Starbucks Plays Ask The Customer

Starbucks is tapping into the social web to fine tune its marketing efforts and make its stores more customer friendly. The company has launched an interactive portion of their web site called MyStarbucks Idea. The section offers a few interactive features for devoted Starbucks fans but does little to hide the true purpose - having a free focus group.

Before I moved to a remote part of the country, I didn't visit Starbucks. They tend to put independent coffee houses out of business when they set up shop, and that always made me angry. Then I moved here, where the only option is death-warmed-over, better known as Dunkin Donuts. When we got our first Starbucks within reasonable driving distance, it was suddenly like the holy grail of coffee, a light at the end of a tunnel clogged with Dunkin Donuts' burnt coffee grounds.

Even though I gladly go out for my Starbucks fix every morning now like I'm getting in the before-work line at a methadone clinic, there is always room for improvement. One of my biggest complaints about Starbucks is the expensive WiFi prices and sometimes spotty reception. Something tells me that even though I may not be the only person with that complaint, we won't see a permanent change in that any time soon.

Starbucks has been home to several excellent promotions in the past. One excellent one was their Song Of The Day promotion with Apple's iTunes. It will be interesting to follow their MyStarbucks Idea suggestions and see if their customers ask them to bring that back or bring back more of the same.

It isn't clear whether or not the MyStarbucks Idea gimmick will be a permanent part of the Starbucks experience or not. I'm not sure if it will make a difference or be as big a waste of time as the giant “retraining” they recently did (something that seems to have slowed service down and made the coffee worse, not better). Regardless, it has certainly netted them press coverage, sometimes I'm sure they need as a purveyor of $5 coffee drinks for a nation headed into an economic crisis.