Part 6/6: Redesign the Experience Delivery System: The Starbucks Customer Excellence Series

PART 6/6: Redesign the Experience Delivery System

Synopsis. In Part 6 of the series, we build on the idea of recapturing the mystique at Starbucks, exploring how consistently delivering exceptional experiences doesn’t happen by accident. Beyond their physical locations and assets, companies like Starbucks, McDonald’s, and other multi-brand and multi-location retail and hospitality networks such as Marriott and Hilton, are fundamentally driven by the systems that underpin their operations. These business models work because of their meticulously designed experience delivery systems, where much of their enterprise value, intellectual capital, and differentiating elements reside. Particularly critical for orchestration in omnichannel environments, these systems ensure consistency, scalability, and seamless delivery, forming the backbone of how brand promises come alive and setting the standard of Customer Excellence.

Defined as a strategic framework used to codify how a company wants to be viewed and perceived by its target audiences and stakeholders, most often through marketing, advertising, and brand storytelling. The hierarchy of a brand pyramid typically progresses from foundational elements like functional attributes and product benefits at the base, to brand personality, brand values, and the ultimate brand promise at the top. Serving as a guiding framework, the pyramid is ultimately helpful in setting a shared aspirational identity of how a brand wants to show up in the world.

Customer Excellence Enterprises (CXEs) know that exceptional experiences are never the result of mere chance. They are the outcome of a meticulously designed integrated people, processes, and platform Experience Delivery System (EDS). A well-crafted EDS combines the efforts of skilled individuals (people), efficient workflows and protocols (processes), and enabling technologies (platforms). These systems are particularly vital in consumer-intensive industries like retail, food services, and hospitality, where customer interactions directly impact brand perceptions and business outcomes.

These systems, often invisible to the customer, serve as corporate operating systems, guiding everything from staffing protocols to supply chain logistics while incorporating brand-specific elements that set companies apart. The “pure” operations aspect ensures efficiency and consistency across locations, while the brand-specific elements infuse personality and differentiation into the customer experience. For example, in a retail CXE such as Trader Joe’s, the operational processes governing inventory management are likely standardized but the in-store atmosphere and staff interaction components of the system are tailored to align with the brand’s identity, creating a unique experience.

In the case of Starbucks, the company has taken great care to optimize distinct operating systems tailored to each of its modalities— in-store, mobile orders, delivery, and drive-thru. As a result, each modality functions efficiently in its independent context, meeting customer needs and brand promises with relative precision and success. However, from the customer point of view, the company appears to lack the cohesion of a fully integrated operating model  that seamlessly connects and orchestrates the independent systems in each modality as one. Resolving this fragmented approach is the key to unlocking the brand’s ability to deliver a truly fluid omnichannel Starbucks Experience.

Along with redefining its Culture Platform (Play A) and reconstructing its Brand Pyramid (Play B), Starbucks has the opportunity to recalibrate its Principles, People, Process, and Platform Experience Delivery System to balance its original comfort and community ethos with its current emphasis on convenience, scale, and speed. This recalibration would involve integrating elements of its heritage into a new digitally-charged, omnichannel operating system while ensuring both align seamlessly to meet customer expectations:

• People are central to Starbucks’ brand identity, as its baristas have long been known for creating personal connections and delivering a welcoming “third place” experience. To recalibrate, Starbucks could enhance employee training to ensure baristas are equipped to provide friendly, personalized interactions even in high-speed environments. Incentivizing employees to focus on customer engagement, rather than solely on efficiency metrics, can help preserve the warmth and hospitality that defined Starbucks’ origins.

• In terms of Processes, Starbucks has the opportunity to make the coffeehouse and the coffee factory co-exist. In practice, this means blending operational efficiency with episodes of surprise, delight, and moments of “wow”. While standardized workflows enable rapid service for mobile orders, delivery, and drive-thru customers, the company can also introduce processes that allow for small but meaningful personal touches (e.g. reconsidering how to re-incorporate the iconic hand-written customer names on cups or super-targeted promotions based on order history). Also, consistent with Operational Bold Move #3: Orchestrate the Front- and Back-of-House of “The Customer Excellence Enterprise”, Starbucks could revisit store layouts to isolate front-of-house customer interactions from the more efficiency-driven back-of-house workflows supporting delivery and mobile orders pick-up and drive-thru orders.

• For Platforms, Starbucks’ sector-leading digital innovations, featuring the aforementioned mobile app, should continue to emphasize integration with the in-store experience and rewards program. Doubling down on the power and popularity of the app, Starbucks could re-establish its local coffeehouse vibe by including features that highlight local events, foster community-building, and provide options for customers to engage with Starbucks and each other beyond transactions. Additionally, using data insights and AI to reveal the tendencies and preferences of individual customers, Starbucks can personalize offerings and promotions, and use in-app messaging to replicate the personalized and witty interactions found in the original coffeehouse experience.

For Starbucks, as daunting as it may be across 40K+ outlets and countless third-party operating partners, recalibrating its experience delivery system should be viewed as an opportunity to renew its value proposition to customers, employees, and other stakeholders. With the independent momentum and appeal of both its legacy and new modalities, the company can create a cohesive operating model that honors its roots in comfort and community while capitalizing on its success in delivering convenience at scale. This balance would enable Starbucks to retain its unique identity while continuing to meet the demands of a fast-moving and tech-savvy customer base.



Read the other parts of The Starbucks Customer Excellence Series:

Part 1:  From A Customer: An Open Letter to Starbucks

Part 2:  Societal Savior or Customer Experience Death Star

Part 3:  Recapturing the Starbucks Mystique

Part 4:  Redefine the Starbucks Culture Platform

Part 5:  Reconstruct the Starbucks Brand Pyramid

Part 6:  Redesign the Experience Delivery System

To learn more, order “The Customer Excellence Enterprise: A Playbook for Creating Customers for Life” at all major booksellers.