Is it time to say no to "Just Say Yes"?

One of the big Starbucks customer-service mantras is "Just Say Yes," which means the customer can pretty much get whatever he or she asks for. Judging by comments posted on various Starbucks Gossip threads, this policy is causing more and more problems as customers try to exploit it. Should "Just Say Yes" be dropped? Altered? (How?) Or kept in place to keep Starbucks a customer-service leader?

Comments

[Darleen]

When customers demand the coupons, I just tell them we're all out of them. Even though we have 50 million of them in the back office. No customer will bark orders at me and demand free stuff

Molly, while I feel your frustration about some customers abusing our just say yes policy, i think you are missing the point. The reason we have those coupons is to rectify a bad situation. It costs us nothing to recover with the free drink and may cost us a customer if we take the attitude that we control what constitutes a bad visit. It makes me laugh sometimes when I hear partners acting like sbux police. If a customer has a bad experience, or what they perceive to be a bad experience, give them a coupon. Do we have customers who will abuse this? YES, however, is it worth losing a customer over? NO. When in doubt, just say yes....I think if we truly care about our customers, and it shows, we shouldn't worry about the small stuff.

[tim]

Written by my daughter:::

To the Editor,

I am writing you this editorial concerning the Starbucks on Hacks Cross in Olive Branch. Sunday morning I walked into that Starbucks with my parents to simply relax, talk, and enjoy the morning over coffee and cake, we have been doing this since I was a toddler and we lived in San Francisco. However, my morning was anything but the usual delightful time at Starbucks. We ordered our coffee and cake, but my piece of cake was incredibly stale. It felt as hard as a brick. I asked my mother if she would return it for a fresh slice, since I am rather shy about doing stuff like that, but she told me it was no big deal and I should do it myself. I returned the slice of days old hard cake to a short, bald headed man behind the counter. He rolled his eyes, took the piece of cake and felt all over it as if I was lieing, and made a rude face as he tossed it out. He stood there just glaring at me until I finally said, " May I have a fresh slice of cake?" He then went to the back, threw a box of cake on the counter, took out two pieces and shoved them at me on two separate plates. Confused, I said, " I just want one piece please," but he said, " Why don't you take a bite out of both of them and see which is better? Surely one is prettier than the other one." I was shocked at his rudeness. Finally he just pushed a slice of cake at me and walked off. I sat down at one of the tables where my parents were at and just started to cry. After my parents found out what had happened they jumped up and confronted the man who then started screaming, "Let me explain myself!" But my parents replied, "No, you can't explain yourself. How could you treat a sixteen year old customer so meanly and make her cry over a simple piece of bad cake?! Did you not realize how stale and old that cake was?!" The man then became red in the face as he grew angry and started gripping the side of the counter hardly as my mother continued to confront him. It became a bigger scene as the man wouldn't back down until finally my parents said, "Let's get out of here." One of the other employees came running outside after us and got our phone number saying that the general manager would be giving us a call, but sure enough, we never got one single call. I am appalled at the service of this Starbucks and I will never be returning. It still shocks me at how a simple morning at Starbucks turned into a total disaster and ruined the whole day for me. It will be hard for me to enter another Starbucks now. I hope that people will read this and that they won't waste their money hoping for a soothing time at this Starbucks.

Sincerely,

Barbra, a sixteen year old

[Dima K]

LSMANAGER:
I was refering to 200F
No liquid in the store may be steamed above 195F

[miranda]

Having read 2/3 of the thread, I have to add something. The Partner assumption here seems to be that if a person is ordering a "Kid's" drink, they're trying to cheap out on a Short.

But with Short not really on the menu, some people will order what they perceive as a child-size drink for health reasons... they just want a little bit of a treat. Maybe a tall hot cocoa is too sweet/rich/much for them, maybe they can't have or don't want the calories. It's a compromise.

I thought I would bring this up, because my mom does this (not at Starbucks, but in general, she orders a lot of child sizes in different places). Also, plenty of magazines and TV shows recommend that people who go to fast food places order child-size meals to cut the unhealthiness of the food; I can see many people extending this to Starbucks.

This is not to say that nobody's being cheap, just that it shouldn't necessarily be your first assumption. I'll be sure to tell my mom that everyone thinks she's trying to get out of paying for an adult small at whatever place she happens to be, though.

