I Love StarBucks But Last Week Gets a Fail

I was thrilled to discover a Starbucks right inside the hotel I stayed in this past week in Tulsa OK (yes, it was really hot there!). I like hot coffee in the morning and have gotten quite addicted to cold coffee in the afternoon. I make my own concoction when I'm home so I wasn't sure what would be a good cold coffee choice.

So I asked what they recommended.

And here's the response. "I don't have any idea. I don't even drink coffee."

Oy. What a big fail for Starbucks. Okay so maybe everyone that works there doesn't drink coffee, but they should have some idea of what to recommend to their customers. I felt like the person couldn't have cared less whether I bought something or not.

Luckily, that poor situation only happened to me once during the week at Starbucks. The other baristas were very helpful in steering me to a great drink. But the problem is that I had a bad experience and here I am telling you about it. Your customers will do that too.

Could this be happening at your business? You bet it could. And you need to make sure it's not. Educate your staff about how to answer questions about your product or service. Help them understand how important it is to be helpful and make the customer feel special.

Do you have a small business issue or question? Send it directly to me using the contact link above. And you can always follow me on twitter @deniseoberry