Twitter and customer service – Starbucks Style

Posted on by Mark

Twitter and customer service – Starbucks Style

It is fair to say, that I do love a latte. In fact I would say that I am addicted to them. It is rare that a day goes by, without my fix of a good latte. For the last 18 months or so, I have been a massive Costa Coffee fan. Infact, I think that I have probably single handedly put Costa Coffee Barnet on the map. I talk about them so much, that I am sure that most peeps think they pay me, or I have shares in their business. Both of which I can state are not true…

Every day, I talk about Costas in Barnet, I have many of my business meetings in there, and the Oxford Circus branch, and yes I do like their latte’s. I am very well known by their staff, and over this time, have often suggested ideas to them on how to improve things. I have also contacted them via Twitter… And the result… Nothing.. Nada.. Zero response..

I am an amazing customer for them, I have not added up what I have spent over the last 18 months, but a latte 5 days per week, at least 3 almond croissants each week, and many a toasted sandwich.. all must add up to a fair amount…

Enter Starbucks

So there I was on Sunday having just collected my daughter Jessica. She lives near to London Colney, so we often go to the Starbucks in Sainsburies, have a drink, she has a marshmallow twizzler, and then we buy a few things in Sainsburies..

This morning was no different, I sat down for my drink, and tweeted,

Approx 3 mins, went by when I checked my phone, I noticed that I had received a message from Starbucks, infact it was from the MD of Starbucks UK and Ireland…Darcy Wilson – Rymer

Now imagine how I felt.. 18 months blasting Costas, spending a fortune, talking about them, being a top customer.. and in one message they may well have lost me..

During the course of the day, myself and Darcy exchanged more messages. He seemed genuinely interested in me, and experience of his brand.. Exactly as I would have hoped.. He wanted to know what I thought of his shops, and was all ok.. Now I dont know about you, but to me that is what great customer service is all about.

Oh and dont forget the most important thing.. What have I now done, I have written about my experience and will tell others.. They have created a great advocate for their brand, and all in 1 message that may well have taken Darcy 10 seconds…

Never, never underestimate great customer care and service. Oh and Costas, I really do hope that you are reading this blog post, but somehow, I strongly doubt it….

  • http://Www.plantpassion.co.Uk Claire brown

    Just goes to show that the only thing worse in business than not having a Twitter account is having one and not using it properly. Well done starbucks, shame on you costa

  • http://www.creativemaverick.com John Williams

    Interesting and dramatic comparison there between Costa and Starbucks. Thanks Mark. I still don’t like Starbucks’ coffee though.

  • Kevin Wright

    Just shows who’s switched on and who ain’t. Starbucks had gone up in my estimation if the MD can be bothered to tweet to Mark.

    Like you said, perhaps Costa’s might learn from it but they’ll probably never read it

    OK, losing one customer isn’t going to break their business but from little acorns………

  • http://www.akabusi.com Kriss Akabusi

    Mark this is a brilliant example of social networking and the power it has to build up or destroy. Costa Barnet may well come poste haste to amend their delinquincy as I feel this item might run and run (if you excuse the pun). Personal or Corporate Branding in vitally important but you do have to live it. I wonder what Costa Mission statement is? Certainly Customer Service is not high on their values list or if it is this branch is doing them a dis-service

  • http://www.judithmorgan.com Judith Morgan

    I Love Starbucks and everything about them, always have, always will. They make my drink just as I like it. I follow them on Twitter too. Even as a fan I was amazed and delighted to discover recently that my Starbucks card, which already gives me quite a large discount of 35p off each drink, also gives me free WiFi access when in their stores. I’m in love with Starbucks – its a great female-friendly place to wait for strangers for meetings and just to hang out. Its my “pub”. Was always smoke-free too, even before the ban. I also love the way the baristas come to know me and recognise me, remember my drink and that happens all across London, the branches I use regularly. After my month of December abroad, the girl in my local had missed me! Bless.

  • http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/ Graham Jones

    And look at the latest financial results….

    Costa Coffee income £142m

    Starbucks income $2.7bn

    Cost Coffee up by 7%

    Starbucks up by 17%

    There’s a reason for this……and customer service, connection to customers and being “on the ball” are prime candidates for the significantly better financial results shown by Starbucks. True, size of operation also helps; but with Starbucks being so much bigger you’d expect it to be so much harder for them to be so responsive. Clearly, they have their act together.

  • http://www.officesupnorth.co.uk John Nash

    Wow, that’s some example to try and follow!

    Is an angle on twitter I’d not thought of to be honest but I least I’m learning…

  • http://www.pimlico-flats.co.uk Nick

    Hi Mark,

    Great Blog post which I saw RTed. How do you relate this to …. was it a year ago? When you stopped following everyone who was following you?

  • Bill

    I think this happens often when businesses treat Twitter as a broadcast-only medium.

    We hear it all the time from our own users, how powerful it can be when you monitor Twitter and reach out to potential customers – especially if you work on building a relationship first. It’s good, old fashioned, customer care!

  • http://www.markshaw.biz Mark

    Great point Nick. Starbucks were not following me. They utilised the Twitter search. They were searching on their keywords, as I suggest all my clients to do. They found me, listened to me, and then engaged with me… perfect… It has noting to do with how many you follow or are following…. its all in the search….

  • http://www.squaremartinimedia.com Angie A. Swartz

    Mark, Thanks for sharing your story with @rieva and I. We have been Co-hosts together of Boost Your Business Radio in 2009 and I am the host of Twitter Talk Radio. We both talk about examples like the one you’ve sited above all the time. It’s things like this, that cost so little for companies and seem so obvious, that are often overlooked and considered unimportant. Amazing isn’t it? Rieva is a great example herself of someone who walks the talk and leads by example. Make sure to keep reading her work. She’s amazing and set the tone as the editor of a great small business magazine for 26 years. It’s all the small things that make the biggest differences. We both love that Starbucks provides Health Insurance here in the US! Have a great day MARK!

  • http://www.stevenclarke.co.uk Steven Clarke

    Excellent piece on a fundamental point of both business in general and the use of social media to both better serve customers/clients and react swiftly to needs, comments, market changes.
    One key point I’d mention that I still find to be true after a quarter of a century back and forth across the pond: US companies are invariably better at service, as it is en-grained in US citizens childhood, whereas we Brits have a history of not complaining when service is not good. Starbucks is American and the company ethos will be driven into it’s employees world-wide; Costa’s is British.
    Having said this, I don’t like either of these or Cafe Nero. They are all the McDonalds and KFC’s of the coffee world; homogenized environments all and over-priced. Sure, I use them as necessary, but not out of choice. If there’s a lovely little coffee shop that’s the real deal near one of these, I’ll buy from the unique one every time.

  • Salvatore Notturno Operation manager

    Dear Mr Mark
    my name is Salvatore Notturno I am the Operation Manager of P2M Coffee the franchise who run Costa Coffee in Barnet,
    can we share a Caffe latte in Barnet.
    my email address is salvonott@hotmail.com
    please email me with a date suitable for you

  • http://www.walkerstudios.co.uk John Walker

    I think this is a really inspiring Story. In fact, I am using it as an example of good use of Social Media as part of my dissertation at University!