Some Of Starbucks' New Changes Have Faced Strong Backlash From Baristas. Are They Worth It? – CoffeeTalk

Starbucks has started asking baristas to write messages on customers’ cups as a friendly gesture, but some baristas find this frustrating. Starbucks claims that handwritten notes can spark joy for customers and partners alike, but it is unclear how the baristas feel about having to do it and their boss pressures them to do so.

The company’s new CEO, Brian Niccol, aims to bring back the cozy coffee house vibes of the ’90s and ’00s. However, recent changes have led to increased mobile ordering and curbside pickup, which has wreaked havoc on baristas’ efficiency and left less time for them to offer excellent customer service. Starbucks has also started streamlining the menu, ditching some of the less popular, complicated drinks that may have slowed efficiency, and charging for extra syrups and powders.

One change in particular is the new “standard” of having baristas write little messages on the cups for customers. The aim is fine: it’s cute, feels personalized, and might make the customer feel more of a human connection with Starbucks as a place where real people work instead of a free bathroom location that happens to have an app for coffee.

However, this comes at a cost for the workers: they have to spend time writing on cups, potentially bogging down service time. Even if they skip it at rush hour and only do it during slower times, it still adds an extra chore.

Browsing the subreddit for Starbucks employees, the feelings are mixed. Some commenters love the idea, while others worry about contamination and the difficulty of keeping up with the writing during rush, especially at drive-thrus. A more sticky issue is how this mandatory joy is being enforced. One person wrote that their store manager warned them that failure to write on cups would result in a final warning, while others said their bosses had reinforced the need to do it, especially during busy times.

As a customer, the question remains: Is it worth having a cute little phrase written on my cup if the author was forced to do it? Offering exceptional service and positive interactions with customers can make you feel great, but the cutesy phrase written on my cup doesn’t exactly feel personal and human if workers are mandated or strongly encouraged to do it, and may even hate doing it.

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