Starbucks Coffee

Would be nice to give Baristas a pat on their back in any way or form

I like your suggested ideas. However all posts to the site should be reviewed by Mods before posting so that the chaos on MSI does not ruin your new site.

Great idea. Here, in the UK, I've sent several emails and letters of praise for my own favourite store (#12217 - 39 High Street, Chelmsford, Essex) into Starbucks', and been very pleased to get responses back from Starbucks UK, and the staff in-store themselves to say they've been praised for and passed copies of my communications.

Any way we can applaud good service, whilst also highlighting bad service where it exists is a good thing, and I would favour the website approach myself.

Something like "TripAdvisor", but I fully 100% agree it would need some sort of moderation; I wouldn't like to see blatant lies or bad-mouthing just for the sake of it, but nor would I like to see genuine negative comments censored or removed, just to save corporate "face".

How about awarding the stores their own "stars", per comment, with the staff being able to "collect" them for rewards, like team-building fun days out, such as go-karting / white-water kayaking etc.

How about giving every registered Starbucks card holder a "gold" coin / badge / medal / pin saying "my favourite store" or "my favourite barista", and they can then hand this to their favourite store person to wear, or the store puts them up on display. Who can collect the most? ;-)

Loads more ideas out there...

Regards

Oh, and when will we get Pumpkin Spice Latte in the UK? Come on Starbucks! ;-)

All of our female baristas are blond, so I thought the Blond Roast rollout was an appreciation day for them....

Oh my goodness I've posted several posts with this thought and I had no idea you were considering this. SO EXCITING!! I think that the rewards for baristas should be very real and not gimmicky. In my opinion the goal should be to reinforce the kind of behavior that leads to return customers and satisfied experiences. And I think most psychologists would agree that rewards need to be consistent and often in order to successfully reinforce positive behavior. So yes...let's go something to this effect!!!!

I like the stars for stores idea.  It would be cool if you could submit your message/story/comment/review through the app.  I agree with DadCooks that there needs to be a review process to prevent abuse, but upon approval, a store's stars can be listed in the app with the approved comments (need to make sure it is not confused with a rating scale - a cup filled with stars like the rewards program).  Maybe a store has to get a certain number of approved comments/stories to earn a star and then everyone at the store gets a star pin to wear and some other recognition.  One store that earns a star can be highlighted each week on the website homepage for recognition.

I like everybody's thoughts! What if the only customers that participate would be gold card holders? That way you make sure it's customers who regularly frequent sbux so you know they have something to compare it to. A lot of the ranting and random weird stuff you get on MSI is people who only go on occasion and who don't really get into the whole sbux thing.

Have you ever noticed that sbux stores hardly ever get reviews on yelp and a lot of times don't have very great ones? It seems a lot of the people that are inclined to "rate" things tend to have a suspicion and dislike for corporate companies. Maybe there is a way to change that??? Is there is way to incorporate yelp (or a better site if there is one) as part of this program?

I think it's a great idea.  I definitely have my favorite Baristas as well as favorite Starbucks stores, and I'd love the opportunity to show them some love!  

All of those suggestions are "ok" but there should be something that can be physically printed out or displayed in the store, even if it needs to be in the "employee only" area as well as some other type of reward, whether monetary or promotionary, for employees who receive large amounts of praise and go above and beyond regular job duties. If you don't show appreciation for the employees who make your stores what they are, you won't get quality employees.

I AGREE WITH YOU NICOLE! I'd say there needs to be two parts; both public "praise" and also a significant personal reward. Maybe reward the store management for high rated stores and the individual barista for personal high ratings.

I Google+ (btw SBs, why don't you have a presence on Google+ yet?) and tweet about my Starbucks specifically and praise it all the time. I haven't mentioned the Baristas specifically by name yet b/c I wanted to make sure I had everyone's name first so I didn't leave anyone out.

My Baristas are so awesome. There are times when I've had problems and have walked in and before even getting in line, one of them has walked up, taken my hand and asked if I was OK, what was wrong, what could they do to help me. I'm not kidding... my own family isn't that intuitive to my needs. When they had to close for the remodel, they knew I might be thrown off guard because my routine would be completely disrupted, so they made sure I was kept up-to-date about the schedule. Of course, the schedule went over, and the whole staff worried how I was taking it. They even asked each other if anyone had gotten my phone number so they could call me with an update.

I don't even have a friend that would think of me that way. That says something about my Starbucks. They aren't just a business. They are my buddies.

There does need to be a pecking order among the Stores as well as employes ( pardners).A rating system can make for a better store if they have some goal to aspire too.

 What does not need to be done, is anything that could come off inn a negative light. The rating system, could be a number of stars on their name tag. The award wining stores should have a sign in plain site for everyone to see.

  In some communities ( large populated) there is competition already, maybe even some negative thoughts. Construct the system in such a manner that the outcome comes out positive.I know there is internal grading, etc, but now , lets let the paying public  see how proud they and the others are. I think It could help in retaining people on the Starbucks team.

Love this idea i would love to tell something to my barista.

This is a great idea. The last time I went to Starbucks, I had a wonderful barista. She was kind, called me by name and offered a suggestion about my drink.

tips on the app!!!!! Please add an option to tip!

i love my starbucks store and all the baristas that work there and any way that i could show my appreciation for them would be awesome especially if a certain barrista goes out of his or her way to make the visit even greater than usual. being able to single that person out for acomondation would be great.