Strategic Design Planning Project - Starbucks (2012)
Starbucks provides an experience which includes the overall atmosphere, the beverages and food, as well as the service. While this experience has to include all of these three factors for some customers, others are able to enjoy it with one, or even two factors less. Some don’t need the atmosphere in the store, since they always take their beverages to go. Others - like mentioned in the interviews - would like to keep the service to a minimum.
Starbucks could redesign its ordering process for the loyal customers who already know the range of coffees and pastries, and for the first-time customers who need more information on the products, or who just are too embarrassed to stand in line and order something they don’t know how to pronounce. A smartphone application from Starbucks could eliminate all these problems and make it faster and easier to order with as little customer - employee interaction as possible, but still deliver the experience Starbucks wishes to deliver. Since Starbucks already attracts young, urban citizens of which most of them can be defined as digital citizens, the potential of such an application can be very high.