Starbucks has always strived to be on the cutting edge of customer service and prides itself on understanding who their target market is and providing services to make it easier for their customers to relate to them - not only as the place they like to go to get their coffee, but also to create a corporate culture that resonates with their customer base. In addition, their baristas aren't just people who were looking for a job in retail, they are people who were selected because of how well they fit into the corporate culture.
I have to admit, I love Starbucks and I always expect them to be an early adapter of almost any sort of new technology that allows customers to connect with the places they love to go. They have a strong presence on Foursquare, offering several different types of “badges” for users who “check in” at different locations and for those who frequent just one. Each badge offers different sorts of discounts and promotions to reward their loyal customers.
Now, they are one of the first companies to offer a new technology that allows customers to pay for their drinks through a mobile payment option. How it works is that a customer who has the Starbucks app on their iPhones can load their Starbucks card information directly into the app and then when they order their favorite drinks (which can be saved into the app) they can opt to pay with their card by touching the screen and then holding the barcode on their mobile phones to a scanner at the register.
The nice thing about this new technology is that people typically have their phone with them, even if they don't have their actual card. I know that for me, I have a re-loadable Starbucks card, and I have tried to load a set amount of money on it, using it as an easy budgeting tool. The reason this doesn't work so well for me is that often I end up at Starbucks without my card. With this app, it will be much easier to make the re-loadable card, along with its rewards and discounts work for me.
The 2-D mobile barcode scanning technology that makes all of this possible is actually a custom-built technology that Starbucks invested in. Although there are other payment possibilities that are currently in development by companies like Google, they aren't available for widespread use just yet. Rather than wait for better technology, the company decided that customers are interested in mobile payments now, and when better technology becomes available, they can always adapt their systems.
Starbucks took at look at their customer base and tried to develop a mobile option that would make paying faster and shorten their customers total wait time. They noted that most of their transactions were paid for by a Starbucks card, and that many of their customers were using smartphones while in line to place their order.
I find it worth noting that by looking at what their customers want, who they are and finding ways to improve their service while giving customers another way to interact with them, they are not only making their service more efficient but they are building stronger brand loyalty and creating stronger relationships with their customers.
Although the mobile payment app is only available currently for the iPhone, there are plans to release an app for Android and Blackberry in the near future.
Have you tried the mobile payment system yet? How did it work for you? Let me know in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for Retailgigsblog, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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