiato was like a milk shake, when in actuality its a lowfat milk caramel macchiato.

Naturally, we want to make you and ourselves feel good by throwing some drinks your way at no charge. Now, I've rarely heard of a customer only paying for 1/3 of their drinks. I personally like to use a system of maybe buying my regular customers 1 drink a week.

[Becca]

We had some customers who almost never paid for a drink for about 2 months, because it was a time of such high turnover, that they were almost never served by the same people in a week, so each individual thought to themselves "I'd like to give them a free drink today because they are so nice every day", and they ended up never paying. Now that we're at stable employment, and we communicate with eachother about comps, it doesn't hapen anymore.

[J]

Company policy is no free drinks to customers ever, unless service recovery is involved. Obviously this isn't enforced much and every store I've been in has people giving drinks to the "regulars" and people they like.

I even do it personally at times, but if there is a manager that is doing their job, or if the DM were to find out it would be grounds for determination. I have seen people get fired for it, so its something that I am very careful with.

like Howard said though we do try to hook up the regulars occasionally as we feel they have "earned" it.

[fannypie]

I was a Sunday regular in a store in Houston for a pretty long time. Once, my drink order ended up getting lost in the shuffle of a Sunday morning rush. The employee who took my order noticed me still standing there and asked if there was a problem with my drink. When I told him I hadn't gotten it yet, he apologized profusely, reminded a barista about it, and brought me a handful of free drink coupons of some sort from the back. I was pretty impressed - and I definitely stayed very loyal to that store for the rest of the time that I lived nearby.

It never occured to me to expect additional free drinks because I came in on a regular basis.

[Florida Barista]

Considering you get just drip coffee.. it's really not a big deal. We dump out gallons of coffee every hour. So loosing a grande coffee everday is really nothing. I wouldn't ask the baristas why their doing it though.. that's kind of awkward. Just take it as a nice gesture- that's what it is.

[JustABarista]

"Company policy is no free drinks to customers ever, unless service recovery is involved."

I'm pretty sure that is not true, because we have always done surprise and delight. We've done it with regulars and we've also come up with games on deciding who gets free coffee that day. Like everybody wearing a sweatshirt for the local pro football team for the first two hours on gameday.

[averrycafinatedbarrista]

I have seen ASM's and SM give out free drinks. it works on occasion and its a nice thing to do. if somebody is having a terrible day, ill tend to give them a free drink if it'll make there day a bit better.

[Sheik]

I never give away free drinks at my store because 9 times out of 10 the arrogant snob customer who is line behind the lucky one will say, "How come *MY* drink wasn't for free?"

[mkebarista]

I only give out a drink if 1) the person is nice and 2) there aren't other customers watching. i usually do one a week

[Lauren]

We're there to enrich daily lives. And sometimes there's a personal connection between people that causes that relationship to go backwards. You can make my day better.

There's a big difference between the nice regulars and my friends. There are people who come into my store (hey Tom) whom I know on a personal basis, and past the "how's school?" crap. They actually care. We go take photos together. We actually speak like we know less about each other but we're really very close.

Now you may be such a bright light that people just feel like you're honestly caring and wanting to reward you.

And we dump a lot of coffee. Guilty as charged.

[Grump]

I'm a naturally grumpy regular who never gets free coffee because he refuses to carry out the fake I'm-your-friend act with Starbucks employees.

I'm going to file a class-action discrimation lawsuit on behalf of all grumpy customers who are denied occasional free drinks.

[Sheik]

GRUMP: If you are going to file that class-action suit then we as Barista's should just file a class-action suit against people who order "Ghetto lattes"

(Here we go again...)

[Chi-towns best/angriest barista]

i've comped a few drinks for various reasons. once a regular ordered a hot chcolate, paid with a credit-gift-card thing and walked away before i realized it came up as NSF, so i just gave it to him without telling him, since he's there all the time and has never had a problem paying before. another time the parking lot attendant from outside came in to get a hot tea but forgot his wallet, so i just gave that to him, he tried not to accept it, but i was like "dude, it's just tea, don't worry about it" and i knew he wasn't trying to scam us out of it, so i didn't mind. he did come back a few days later and bought something and left a large tip to make up for the other time. the most recent time was when i was closing, it was about 10:50 and i didn't have a till anymore, and the guy who did was not to be found. another regular (we're a slow store, we get a lot of regualrs) came in to get a venti coffee w/heavy cream, so we just gave it to her because we hadn't seen anybody but the milk delivery man (who we comped a tall hot chocolate to since it was piss cold out and he's a nice guy) in about 3 hours, and she's pretty consistant anyway.
if i know someone's a regular i'll sometimes give them a little discount, like charge for a grande when they order a venti, or don't charge for a syrup or extra shot.
i've never randomly comped someone. usually it's people from the restuarants near by, so we get deals if we ever go there, or people that we know. even my manager has comped drinks to some of his friends.
i'm most often going to comp regular drip coffee, especially if there aren't many people around, since i know we're just going to dump it out anyway, and that seems wasteful to me.
pretty sure i'm never gonna comp a tripple venti breve 8 pump extra whip extra hot mocha, unless there's a very compleiing reason to do so.

