Brian Niccol Wants Starbucks Baristas To Hand Drinks To Customers Within Four Minutes Of Ordering – CoffeeTalk

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is working to bring the American coffee giant back to its roots by focusing on operational standards and customer service. The company has announced a new wave of investment last month, including reshaping staffing hours to meet peak demand times, deploying technology to help organize drink-making more efficiently, and creating more space for staff to interact with customers. Niccol has a time in mind between a customer placing their order and when they should have it in hand: precisely four minutes.

One of the challenges Starbucks is facing is balancing mobile sales, which make up about 30% of orders, with drive-thru and counter sales. Under previous CEO Laxman Narasimhan, the coffee giant reported some disappointing sales due to the brand’s being too popular with morning commuters ordering via the app. At peak times, mobile and pay orders (MOP) were seeing incompletion rates in the mid-teens, citing long wait times of product and availability.

Starbucks is redressing this balance by introducing a new algorithm that will guide which orders get made in what order, so that in-person customers don’t have to wait and watch while mobile orders are prioritized. The “third space” is Starbucks’ attempt to reclaim its importance in customers’ lives, pushing the idea that its sites are where people can go to feel connected to their local community.

The turnaround of a coffee giant with more than 32,000 stores around the world was never going to be rapid. However, some green shoots in the business’s fundamentals can be seen. In Q3 2025, global store sales declined 2%, driven by a 2% decline in comparable transactions, but were partially offset by a 1% increase in the average ticket. Consolidated net revenues increased 4% to $9.5 billion in Q3 2025, while in Q3 2024, those net revenues declined 1% to $9.1 billion.

Niccol’s policies have received mixed reactions from customers and staff. For example, the company decided in January to reverse its open-door policy, meaning only paying customers were allowed to use its restrooms. More than 2,000 Starbucks baristas at 120 U.S. stores went on strike to protest the new dress code, according to Starbucks Workers United. Other policies have proved more popular, such as buying 200,000 Sharpie pens to bring back the coffeehouse’s tradition of scrawling customers’ names or smiley faces on their to-go cups.

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