Starbucks originally served whole milk and didn’t offer other milk options until after receiving customer feedback rather than making the decision without customer influence due to dietary trends. Paul of Idea Sandbox patronized a local coffee shop that serves only whole milk and won’t change.
But that local coffee shop doesn’t have the disadvantage of having numerous locations where customers barrage baristas with complaints to offer other milk options. I like Paul’s adaption of “The customer is always right.”
The customer may not always be right, but they’re never wrong.
This line of thinking helps a business come up with creative solutions or a compromise. Did Starbucks betray its identity when it started serving low-fat, skim, soy and other milk alternatives? Where does a business draw the line between sticking to its beliefs and meeting customer demands?
Thanks to technology and its ability to customize, we as customers demand more from businesses. We know it can be done, so we expect the business to conform to us, not the other way around.
Meryl – Thanks for finding Idea Sandbox, and for finding my recent post interesting.
And you’re exactly right… The shop is a single mom-and-pop cafe… They’re doing things ‘their way.’
What’s interesting is that’s how Starbucks started… by doing things the Starbucks way… At some point… instead of just being a ‘push’ of product… it becomes a ‘push and pull’ and customer input begins to influence the business…
All interesting stuff.
Thanks again!