[Mia]

I am a regular at the store closest to my office. The SM and ASMs comp me my drink every so often. I love to bake and I will quite often bring in stuff for them. I have also become friends with the manager and she is a knitter as well. On Sunday nites when she closes, I will often go in and sit and knit when it is slow just because. The thing is that I never ask nor do I expect my drink to be comped or discounted.

[Zipy]

We like to give back, sometimes. Sometimes when its friends, family, or regulars who are always overly nice -- we'll comp them a drink. Why? They might come in, every day, and spend 5$ a day on a coffee. thats 35$ a week, a year? Yeah, keep going yearly. It hardly hurts the company for us to slip them a cheaper drink once or twice, or to comp it completely. Now, do i do it all the time? of course not, this is a busniess, the company needs to make a profit, but if comping you once or twice gets return busniess then hey -- ill comp you a drink!

[barrockstar]

J - you're totally wrong.

everyone pretty much summed it up. chances are you're an awesome person and a treat to serve thus a few comps here and there.

someone else said something also true: they probably don't all know how much their comping you, since we don't all work the same shifts, or work together so don't ask about it - since it'll probably stop (with a communication to the team about you...)

enjoy it, since nothing much is free in this world.

and continue to be the charming niceness that makes people want to make your day!

[wind it up]

i give free drinks to a customer, becuase i am sleeping with him and he gives me free drinks at the bar where he works

[Cosine]

Wow, I've just checked with 9 Starbucks regulars, including myself, and none of us has ever received anything from Starbucks without paying, ever.

[Catherine]

I guess why I don't get comped is that even though I go to Starbucks 1-3 times a week I don't always go to the same one, and I usually go through the drivethrough so the workers don't see me. ;)

I have gotten a free drink twice. Once was because when I got to the drivethrough window they didn't know what I ordered. The other time was because the drivethrough line was quite long and so I had to wait for a while.

[Florida Barista]

Cosine-
Don't be jealous or offended please. This is a business. If you we're a regular at McDonalds and all your friends were regulars, and nobody every got free food- would you be mad? No your not necessarily entitled to free things at a business. I think alot of it is how you interact with the baristas. Sure you can go into Starbucks everyday- hey even three times a day. But do you talk with them? Do you know what their major is in college or if they have any pets? Sounds cheesey but those are the regulars that I really don't mind comping their drinks. Do you really think, oh I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at starbucks every year I should get a free drink? If thats the case, sign up for autoreload on your starbucks card and wait for some persk- otherwise.. get to know your baristas and stop whineing.

[Blooper]

Is the original author good-looking? Affirmative response may explain phenomenon.

[fannypie]

Whoa...Florida Barista...defensive much? Reread Cosine's post - she only stated that neither she nor the people she asked get comped drinks. Perhaps this wasn't whining as much as a reflection of her surprise to hear about an apparently common practice that hasn't affected her or her acquaintances.

God, I am consistently amazed at the group of baristas among those who post here who turn are so quick to lash out at their customers. It doesn't reflect very well on baristas as a group, I have to say.

[seattle]

To those who get a beverage on the house from time to time...it's most likely because you're a genuine, nice person that makes those partner's days better and they appreciate it...or they recognize that you're having a bad day and want to add some nice gesture to maybe make it better. To those who don't, well...there are reasons for that and they could range anywhere from partners following policy- to -maybe you're just not genuinely nice in enriching anyone's day.

If you do get them, take it with a smile and thank whomever is on the giving end, because they're doing it to appreciate you as a customer that they genuinely enjoy.

[seattle]

AND as an after thought FLORIDA BARISTA has a really good point. There are a lot of people who feel entitled to things...what a good deal of Americans don't seem to recognize is that if you are genuinely kind to others, you get treated a great deal better in return everywhere.

[DM Who Cares]

I have had to sadly terminate 6 baristas for intentionally giving away product in our district. (Drip coffee included) If you want to give away company property free of charge (which is what it is) you are history in my district. Sorry, but that's the reality of workplace theft. Lets call it what it is folks. Zero tolerance for theft. Zero! So, a word to the wise out there, don’t do it if you value your job at Starbucks. You are far to important to lose your job over a cup of coffee that you thought you could give away.

