Starbucks Customer Satisfaction
Starbucks case 1.
There are numerous factors that paved the way for Starbucks’ success during the early nineties. I believe that one of their strengths was good knowledge of who their potential customers were and how to please them with their profile, assortment and services. One also has to take notice of their clear vision of becoming America’s third place, this tells me that they’ve had an aggressive vision from the start. And of course they’ve matched this with their strategy, from 1992-2002 the company opened about 3500 stores all across America. This gives the company a yearly growth rate of around 350 stores, an impressive number. They also licensed out another 1500 stores. This allowed them to become a household name for the regular American, and the strong brand name was created with all the advantages that comes along with it. They enjoyed plenty of first-mover advantages. All this was financed by boldly taking the company public, despite doubts from most analysts regarding the company concept. And who was the power behind this decision, if not Howard Schulz? Responsible for much of the success, Howard Schulz and his team have proven that their aggressive strategy’s have been key in the success of the company. In other words the management is a big contributor. I’d also like to bring up the human capital of the company, or as the employees are called, the company “partners”. Since the Starbucks concept of creating an experience for the customer goes hand in hand with partner satisfaction, management have been quite generous to their employees. They’ve for instance provided them with health insurance and stock options. For Starbucks it is key to create long lasting relationships with customers (these customers have proven to be very profitable for the company), demanding good relationships between baristas and customers. Keeping a low employee turnover rate both with baristas and managers has definitely contributed to the company’s success.
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There are numerous factors that paved the way for Starbucks’ success during the early nineties. I believe that one of their strengths was good knowledge of who their potential customers were and how to please them with their profile, assortment and services. One also has to take notice of their clear vision of becoming America’s third place, this tells me that they’ve had an aggressive vision from the start. And of course they’ve matched this with their strategy, from 1992-2002 the company opened about 3500 stores all across America. This gives the company a yearly growth rate of around 350 stores, an impressive number. They also licensed out another 1500 stores. This allowed them to become a household name for the regular American, and the strong brand name was created with all the advantages that comes along with it. They enjoyed plenty of first-mover advantages. All this was financed by boldly taking the company public, despite doubts from most analysts regarding the company concept. And who was the power behind this decision, if not Howard Schulz? Responsible for much of the success, Howard Schulz and his team have proven that their aggressive strategy’s have been key in the success of the company. In other words the management is a big contributor. I’d also like to bring up the human capital of the company, or as the employees are called, the company “partners”. Since the Starbucks concept of creating an experience for the customer goes hand in hand with partner satisfaction, management have been quite generous to their employees. They’ve for instance provided them with health insurance and stock options. For Starbucks it is key to create long lasting relationships with customers (these customers have proven to be very profitable for the company), demanding good relationships between baristas and customers. Keeping a low employee turnover rate both with baristas and managers has definitely contributed to the company’s success.
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