I recently came across a personal commentary (read: rant) on customer service at premium coffee joints that was sitting idly in my computer folder and collecting a fair bit of dust. A quick read through what I wrote at least half a year ago revived in me the annoyance I felt back then with regard to the poor service I encountered at a Starbucks outlet. No doubt the contents of my commentary are still relevant to consumer experiences today.
A few months ago, I went to a Starbucks cafe in a shopping mall, tired and cranky and itching for a good cup of coffee to perk me up. My usual Java Chip, tall with no whip cream, didn’t seem to do the trick anymore. I needed some strong coffee to keep me awake to survive the thick, jargon-laden notes on neurolinguistics. Walking up to the counter, I asked, “Hi. I’m feeling very tired today and would like something stronger than Java Chip. Do you have any recommendations?” For a moment the barista serving me seemed startled. It was apparent he did not know how to respond to my question. Before I could think of something else to say to save him from embarrassment, he said something that I, an unsuspecting customer, found astonishing and somewhat insulting, “Sorry. I don’t drink coffee (so I wouldn’t know).” What?! A Starbucks barista who does not know the products he makes, or even worse, does not drink ordinary coffee? That got me feeling a little affronted, and yes, I perked up from his shocking revelation. Thanks, Mr Barista, for the non-caffeine boost.
This simple incident kept me thinking long after it happened. Is it common for an employee to serve something they are not even familiar with to customers? Is it acceptable for them to sell products which they have no real knowledge of, much less firsthand experience? How do they make good sells this way? How much can customers trust the advice the staff give them, or are customers expected to know what they want? And are quality checks on the standard of customer service being performed?
These questions extend far beyond a Starbucks joint, a caffeine-averse barista and a slightly demanding (and ticked off) customer. Perhaps I’m over-generalising from this incident and making a mountain out of a molehill. But from my frequent trips to coffee joints like Starbucks, especially during school vacations, the employees there seemed like young part-time workers; stand-ins who work there just for the hourly pay and who perhaps pray they don’t meet customers like me. But come on, for a premium coffee franchise like Starbucks that sells coffee at an average of $6 per cup, shouldn’t there be better customer service to accompany the higher-quality coffee? Similarly, if a waitress at a high-end restaurant cannot even tell you which wine goes well with the food you order, won’t you feel that the additional service charge is unjustified?
To be fair, I approached previous part-time Spinelli barista cum current NUS Year 4 student, Michael Tjin to find out more about the training employees at coffee outlets go through. He said, “The training (I went through) was mostly about making drinks and how to make certain concoctions. We also learned the other procedures that needed to be followed when giving out orders, such as which food needed what cutlery as Standard Operating Procedure, and that the drinks should be given with a serviette etc.” When I posed a question about whether employees should be expected to have enough knowledge about the product they are selling to make recommendations to customers, he affirmed my suspicions that I was ill-treated – “Duh? Isn’t that a given? What’s the point in not believing in what you sell?” I nodded in agreement and shared with him my negative experience. Then he exploded, “WHAT?! A BARISTA WHO DOESN’T KNOW HIS COFFEE? THAT IS A SIN, A SACRILEGE! WHERE WAS THIS?!” (Disclaimer: No exaggeration at all on the writer’s part.) Michael, being the dramatic theatre studies student he was, ranted on about what the barista could have done, “…He could have recommended having extra shots because to make the coffee stronger, we add in more espresso…Unless you go for ice-blended (coffee), which probably uses a coffee mix that isn’t as strong then we’ll add in chilled espresso to make that stronger…” Oh well. I wished my barista was as experienced and knowledgeable as Michael.
Granted, my bad coffee-buying experience was probably an isolated incident. However, it did highlight several problems of customer service, especially when it comes to temporary staff. Perhaps companies which are expanding fast and need temporary manpower to fill in the gaps could take measures to ensure that the quality of their products and the way they sell it is not compromised by untrained and inexperienced employees. One of the sure-fire ways to maintain the quality of products and service is through the thorough and rigorous training of employees, to equip them with the skills to handle all sorts of questions and manoeuvre their way out of tricky situations with difficult customers. Training of frontline staff is essential to not only maintaining the company’s image, but also in establishing a base of regular customers to maintain and improve profits, allowing the business to flourish. In my opinion, companies can and should spend some extra money to train their staff well, even the temporary ones. A more rigorous and comprehensive training programme would ensure better quality staff and a more pleasurable customer experience.
A few weeks after my incident with Mr Barista, I went to another Starbucks outlet. I was immediately apprehensive when I saw another young barista at the counter. However, such fears were dispelled when the female barista responded to the same question (Do you have recommendations for stronger coffee, please?) with ease, and introduced me to Café Mocha, which has since then become my favourite Starbucks beverage. Perhaps it was just my dumb luck to have had such a bad encounter with Mr Barista, but this young Starbucks employee has surely restored my faith somewhat in customer service at premium coffee joints. At the end of the day, regardless of what kind of barista serves you, one-off incidents like the one I encountered are telling of the importance of good customer service, and how employers should not underestimate the importance of effective employee training and its overall impact on their businesses.