Services Marketing - Consumer Gap 2 & 3
Gap 2 – Design & Standard Gap
Starbucks has a clear standardized process, however, quite a number of customers indicated in the survey that they have a concern about the standard of Starbucks’ service. Starbucks has to improve on the efficiency of service especially on its speed of service delivery. There are two main problems identified to be the cause of the delay in delivery. The first one is duplication of the ‘call’ and ‘mark’ process. ‘Call’ is the procedure of calling out loud by the staff at the counter after receiving an order. This process has three main purposes, to create a happy atmosphere in the store, to check the order’s accuracy as customers may correct the cashier if he/she heard a wrong ‘call’, and to make the whole procedure smoother as the barrister can make the order before needing to look at the receipt. While ‘mark’ is the process of the cashier writing down order and preferences onto the cup for barristers to make the order. These two steps are considered to be redundant due to their similar purpose; inefficient and slow as it takes time to write down order onto the cup and clearly indicating the customers’ preference. Also, mistakes may occur as the procedure is more complicated and requires more human efforts compared to doing only one of them or modifying the procedure into a simpler way.
The second problem is the low speed of service. The company’s standard speed of service from order to delivery is 2 minutes ad 30 seconds. However, this standard is too loose, during rush hours in the morning, customers expect the process to be less than 2 minutes, so that they can ‘grab and go’. The standard of 2 minutes and 30 seconds would drive some of the customers away as they may think that buying elsewhere in other fast food restaurants or even vending machine is much quicker.
Starbucks should modify its service design to avoid the above- mentioned problems to occur. They should keep the procedure ‘call’, which it is important for
Starbucks has a clear standardized process, however, quite a number of customers indicated in the survey that they have a concern about the standard of Starbucks’ service. Starbucks has to improve on the efficiency of service especially on its speed of service delivery. There are two main problems identified to be the cause of the delay in delivery. The first one is duplication of the ‘call’ and ‘mark’ process. ‘Call’ is the procedure of calling out loud by the staff at the counter after receiving an order. This process has three main purposes, to create a happy atmosphere in the store, to check the order’s accuracy as customers may correct the cashier if he/she heard a wrong ‘call’, and to make the whole procedure smoother as the barrister can make the order before needing to look at the receipt. While ‘mark’ is the process of the cashier writing down order and preferences onto the cup for barristers to make the order. These two steps are considered to be redundant due to their similar purpose; inefficient and slow as it takes time to write down order onto the cup and clearly indicating the customers’ preference. Also, mistakes may occur as the procedure is more complicated and requires more human efforts compared to doing only one of them or modifying the procedure into a simpler way.
The second problem is the low speed of service. The company’s standard speed of service from order to delivery is 2 minutes ad 30 seconds. However, this standard is too loose, during rush hours in the morning, customers expect the process to be less than 2 minutes, so that they can ‘grab and go’. The standard of 2 minutes and 30 seconds would drive some of the customers away as they may think that buying elsewhere in other fast food restaurants or even vending machine is much quicker.
Starbucks should modify its service design to avoid the above- mentioned problems to occur. They should keep the procedure ‘call’, which it is important for