[Chi-towns best/angriest barista]

hey DM, lighten up! it's the niceties that keep people (customers and partners) comming back. if i had a nazi-esque boss like that, i think i'd just quit. what kind of company prevents employees from doing nice things for their customers? really?

[DM Who Cares]

Oh and by the way, Chi-towns best/angriest barista, based on what you typed here you do realize you could be out of a job tomorrow if you were in my district as well as your own? You never give away product or undercharge intentionally without a valid reason. From what I gather, you have not offered one. I wonder what your store maanger or DM would say about your post?

Under your rational, if I go into a major department store regularly and I am always really nice to the sales clerk I should get the $100.00 shirt free at some point? Same thing if it’s a $4.00 beverage or an expensive shirt. Be careful, your job is at risk if you think that way.

I will lighten up when we stop losing partners over theft issues and very, very poor judgement. Hopefully you will make the right decisions in the future.

well actually if we are rebrewing coffee and u have to wait its on the house

[Barista creating Enthusiatically Satisfied Customers.]

I give a free latte to a woman every week who comes in at night and lets me make her latte art. I get so damn tired of the no-foam lattes and she was watching me play around with the foam one night making rosettas and stuff. And then she ordered one. And ever since, when I am working, I give her the latte's on the house. I give people I see every day drinks on the house once or twice a month. I have to admit though, we have one nice enough regular who orders the most outrageously modified drink, and never tips. Great personality, but I will never ever comp her ANYTHING.
DM who "cares." Familiar environment. Third place. Just say yes. I will try and use every little trite starbucks saying against you, and hope that you realize that comping drinks to people creates more loyal customers. Comp them a drink once or twice a month, they will come back every day.

[Chi-towns best/angriest barista]

pretty sure i'm not gonna get fired as my store manager comps all the time. people come in when i'm at the register and he tells me "this man doesn't pay" and proceeds to make them whatever they want (within reason of course)

and think about how much milk we throw away? what's the difference between giving it to someone and making them happy (and thus more likely to return) than just dumping it and benefitting no one?

[LG]

If DM who cares was my boss, I'd kick him/her in the shin.

And what about surprise and delight? What constitutes that if not the occasional comped beverage?

[DM Who Cares]

Well, Barista Creating... you realize you are violating company policy right? This is theft you are talking about. It's not complimentary beverages by your “good nature” It’s not your money.

This is the kind of clueless attitude that gets more baristas fired. Sad really. But theft is theft. Imagine 12000 stores, 4 drinks a day at each store at $4.00 multiplied by 365 days.

That's over $70 million dollars of lost revenue a year! $70 million! We don't need that kind of loss due to partner theft giving away product. Wake up people and stop ripping off the company you work for. Don’t believe me? Think what you are doing is right? Tell your DM what you are doing. Make the right decisions folks. Giving away product is not the right decision.

Following company policy is. Just think what Starbucks could do with that extra $70 million for partner benefits. You cheat yourselves in the end. You cheat all of us who work for Starbucks.

[Chi-towns best/angriest barista]

that 70 million? think i'd ever see any of it? hell no! it goes right to the suits at the top. and i don't think all of my hard work should be padding thier pockets. are they the ones dealing with the bitch customers every day? no. are they the ones doing the grunt work? no. do they have the burns/scars/calluses/cuts that i and my fellow baristas do? no. are they the ones making the customers enthusiasticlaly satisfied so they want to keep comming back and spending their money at starbucks instead of one of the seven hundred other coffee places? hell no.
i think they should be thanking me for my fantastic customer service skills, rather than threatening to fire me for being a good person.

[NamelessBarista]

Wow..DM Who Cares or DM Who Acts Like A Douchebag?

If you were in it every day, you'd comp drinks too. Is it still comping drinks if you discount 5 it?

Or how come there's discount 114 (free beverage) if its against corporate policy. Try it some day, baristas, you ring in discount 114, it shows up on cashier tracking as 'free beverage'....if its against starbucks policy it shouldn't be in the P.O.S.

So many customers are psychic vampires...comping a drink = nice regular = baristas who don't feel worthless. Because, i assure you Mr/Ms DM, it only takes about 15 customers who ignore you completely when you ask them how they are to make you feel like crap...where's that fit into the mission statement?

Doesn't 'remembering that profitability is essential' come below 'creating enthusiastically satifisied customers' on the core values? Have you read the core values?

If you're going to fire somebody for comping a drink you're a DM who only cares about his/her bonus.