[Vintage]

I think the "Just say yes" policy is great as long as it's not abused. The problem is that it does, and frequently enough that stock is now at $21. Starbucks is no longer the big boy in town and I wouldn't be suprised if people abusing the system isn't a big part of it.
It seems like "Just say yes" is more of a way to avoid an uncomforable situation than to help bring the customer into the fold and I don't think that's why it was created.
I've already heard someone get "the talk" because they wanted to ring in a customer for a drink + cup discount instead of the refill they demanded everyone give them (at every store) because they had not been in the store yet that day.
This customer goes to every store in town (med town, mid-west) and orders refills. No one has the balls to tell them, "no" so now this person expects it. If you say "no" and want to ring them up properly, they get flippant, come back and complain to get you in trouble, then bad-mouths you and your store to anyone who will listen (at other stores).
From what I've gathered, management at many locations pretty much never sides with the employee.
Yes we're probably looking at a dollar, but the moral and ethical abuse being put out by this person is simply outrageous as I've heard them being told courteously about how the refill policy actually works, the person doesn't care and simply doesn't want to pay full price.
Our service industry (in general, not just at retail coffee shops) acts like a bunch of big blubbering vaginas to anyone who raises a fuss. It's one of the many things wrong with society that's turning it into a giant trash dump.
A simple Google search shows dozens of websites where a customer can voice their ire, but a place where employees can safely vent over bad customers is pretty much non-existant.
http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/why-the-customer-is-always-right-results-in-bad-customer-service/
Starbucks really needs to look at this and get their game together.

[xmasbuyer]

Hi, everyone i wanted to know if the just say yes poliy covers Whole Bean Coffee? The reason that I am asking is that I went all over the downtown area in my city to get some of the X-mas blend coffee. It's the only one that i tend to like and I'm not a big coffee drinker. I went to a Starbucks and asked with they had any X-mas blend left and they said no but try the starbucks on the next block. Which is what i did. I did find the X-mas blend but it was in the half lb bags. I asked the partner if I was willing to get 2 of the 1/2 lb bags will she sell it to me for the 1 lb price. She said "no". I had my earpuds in 1 ear and i block out some thing she said but it was something like "... after the holidays." I then thorw the 1/2 lb back in where it was and then said "thanks for nothing". I then went to another Starbucks and found it there. I though that if she wanted to make a sale she would have said yes. Plus the fact that for the space it uses. I am also going to report it to starbucks. Was her actions right to say no to a sale?

[Rocky Mountain Barista]

Well, I always try to ring correctly, I will usually make a point of informing the customer that the correct price is... I apologize if other stores have been giving you an incorrect price, I'll give you the price you're used to this time, but we do need to follow our standards in the future. I have some customers who refuse to pay the incorrect price at that point, which means I did my job correctly. Sometimes I have to coach some of my fellow partners to ring a little more accurately, but usually if the customer is upset about it, they're rude in general and most partners like to give them the correct price.

[j peach]

I am going to start to work for Starbucks in about a week, and after reading the book,"the Starbucks Experience" I am even more excited.

[BaristaBarista]

I love working at Starbucks. We have our share of scammers, lazy coworkers, and people who annoy the crap out of you. however, despite all of that, the one thing that makes me almost regret working there is my manager. My manager's a nice person in general. However, we've had several incidents with a certain customer being verbally abusive to our partners. It got so bad that one time this customer made my DTR partner cry. outright cry. we're talking bawling. so I decided to do the mature thing and have a talk with my manager about the verbal abuse this customer had been dealing out for way too long. My manager just said to put a smile on and make their drink fast and get them "out". (!!!!!) to this day the verbal abuse by this customer still continues at a constant rate. my manager is too much of a wimp and too afraid to loose 1 customer to stand up for their fellow partners. This manager should be reprimanded from the DM!!

[Neil Bernstein Memorial Architect]

The Oro Valley Arizona Starbucks @ Oracle and First ave. has a new just say NO policy when you plead with them to turn the Starbucks approved (and for sale) music down to a level where you can read the newspapers that they sell, or, better, converse with your pregnant migraine suffering wife. After seven callsto corporate to complain, the manager Jennifer decided to have the POLICE throw us out due to our "UN-STARBUCKS LIKE ATTITUDE" (I swear it it real)

[Annmarie]

i know its old news but "just say yes" is about respecting the customers who have to wait in line for the dispute to be over with-and possibly losing their business. I had a customer in drive thru with 4 SRC's in her wallet-and still complaining about her drinks, demanding her order of 3 drinks free, as well as more coupons because according to her we were rude too. The line in back of her was furious. They had to wait through the dispute because the baristas didn't just say yes. The shift told yes and because of the situation, he asked her not to return.
As far as subbing with decaf, that just makes them think our drink quality is inconsistent.

[crowdSPRING]

The manager I was hired under is a former Partner and she runs her cafe like a Starbucks through and through. I will do the same when I get my own cafe.

[Former barista: recovering caffeine junkie]

I'm surprised at how many baristas worry about the free drinks they are giving out under "just say yes." have they actually calculated the amount they drink in partner beverages. Think about how many partners work at your store in a given day. Drinking two or three drinks a shift, one before, after, and on break. Partner beverages is probably costing the company more than a few just say yes drinks.

[Former barista: recovering caffeine junkie]

I miss being a partner. The other day I went to get a lb of coffee and my usual partner beverage(by the way confused the heck out of the new Partner) a quad con panna with caramel drizzle a sugar in the raw ( wow ive become one of those annoying custom drink costumers) it cost me close to $20 I want my starbucks benefits bac :(