Consumer Satisfaction Policy

Evaluate Starbucks’ consumer satisfaction policy. How valuable is a highly satisfied customer to Starbucks? How does the Starbucks of today differ from the Starbucks of 1992?

Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services applied by a company meets or surpass customer expectation.

Did Starbucks’ customer satisfaction scores decline? Unfortunately, it’s not really clear whether the scores have declined or not, or maybe there’s something wrong with the way Starbucks’ measure customer satisfaction. Even though the evidence from the case show that customers are not as satisfied as before, but this doesn’t mean that Starbucks’ service has declined. But due to the rise of coffee-shop competitors, customers’ expectations have been raised.

Starbucks’ customer satisfaction scores may have declined due to the company’s focus on growth, profits, expansion, brand image, and product innovation, instead of focusing on the right things which are the values of their customers. This lead to Starbucks’ inability to meet customer satisfaction and customer’s new expectations due to the slow service and the waiting time between ordering and receiving the order. Which was mainly because of three reasons:

- The rapid increase of customer base.

- The introduction of new beverages with more than 7 steps required to complete the beverage.

- The option of customizing the drink the way customers like.

All of these reasons lead to the delay of the customer and the breaking of the company’s goal of preparing the drink within three minutes time. Also, the partners were not able to engage in friendly social conversations or make eye contact with customers anymore, thus from the customer’s point of view: losing the friendly and welcoming feeling they used to experience.

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