You think we cheat everyone who works for Starbucks? You forget, without Baristas and Supervisors and Managers that CARE about connecting with customers and being GENUINELY NICE...you don't have a job, and there'd be NO profits.

[Starbucks Cowboy]

I don't think I've paid full price for my drink in a long, long time. I have been a regular at my local Starbucks for quite some time. Definition of quite some time is 6 days a week, every week for the last 3 years. In the last year I have never paid full price for my drink. I've either gotten it free or just paid the refill price.

Is that bad? To the DM who supposedly cares, you're an idiot. If you worked or lorded over the Starbucks that I go to, I'd never have kept coming back. This store is special to me and I have made great friends with the people who work there. I know their first names, their spouse's names, their children's names, where some go to school, what they are doing in their lives. I have developed real friendships. That does not come from rigid morons who like to fire people for creating something that is real and potentially great for the company.

Since this Starbucks treats me great, I treat them great...by buying cups, coffee beans, an espresso machine, a few other seasonal items, and more than a few CDs. With your disgusting attitude, all that extra sale would have been lost. Now factor that into your "70 million in lost income" and steam it.

[Wisconsin Barista]

"Now factor that into your '70 million in lost income' and steam it"

Haha, I love Starbucks Cowboy!!

[Boston Starbucks Rebel]

Partial comping
People come in and order a triple venti vanilla soy latte.
My reaction I hit venti latte. That is what I call partial comping where I don't add any modifers.
They come for their venti coffee.
I charge them for the refill price.
Also just to clarfiy the official rule is that we are not allowed to give free drinks to "friends and family." This means that we can give drinks to "strangers" and people who we actually don't know.
I personally don't comp a drink unless it is a situation where "Just Say Yes" and service recovery is necessary. Like if I have 7 espresso drinks and only one blended beverage. Guess what, that blended beverage is immediately put in the back of the line but they will receive a service recovery coupon.

[coffeegirl]

I no longer work for 'Bucks, but when I did, I'd say I probably comped maybe two or three drinks per week. Sometimes to really nice regulars, like all of you here have done. Sometimes a freebie for someone's birthday or another special occasion. Our store was in an area with a lot of foreign tourists, and we'd often give a free drink to someone who was struggling with the language and seemed overwhelmed by it all; we'd say, "Welcome to the U.S. This one's on us." They'd say, "What you mean 'on us?'"

Oh, and DM? I've done it in front of my DM. Heck, I've done it in front of my RD. As long as you use the discount code and don't abuse the privilege by comping friends and family, I think you're well within surprise-and-delight territory.

Maybe it was a grinch like DM who decided that sampling should be scheduled for crazy off-peak hours, so that we won't be forced to give too much product to customers. Those nasty ingrates.

[mkebarista]

Hey DM.. isn't discussing the company say.. on this message board.. against policy?

[Thinksdifferent]

I used to be a regular at the starbucks on the walk to work at my old job. I worked 3-11pm and even though I was friendly with a few of the baristas I was only comped once or twice. I really didn't mind that I rarely got comped because I look at it this way. I was gonna pay for it anyways so on the few times I didn't have to, it was a very nice surprise.

[batgrl]

I used to work in customer service for a retail chain and we had a DM similar to the one posting in here - and he quickly became Former DM for not getting along with customers and having his assistant clear up his messes due to lack of people skills. In any industry where there is competition (and there are plenty of places to get coffee) you have to show customers that your service is different/better and stand out. There are some customers always out to get something free - but others that are always amazed by it, and those are the ones that a free coffee can make a devoted and repeat customer, not just for the chain but for your store. With such a small investment as a free drink you can sometimes have a repeat customer that will bring in $100s or $1000. Since our company had loyalty cards we could back this theory up with many, many examples - some spending aroun $10,000 over a period of years. Good service and some comps makes for repeat, happy customers. And it is the nice ones you want to return, not the snarky pushy ones - and a comp or two can encourage them to remain regulars. Comps shouldn't just be used as an apology when someone makes a mistake.

[fannypie]

Nameless Barista brings up something that seems to come up a lot here - that customers ignore baristas and "make [them] feel like crap." Not that it isn't annoying to deal with rude people, but...it's not the customers' job to validate you. It's their job to pay for the goods and services they receive. If your sense of self-worth comes from the way customers (or any external force, really) respond to you, it's going to be a rough life.

[IMHO]

DM's points are just as true and valid except they happen to be on the opposite side of the proverbial coin from what the barista deal with on the front lines.

Undercharging is or giving away product unreported is theft. If there is a repeated pattern of this behaviour, you will be XBR'd and then terminated.

