Banker with balls

Will the Starbucks brand be brought back onto course? Since I've recently become a SBUX shareholder I have a vested interest that they do. I've also been watching the "my starbucks idea" blog with great interest to see how they can openly participate with a community of customers. One of the minor but neat ideas that they have under "Ideas in Action" is no more printed receipts under $25 unless the customer wants it. Great. Saves paper and stops my wallet bulging from unnecessary receipts instead of dollar bills.

Only problem is now that I have that expectation I've received 2 receipts at different locations in the past week. I'm assuming that perhaps the locations are not "stores" as they were in highway travel plazas. However, where more important to deliver the brand than a location where thousands of main street Americans may test drive the brand during a road trip - just like airports? In both cases I mentioned the blog and the idea in action and the barista didn't seem to know about the blog nor the supposed new policy on receipts. Expectation turned to disappointment.

Three weeks ago a Starbucks in our local Target location was missing "Starbucks" staff so a Target staff member was desperately trying to help. Twenty minute wait later (crazy! - one of those the longer you wait the more you're committed to seeing it through even though it makes no sense) and she couldn't make the Frappuccino my wife wanted. Clearly she didn't get the training the stores closed for earlier this year! 

Oh, and does it seem to you that the Starbucks blog is extremely slow? Some inherent structural problems? Also, tried to conduct a search, even for the word "coffee" and got a "There are no matching: Notes". Could be the harder Starbucks tries, and the more they promise, they more they may be disappointing customers if they fail to deliver on the promises. Maybe better to under promise and surprise on the delivery?

Posted by Banker with balls at 09:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week I presented at the Net.Finance Online Innovations conference sharing how ING DIRECT lets customers interact with the brand in fun and innovative ways. It also provided an opportunity to connect and socialize in Life 1.0 with friends and industry contacts. William Azaroff provides a great highlight summary of the conference. If you haven't already checked out any of these sites, they all provide fascinating studies in applying social networks to financial services: Prosper, Wesabe, TradeKing and Zecco (both claim that 10-15% of customers are actively participating in their communities) and Virgin Money.

The week prior I presented at a lunch seminar for the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association on brand building and direct marketing. Thanks to the large crowd and especially for your generous 4.8 out of 5 rating of my presentation!

One more comment on the Online Innovations conference. A credit union doing a very interesting job with a blog is Verity. It's the first time their blog has come to my attention and Shari Storm shared great information on their experiences of using the blog in the community and even how the blog is resulting in new members. Wow! Some great best practices to take a look at.

Posted by Banker with balls at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)