3 posts tagged “starbucks experience”
Hospitality is the foundation...hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side. The converse is just as true. Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two prepositions - for and to - express it all. (From Setting the Table) Hospitality is never to be a transaction. The intent of Ho'okipa is relationship. There is such a difference between "serving coffee" and "serving people coffee" (Starbucks Experience).
Like many of you, I am addicted to good books. And, recently, I gave in to temptation by walking into our local bookstore while my wife was shopping elsewhere. Innocently, I found my way to the management/leadership section and browsed. Living in the Seattle area, my eye caught The Starbucks Experience by Joseph A. Michelli. I thumbed through the introduction and then found myself too "weak" to put it down. I sat in a chair and began to read. It was not long before the temptation to read turned into the compulsion to buy! I desire to adopt and experience the same five principles Starbucks has used to turn ordinary into extraordinary. Those basic principles include: The forward was written by the president of Starbucks, Mr. Jim Alling. Describing the mission and values of Starbucks, he presents powerful introductory points. I am excited about their direct connections with customer service. Aspire to enrich the human spirit: transformational service is inspirational service. Put people first: there is a great difference between serving coffee and serving people. There is a great difference between doing jobs and serving others. Be welcoming, be genuine, be knowledgeable, be considerate and be involved: personally connecting with others is a hallmark of excellent service. Make a huge difference in people's lives in a million small ways: one day at a time, one kind word, one enriching task make huge differences. Remove obstacles and provide tools: as managers must remove obstacles for their staff, the staff must remove obstacles so customers can fully experience service at its finest. Then, effective tools that benefit the customer and organization must be created. So much more can be said regarding the interrelationships between these basic principles and their expression. They are core values to Ho‘okipa. Do you see the values of aloha imbedded in them? Personally, I accept the challenge of turning ordinary service into the extraordinary! Can we imagine what will happen when serving rises from an aloha heart? When Starbucks was just a dream, Howard Schultz, former CEO and current chairman asked, "What would happen if...?" His answer: transformation! Let's get a quad, two-pump vanilla, one and one-quarter pumps sugar-gree hazelnut, ristretto latte, with one-quarter soy, one-half nonfat and one-quarter organic milk, extra hot, with three ice cubes and whip (combination mentioned in the book) and take the next step toward extraordinary service, the Ho‘okipa way! Postscript: This review is also being contributed to A Love Affair with Books at Joyful Jubilant Learning. See more about this readers forum here: For the Love of Books
Our attitude makes all the difference; to say it another way, our attitude is where making a difference begins. It is natural to focus on what we cannot change and end up worrying and fretting. Trials will come; disappointments are inevitable. Plans will not always succeed. Rather than focus on the things we cannot change, let's focus on what we can influence, our attitude. Ponder each of these verses slowly and separately. Then let's decide to maintain an attitude of faith and joy and belief and compassion. Can you imagine how customer service will be affected by such an infectious attitude? Philippians 2:3-5 says: Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of ourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. In the first principle from the Starbucks Experience, Make it your own, the author lists 5 ways of being: 1. Be welcoming: when I think of the most wonderful welcome I have received, my mind recalls a recent article. Look at the picture. How do you feel? When type of welcome do you like to receive? If you doubt the power of welcoming, look at it from the other side. How do you feel when you are not welcomed and accepted? Perhaps you can recall a time when you walked into a room and no one welcomed you. Do you still feel the pain of that experience? If so, it is easy to understand how welcoming others can positively impact. 2. Be genuine: being real is a choice. In an article for Joyful Jubilant Learning I wrote about how being genuine and real cannot fear examination. One of the primary ways we determine the genuiness of an object is through examination. As we seek to be real, expect examination. 3. Be considerate: this involves thoughtfulness shown to the rights and feelings of others. Key word is thoughtfulness. What does the other person need? How are they feeling? How and what do they see? As you make it your own, you thoughtfully include others and their perspectives, rights and feelings. 4. Be knowledgeable: know the details about the business. Study and prepare so you can provide knowledgeable answers. And, when you don't know the answer, don't send them elsewhere. You go, find the answer and bring it to them. 5. Be involved: there is nothing like firsthand knowledge and experience. And, the only way to get firsthand knowledge and experience is being "present" yourself. Broaden your awareness and understanding through involvement. This probably means going the extra mile, moving outside your comfort zone and making it a priority even when it is an inconvenience. The first step toward "becoming" is for you to come outside of your world into others' worlds. Come to be! Before you know it, you will have "become". Humility is a discipline! Developing humble hearts does not come naturally, quickly, easily or automatically. Humility requires discipline. Humility starts at the bottom. It is a position that is always situated underneath, supportive. To serve with humility means that we support our colleagues, families and students; we get underneath them, stabilize them. A healthy relationship demands humility!
