Starbucks's Basic Plan To Slash Wait Times – CoffeeTalk

Scientific studies show that drinking coffee is good for you, but getting between caffeine-deprived people and their coffee at Starbucks can be very frustrating. Starbucks has developed a reputation for extreme frustration on the part of customers who only ever want just a hot, black, cup of coffee, as they wind up waiting behind customers with much more complicated and time-consuming orders.

The new CEO of Starbucks, Brian Niccol, wants the chain to move quickly to make its service a little quicker. His goal is a maximum four-minute wait, which is still longer than many people probably want to wait for coffee. However, as a back-to-basics goal, it makes sense and represents a marked improvement over the status quo in some areas.

One of the key targets, according to Niccol on the October 30 Starbucks earnings call, is airport locations. He believes there is a huge opportunity for Starbucks to simplify some of the execution there so that they get people the great throughput they want so they can get on their way. However, airport locations pose a special problem for Starbucks because they are licensed locations, as opposed to company-owned, which means it is harder for Big Starbucks in Seattle to change the way they operate by edict. They have highly dynamic customer flow, and there are no regular customers.

The customer experience at airport Starbucks may not see faster lines this quickly, but it could be a tall order or even a venti or grande order. As a would-be customer, I welcome this emphasis for the future. If your go-to drink at Starbucks is a “Venti Iced London Fog with vanilla sweet cream cold foam in a tall cup,” maybe the Starbucks in Terminal 5 at JFK airport in New York City on the day before Thanksgiving would be a good place to get back to basics and just go with a plain old, drip coffee.

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