While some people balk at having to ask for a “tall” or a “venti” when they go to Starbucks, most people have learned that the fastest way to satisfy their caffeine cravings is to use the company’s particular lingo and keep the line moving. This, says one leadership expert, is not a coincidence.
“Starbucks had a problem when it first got started in that customers were coming up and using their own vocabulary and taking their own time to order a drink,” says Anne Morriss, author of Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business, in an interview with the Harvard Business Review. “Very quickly, this process was eroding the service experience because the lines were getting longer.”
So rather than train its employees into how to deal with customers using all sorts of vague terms for sizes and types of coffee drinks, Starbucks realized it was easier to train customers to use a single system of ordering.
“We all have been very well trained, it turns out,” says Morriss. “When we show up in line, if we order it incorrectly, then the correct version is shouted out for the whole store to hear… Really what’s motivating is that we don’t like to be corrected in public.”
In the end, that desire to not be corrected by the people making your coffee resulted in a net positive for both Starbucks and its customers. “It turns out that it had an enormous impact on the efficiency of the line and the quality of the service experience,” explains Morriss.
Thanks to not.gross for the tip!
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As a bartender I HATE this. Thanks to Starbucks I get people asking for a “tall” beer. WTF is a “tall” beer?
Is that large or small?
I don’t go to Starbucks.
No, I’ve seen restaurants have “Tall” beers, which are bigger, not smaller like at Starbucks.
You must not be a very experienced bartender, or perhaps you must be a really young one. People have been ordering “tall drinks” meaning large drinks, for a very long time, long before Starbucks even opened in 1971. If you look at some older movies, tv shows or books with a bar scene, people sidle up and say, “Gimme a tall one.” Even in current times, dictionary.com says a “tall drink” refers to a large alcoholic beverage. Example given: “She ordered a tall one and sat back to cool off.”
Where i come from (not the US and we have no Starbucks here) coffee comes in two sizes – small and large. If you order a coffee with a single shot of espresso it comes in a small cup. Double or more shots and it comes in a large cup. Which is probably about 400ml. Why do people need to drink a bucket of coffee?
Because we’ve got a lot of work to do and not enough time!
That’s bull – the reason everyone knows the sizes is because they have the display cups that show you which of their silly words mean which size cup. You could do the exact same thing but label the cups small/medium/large and have the exact same effect.
I’ve always liked the old story of the man who tried to order a ham-and-cheese sandwich in a fast-food chain restaurant … and walked out rather than call it a “Yumbo”.
If I’m paying $4 for a delicious cup of sugar and caffeine, I damn well better have some fancy shmancy language to use to feel justified in my buying decision!