The catch is what triggers the XBR process. IS it a random audit by P&AP? or did you MGR get them to look into it cause they're looking for an excuse to let you go?

If you want to comp, it's called "right now recovery". The company has made it easy for us to do so. It doesn't matter what the reason is other than to create an enthusiastically satisfied customer. Customer = someone who pays. That means if they're always getting their drinks for free, there's a problem.

At my store, we have a comp list. It's a sheet of paper where we track comped drinks. To who, by whom, and when.

To who = customer's name, ie regular which is why we know their name. This way we know that Mary Mocha has already been comped once this week...

Like Becca, this is one way to communicate to the store partners who has been comped and prevents abuse of the system.

Oh and if a customer has to wait for coffee to be brewed, in theory, they should actually pay for the coffee but given a recovery coupon for next time. The reality is that we're just going to "right now recovery" it and probably offer an americano instead.

[Hirayuki]

I've never had my drinks comped, but I did have a very nice experience at my local store not too long ago.

I got into some small talk with a barista just after all the holiday decorations started going up. He walked off for a second while I paid for my drinks and came back to hand me two pounds of whole-bean coffee (an autumn variety of some sort) completely out of the blue. I protested, but he said it was time for Christmas Blend and that he was under orders to get rid of the out-of-season stuff. If he couldn't sell it, he was going to give it away. Very nice of him, even if I did tease him for pawning his unsellable stuff off on me, heh.

[Samantha]

There are proper ways to do this comp thing. Ring it up appropriately. What I have read so far, most of you are in violation of that and should be terminated. Theft is what you are doing. No record of your "transaction" is theft and you know it! DM who cares seems like a pretty straightforward person. There is no gray areas in theft. I would think that from this DM's perspective his/her district has partners who do the correct thing and those who don't are not allowed to contaminate those partners who do the right things all the time. It’s all about good coaching. Just look at his response and what he wants to tell you in a direct way. Policy and procedure are where it's at. Some of you on here disregard it entirely. Not good!!! Then just look how you respond to the DM's caution and warning. SOme dignity and respect on your part. Starbucks does not need partners like you. For shame!

Bravo DM who cares, for putting a dollar figure on this rampant theft issue and trying to put some sense into partners who rip off the company they work for.

As for discussing the need to stop stealing, this DM violates no policy.

Some of you need to take a course in business and in ethics. For those customers who knowingly get that free or undercharged bev, don't be surprised if your barista does not show up one day as he or she would have got the axe. Rightfully so too! And the BS about coming back because you get a free this or that. You'd be back if they were to do the right thing by dazzling you with great service and providing the experience that you PAY FOR. And…knowingly taking stolen property is quite an illegal thing in most states. Live with your guilt. Surprise baristas, these customers would forget you if you all of a sudden got canned. You are their “free monkey”. They would find another unethical barista to "comp" them. Don’t kid yourselves thinking your so special.

Finally, it’s quite amusing to see how some of you come up with outlandish excuses to justify your obvious theft. We all know that criminals always say “I didn’t do it”. If you think that giving away a 5 dollar bev is worth the loss of your job, have at it!
DM who cares, I’d love to work in your district because there are a lot of us baristas who don’t like to get caught up in this “free” thing but are forced into that slippery slope by the few baristas who have no interest in doing things correctly.

i think i'm gonna go give away even more free drinks now, just to spite you. and because i don't give a $hit about this job. or this company.
have a nice day.
:)

[pnwgal]

"And the BS about coming back because you get a free this or that. You'd be back if they were to do the right thing by dazzling you with great service and providing the experience that you PAY FOR. And…knowingly taking stolen property is quite an illegal thing in most states. Live with your guilt."

Wow...someone had a big bowl of Pretentious Flakes this morning.

I've never gotten "comp"ed and I've never expected to be. The very fact that I can walk into a Starbuck's and have someone wait on me that's actually friendly and knowledgeable is compensation enough for me.

[barockstar]

i don't think DM who cares is wrong, per se.

if you're not ringing in the transactions then it IS theft. however, if everything you comp is getting rung through the register, than you're following policy correctly.

i wonder how howie would feel, if he knew one of his leaders were telling us that making people's day, surprising/delighting and saying yes were against policy? and outright threatening termination?

if people are following policy, ringing through all comped transactions, and not violating any of the core values - i think howie would tell us to keep up the good work. i mean, we're the reason the stock keeps going up and up...

[Michael]

All I ever got from baristas was a "10% off because you work in the same mall" discount. I guess I should have been friendlier, so I'd get free coffee, too.

(One barista kept giving me the discount after I stopped working at the mall, though.)

[JW]

What is the average tip at Starbucks?