More on Starbucks Barista Discontent over Pushing Via

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I knew that Starbucks (SBUX) had given its employees an intensive crash course in Via as part of its high-profile rollout of the new instant coffee product. But I didn’t know how aggressive the company was training its employees to be.

BusinessWeek is running a story on how Via sales pitches have gotten so intense that both baristas and customers are complaining. “This is the most stressful promotion I have ever experienced, and I’ve been with the company for seven years,” one employee wrote on a Starbucks gossip blog.

Another employee blogged that Starbucks baristas “were just told to place a Via 12-pack in the customer’s hand while asking if they would ‘like to add some Via to their order.’ This sort of aggressive pitching is not in line with how the baristas see themselves, which is as more like bartenders than salespeople. Nor is it likely to win over customers, who are expressing exasperation on their own blogs.

I know Via is huge for Starbucks and there’s a lot riding on its success, especially considering how the company has faltered in recent years and how McDonald’s (MCD) has turned itself into a direct rival. But annoying customers doesn’t seem to be the best way to go.

Tags: Starbucks Corp., Sales Strategy, Blogging, Sales Force Management, Sales, Internet, Katherine Glover

Katherine Glover is a Minneapolis-based print, radio and online journalist. She's written for Salon.com, Sierra Magazine and many others, and she does a weekly blog on immigration issues for MinnPost.

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1

SwagV

11/13/09 | Report as spam

RE: More on Starbucks Barista Discontent over Pushing Via

Starbucks baristas need to get over themselves. When Starbucks replaced their La Marzocco and other machines with brain-dead, push-button Verismos years ago, they did so because they couldn't hire enough trained people to operate more traditional equipment in their exploding armada of caf?s and keep the doors open.

Now that Starbucks baristas have been reduced to button-pushers, they should embrace the opportunity to do something requiring a higher brain function than the mind-numbing, simpleton operations they now perform.
2

alius01

11/16/09 | Report as spam

RE: More on Starbucks Barista Discontent over Pushing Via

We talked to a barista last night and their sales for Via have not been weel. They told us that some stores have rang up regular coffee and drinks under Via sales and then put the coffee taht was actually sold under their own comp account. The people at out store have not done this and their Via sales are low. Not only do you not know the real story with these tactics but teh company may have faulty info about the produuct's success or failure.
3

library assistant

02/09/10 | Report as spam

RE: More on Starbucks Barista Discontent over Pushing Via

SwagV, I'm guessing someone got your order wrong at McD's this morning. Give these people a break, ok? Most of them are good at their job. Maybe they have just a push button machine - but do YOU know which buttons to push on it? Probably not. And do you know how to make EVERY convolution of EVERY drink they make? The ones around here do, and not one has had to consult the recipe book they keep there. I think it's time for you to get over yourself, and I think you owe some people apologies.

What they are complaining about is not doing their jobs - which many are very good at - it's doing the job of a pitchman which never was the intention in the job description. They ARE like a bartender. You go there and order your drinks, just like you do at a bar or McDonalds. Their sales training should be to ask if you wanted to try the instant, and let you decide. It should not be to put anything in your hand. Whatever your job is, if your boss demanded that you do something that was not in your job description even if that something wasn't even around when you got your job, wouldn't you feel stressed out, and complain?

I don't work in that field, and I don't want to work in that field. I've tried the product, which is better than most instants - but is still an instant coffee. I keep some in my desk.

If I receive something in the mail unsolicited, the law says I can keep it without paying for it, even if it was intended to solicit a donation or a purchase. Companies know that. In my opinion, something shoved, unsolicited, into my hand should be considered the same - a gift. Perhaps legislators need to address this - it would make it simple for Starbucks: No pushing the customer to buy by sticking the Via in their hands - but it would also make it a lot easier to walk down a mall past all those Kiosks of people selling hand cream.

Aliuso1 - it sounds like they are actually committing fraud. I do know that if Starbucks catches up with them that they will fire them - the manager of the supermarket add-on Starbucks here was fired after it was discovered that she let her Baristas ring things under the wrong numbers - and she didn't correct that. Her audits showed the deception.

In the end, no one should be told that they have to do something that is that stressful unless their job description relates that the job is high stress. If Starbucks keeps stressing their employees like that, I'm guessing that there will be a law suit against Starbucks by employees, or some complaints to the Department of Labor or other areas. I'm not sure if the Baristas have a Union, but if they do, that will be involved soon, I'm sure. I know that the ones in the supermarkets are under the same union that the supermarket employees are.