Excellence comes in several containers. One container is the people container and another is the product container. Let’s examine the product container of excellence.
Photograph by Spencer McDonald
A few years back Starbucks was wavering in their direction as a company. I believe Starbucks had always been an excellent business model and given excellence in service to their customers. They simply lost their way on the excellence trail and replaced it with mediocre.
Tall coffee grinders hid the smiling faces of the Starbucks partners. The smell of fresh brewed coffee had been mixed with the smell of high carb food. That Starbucks connection to their customers was losing excellence.
Then… Howard Schultz regained the helm of his prized creation and put the excellence stamp on the brand once more. He lowered the grinders so that the barista could see, smile, and interject with their customers. He fought to keep the food out of the stores so that Starbucks could get back to the roots of excellence as an Italian inspired coffee bar/café.
You can read about the Starbucks transformation back to excellence in the book Onward
All of that was wonderful in regaining excellence in the brand. The one improvement that was the topper for me was the addition of Pike roast to their stores. This blend was much smoother, richer, and something I could drink every day. Starbucks had hit a home run. They had found consistency and excellence in their drip offerings. It was nirvana for me.
What brands have embraced excellence for the benefit of their customers?
The company I’m always impressed with is Chick-Fil-A The quality of the service and food is top notch. Great points about Starbucks.