Starbucks Etiquette 101

Ok, so here I am up "studying" late tonight for a Quiz on Wednesday, enjoying my third Americano today and watching the season final of The Apprentice. The show ends and I start thinking about work, partly because I'm procrastinating, and partly because I'm drinking coffee. In any case, here I am thinking about work, what I hate (the hours, customers), and what I love (the staff, customers), when I realise what my main drive is for leaving, the customers. I live in a seaside town, a MAJOR tourist town. This is both a curse and a blessing. It can be amazing meeting the people from all over the world that come here in the summer, and I also feel partly blessed for living in a place that people pay to visit, especially in the summer. It can also be hell, especially at work. Most of our tourists are Americans, and no offense to those of you who are kind and respectful, but most Americans make lousy customers. But not all obnocious customers come from south of the border, there are plenty here already.

This brings me back to the reason behind this post. I don't think most people out there realise just how much their behaviour towards employees in customer service can effect that person's day. The main reason I am excited to have a new job somewhere else is that I will be treated with more respect and dignity by customers than at Starbucks, where we have made monsters out of people. Not only do people walk in the door expecting the fastest service in the world no matter how many people are in line, but they expect to unload all their negative energy on the employee in the process. I have numerous examples of new people almost coming to tears because of how snide or rude a customer was to them, us old veterans just get used to it.

This is unacceptable. Since when did the notions of a simple 'please' and 'thank you' accompanying every request become rare to find ? Are we that obsessed with efficiency and speed that we no longer care that we are talking to a genuine human being, not a coffee-producing robot ?

Now, don't get me wrong, there are PLENTY of wonderful customers out there, most of them regulars at our store. However, I must say, that on a daily basis I encounter more negative, rude or simply grouchy people at work than I ever see nice, polite or kind customers. I can remember, to this day, every time a customer has made me well up in tears, I can even remember times where I have had inappropriate and/or discriminatory things said to me. I have only once been moved to tears by a kind gesture at work, and that was when I came in on a day off for a latte, and the regular customer in front of me paid for it. I went to my car and balled afterwards, not because it was a particularly amazing thing to do. Rather, it was because she had treated me like a decent human being.

I'm not saying everyone out there should go out and buy a coffee for a Starbucks employee, but rather that they remember that the people they are ordering from are human.

Here are four few, simple things that I personally find the most important. When a customer does all these, it simply makes my day:

1. If I ask you "Hi, how's it going?", don't just start to rattle off your order. Did I ask you for your order ? If your doctor came up to you on the street and said that, would you just demand their next appointment right away, without any niceties ? Just a simple "Good, how are you?" and then your order is perection.
2. 'Please' and 'Thank you'. I know its simple, but most people never say those words, I usually hear "Gimmee a ...", or "I'll have a ...", or the infamous "I want a ..."
   
3. Don't complain to me about the line-up, I am working as hard as I can to end it, and chances are, I am more worried about it than you.
4. Last, but definately not least: If there is an issue with your drink, feel free to tell me about it. But do so in a nice way, "you can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar". I have given out 'free drink' coupons to people with minor complaints, just because they were amazingly nice. I have also not given them out to very serious complaints because they were rude and harassing to me and/or others. And yes, how nice you are to me can determine how much I am willing to help you.

Now, how hard is that to do ? It definately won't make you any later for work, or your day go any worse. But it may make someone else's day better, and speed up your service. It also, may just make you see the world from a view your not used to.
Now, how hard is that to do ?