Star_Bucks

Starbucks is the leading retailer of specialty coffee in the world. The coffee chain was founded in 1971 and is currently based in Seattle, Washington. This coffee chain is best known for its robust tasting coffee and espressos and its creamy lattes just to name a few. This company has rapidly grown possessing more than 15,000 coffee stores in more than 40 countries throughout the world. Between 1990 and 2006 Starbucks was opening a store at the swift pace of one store per day. As of 2008 Starbucks Coffee Corporation has over 11,000 stores located in the United States, over 4000 stores located across the globe. PROBLEM STATEMENT With the recent decline in the United States economic market and the countries overall economic condition has forced Starbucks to close over 600 stores throughout the United States. With the downsizing of Starbucks may cause major concern with regards to consumer satisfaction and customer service. Customers that once had a large selection of Starbuck stores to choose from now only have one or two stores to frequent. This may pose a problem for patrons as far as convenience and accessibility. By closing these stores may even cause congestion in stores and overworked staff which is fatal combination when measuring customer service and satisfaction. RESEARCH PURPOSE/ RESEARCH QUESTION The primary purpose of this research is to determine if the recent closures will affect consumer confidence in the Starbucks products and customer service. This project will also reveal how patrons rate the service and products that they receive at Starbucks. Does the customer perception of Starbucks customer service really match up to what they ultimately receive' The results of this research project may also provide the management team of Starbucks pertinent information that maybe useful to management in determining areas that need improvement, discover potential revenue opportunities and to commend employees who go above and beyond expectations to give customers quality service. SCOPE The data will be collected from the online survey that will be given to the customer and the link will be located at the bottom of the customer’s receipt along with the customer receipt number in order to initiate the survey. Data will also be collected by each member. Members of Team A must mystery shop three different Starbucks stores. They have been instructed to order the same product in all three stores. They must order specialty items from the menu for instance extra cream, cinnamon etc…) To test product knowledge the team member must ask the cashier about one of the products featured on the Starbucks menu. The team member must repeat these request at all three Starbucks locations. This will help to measure for consistency Any results obtained in this survey via online or at Starbucks location will be directly applied to other Starbucks in the United States and abroad since all Starbucks Stores have very comparable customer service characteristics and company guidelines. METHODOLOGY Team A has created a brief customer satisfaction survey to be distributed to customers. The survey will be available to patrons in the form of a web site that will be printed on every customer receipt. Employee participation in promoting the survey is expected of all employees who will be serving customer. Employees will instruct customers to take a moment to go online to complete the survey. Each customer who completes this survey will be able to print out a coupon at the end of the survey to receive a complimentary coffee as an incentive to complete the customer survey. In order to initiate the survey the customer must input the customer receipt number located on the customer receipt. Once the customer number is entered it will show which store was visited, which manager was on duty and the employee that served the customer. The first section of the survey asks the participant the day and time of the visit. It also asks whether the customer was greeted upon entering into the store. This section represents the nominal scale of the survey. “Cooper (2006) describes a nominal scale as a list of categories to which objects can be classified.” Lind, Marchel, and Wathen (2008) define nominal data as data that can classify and counted. Nominal data is not gathered in any particular order. This data is characterized by names and labels. For instance, when reporting data from the first section of this survey, it makes no difference if we report the results of the questions asked in any particular order. The second part of the survey represents an ordinal scale. Ordinal – level data is defines as data that can be classified and ranked (Lind, Marchel, and Wathen, 2008). According to Cooper ranking scales as a study constraint in which the participant makes comparisons and determine the order among two or more properties. In The Team’s survey we ask the patron to rank their levels of satisfaction for various parts of their visit at star bucks. For instance, how friendly the employees were, the quality of the products served, and employee product knowledge. The last section of our survey asked questions that are related to the entire customer experience. The information reveal in the final section will tell if the customer would return to Starbucks or not. CONCLUSION The main objective of the survey is to gather data that will give information on the areas what Starbucks does well and shed light on areas that needs improvement. The goal of this survey is to provide information that will constantly guarantee that Starbucks patrons are receiving excellent products and superior customer service. The data collected on this survey should ensure the Starbucks customer experience does not suffer due to the downsizing experienced by numerous stores throughout the United States and abroad. Results of this survey should help Starbucks management to establish what procedures they need to continue to support and what measures are needed to improve company policy and practices.