Working at Starbucks

Today was a great day for me. I had the opportunity to do an in-store immersion working at my neighborhood Starbucks store. I’ve been in this store many times over the last 15 years and today I saw it through a completely different lens. My normal job is working as a technology manager. Over time you learn how to be successful in your role – things like leading teams, understanding new technology, collaborating with your peers and mostly doing this through the application of technology. Today’s experience was very different – yes technology is in play but it’s not the most important of what I did. Today was all about interacting with customers directly. 

I did everything from sweeping the floors and wiping counters, to stocking supplies, to warming breakfast items, to making custom coffee beverages for customers. What I noticed most was the interaction between the store staff (Known as partners) and the customers. Often the barista making the coffee drink would know what the person in line would order and begin staging what was needed before the order was placed. The customer would then move down the line and a conversation would happen around what’s new, how they were doing and it was clearly a continuation of a past conversation. Normally this wouldn’t be something to call out but what I discovered was that this happened over and over. While I struggle to remember more than just a handful of names I observed that most partners knew many of the customers well by name and what was going on in their life.

The partners worked together like a well-oiled machine. I was surprised at how little room was actually behind the counter and yet 4-7 people were continually working behind it without running into each other all the while serving up delicious food and beverages.

Thanks to Adam Bofinger and his great team at the Sammamish store for allowing me the opportunity to join them to help me understand why Starbucks is so successful.