http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/starbucks-name-wrong-reason_n_5791820.html

In this hilarious video by Paul Gale, he explains why Starbucks baristas can never get your name right. The reasons are more than them trying to play with your emotions. If fact, it is quite a clever marketing tactic. For example, if you see your name spelt in a way that is wrong, more than likely you would have the impulse to share it with other people through social medias such as Instagram and Twitter, like what Jessica, or “Gessika” did in the video.

https://cdn1.lockerdome.com/uploads/15f7e2d40f7d73ec96571a08dd822632fb1d9ca493bd6cbed06e1baa7c6f8457_large

But to be honest, Starbucks doesn’t have write the names on the cup. In fact, Starbucks is the only store where the baristas ask for your name. If you compare with other coffee shops, many of them only shout out your order instead of your name. Then why would Starbucks bother to ask for your name if it is more time consuming and in a way, wasting marker ink?

Well, this allows the Starbucks baristas to create stronger customer connection. This reminds me about our group’s business model, in one of our value propositions, we want to create stronger customer bonds. One of the tactics we came up is to make our employees memorize the names and the little details of the customers. If our employees are able to greet the customers by the names, they are breaking the barrier of the service provider-client relationship. By doing so, our employees are treating the customers like family, and the customers, enjoying the friendly environment will be more likely to return to the spa.

This is exactly what Starbucks is doing. By asking for the name, the baristas are then able to learn the names of regular customers. As for the part about spelling the name wrong? The baristas are just making the customers’ experience more memorable. As the video puts it: “[They’re] always in your head now.”

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