For those of you who missed the news, Starbucks launched a social media site called My Starbucks Idea. Those of you savvy readers may find a striking resemblance between My Starbucks Idea and Dell’s IdeaStorm. That’s because they’re the same thing, contrary to what Starbucks says.
I’ve seen a lot of people pretty excited about Starbucks’ launch of a web 2.0 site that harnesses user feedback. I’m pleased to see Starbucks getting into the social media game. On the other hand, I am pretty unimpressed by the lack of innovation and creativity that went into My Starbucks Idea. I realize bringing a company into the online social media game and interacting in a real two way conversation with customers isn’t as simple as the flick of a switch. But Starbucks is a huge, global brand. They’ve got a flurry of vastly intelligent personnel, and the best they could come up with was a customized Digg? What a let down.
Where’s My Starbucks Idea struggling?
Their biggest failing, in my opinion, is how they’ve started it all off. They’ve done nothing to try to build any trust, or show that they’re even actually listening. I mean, really listening.
If we look at their “Ideas In Action” section, the latest post, “Wow!”, talks about how they’re so excited (yay marketing!) and they’ve gotten so much feedback. Guess what? We know. We can read numbers, too. In the post, however, they do nothing to mention any of the ideas that have been brought up thus far.
Oh, and did I mention you can’t link to any of the posts on the “Ideas In Action” page? How great is that? If by some stroke of luck the idea does get implemented, I can’t even reference the post to tell my friends. Way to kill word of mouth distribution.
Let’s move on to the ideas people are submitting. They actually have Starbucks employees responding to comments. That’s a fantastic start! Responding in the comments creates an opportunity for Starbucks to learn, and in the event Starbucks already does something suggested, a chance to educate customers.
The problem is, the Starbucks employees don’t seem to be listening. In fact, I think they sound more like customer service reps than people who give a damn. Take for example the call for free wifi. The request for free wifi is pretty straight forward. We want it free. No extra crap. A Starbucks rep responded to the request in the comments:
“I know that free Wi-Fi is a big request from many customers but we struggle with making sure that our stores are welcoming to all customers. We want to provide a place for both Wi-Fi and non Wi-Fi users – some people want to come in and chat with friends and others want to sit down and read a book. We have found that 2 hours is more than enough time for the average Wi-Fi user. With our change to AT&T we are offering a way to get 2 complimentary hours of Wi-Fi every day by activating and using a Starbucks card. This is a way to reward Starbucks Card holders and to create a balance with the variety of customers who enjoy spending time at Starbucks.”
Doesn’t sound like Starbucks is doing a lot of listening. We say “Give us free wifi.” They say “2 hours is enough.” Is the point of their site to listen to the desires of their customers or to give them more excuses as to why they won’t do what we’re asking them to do? Because I thought they made it for the latter purpose rather than the former purpose.
This all goes back to how social media can’t just be lip service, otherwise it will fall flat on its face. A company really needs to adopt the mindset and framework behind social media.
Besides the other glaring problems I mentioned, Starbucks didn’t start off building trust. They started off with traditional, non-authentic, non-personal marketing. Not the greatest way to enter into a conversation.
How I suggest Starbucks could have started off better.
First, Starbucks could have taken a moment before making an entire website dedicated to “listening” to customers and seen what’s out there. Had they, they would have seen some excellent posts by John Moore suggesting how Starbucks can improve its experience. Then, they could have commented on John’s blog, referring to elements within his posts (showing they read it), and thanking him (and others who contributed) for their time, because it does take time.
But let’s say they really dig this IdeaStorm clone. What then? Well, their first blog post could have been written by a relatively well known blogger who is a Starbucks fan. If that’s a bit too big a step for the initial post, they could have started off with a shout out to all those bloggers (like John Moore) who have spent hours discussing and giving insight into how to improve Starbucks. You know, show some appreciation for your customers?
The other “issue” Starbucks has to tackle is that because they have so many stores, I imagine making even a single change from My Starbucks Idea could take a lot of time. Let’s say Starbucks really wants to make these changes and show us all they’re listening. What to do? Seeing is believing.
The issue is present in showing customers the link between their suggestion and Starbucks’ action. Naturally, Starbucks will start making these changes in a number of their stores across the world. What they do after that is key.
After having made the changes in a few stores, they could send Starbucks personnel to one of the modified Starbucks and make a video of the whole thing. Bring customers into the video, talk with them, explain the changes made, show the changes made, and give thanks to some of the users who were involved in suggesting the change. Then they can put that video onto YouTube and embed it on their Ideas In Action “blog”.
Even given all I said, I commend Starbucks for taking that first step. It will be exciting to see exactly how Starbucks’ efforts evolve in the future. If they can manage to generate some great success with their new found path, then it could mean a lot of companies may be taking the plunge soon.
Note: I realized the irony of my post title this morning, seeing as how I published it at 2AM.
I don’t fault Starbucks for putting someone else’s good idea to use. It may have been Dell’s idea first, but maybe it works great for Starbucks, too. Nothing wrong with that.
Hey Chris,
To be clear, I’m not faulting Starbucks for putting someone else’s good idea to use. To me, Starbucks is a global brand that is working towards being not just a mediocre company, but an exceptional company (what every company should work toward). “My Starbucks Idea” was a mediocre step, not an exceptional one. They certainly have the talent to have made it an exceptional one. Worse than that, their initial execution of “My Starbucks Idea” has been quite poor. That said, what I’m faulting Starbucks for is being lazy about the idea.
And you’re right, maybe it does work great for Starbucks. And maybe Starbucks is OK with not being exceptional. But what I ask myself is, if I were working for Starbucks, would I want to be the guy who suggested IdeaStorm, or would I want be the guy who took it a step further? I’ll tell you which one puts the company one step closer to excellence, and gets the subsequent promotion.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Hi Nathan,
Saw this post on brazencareerist.com, and it caught my eye because I had no idea Starbucks had launched this site, which is interesting considering I’m a regular customer and in the communications industry! Clearly that’s a huge issue that Starbucks should address immediately.
Other than that, I agree with you– the site is pretty bland. On an aesthetic level, there are little-to-no graphics to break up the monotony of the pages. Pictures help capture attention, which facilitates dialogue… and isn’t that the whole point?
That brings me to my other concern. While I am very happy to see more prominent companies participating in two-way conversations with their target audiences, I wonder how many of the ideas will actually move from the “under review” section to being implemented.
It will be an interesting concept to follow, and I really hope Starbucks comes through and proves that social media is the way of the future.
Take care!