A Return to Old School

 It All Started With Jack….

As many of you know, I have a serious monkey on my back.  OK, I probably have a whole barrel of monkeys on my back, but this particular monkey is Starbucks.  As I’ve shared, my daily routine always included a stop at Starbucks for my morning coffee.  I had my “home” Starbucks, I’d go each morning, I’d also get a drink for Laurel, and we’d go there together on weekends.  Oftentimes, I’d supplement at lunch time and go to my “work” Starbucks for another round of caffeine.  For those who are old like me, I was kind of like Norm at Cheers, the baristas could start making my drink as I walked through the parking lot.

Now, you may have thought that being diagnosed and having to deal with Crohn’s Disease may have cured my bad habit, but no, I just had to adjust my routine, no more dairy, I had to substitute non-dairy options.  Crohn’s was just a minor speed bump on my quest to feed my coffee addiction at Starbucks.

But something more dreadful did cure me, and led me to abandon Starbucks.  Lousy customer service.  Not just bad customer service, but really, really lousy customer service.  When we moved from Georgia to Ohio, I had to find new Starbucks, and I was able to quickly find a “home” Starbucks and a “work” Starbucks.  Similar to Dorothy not being in Kansas anymore, I sure as hell wasn’t in Georgia anymore.  I’m not sure which location was worse, but the tipping point came when I stood at the counter of the one location for several minutes when finally a young lady came to the counter and said, “Do you want to place an order or something?”  Hmmm, maybe not.

For those of you who don’t read my blog (the entire population minus my Mom and Laurel), you don’t

know I wrote a blog way back in 2019 about the merits of great customer service, and I highlighted my home Starbucks, and the outstanding job they did there at customer service.  The title of the blog was “Mary’s Gone Old School On Us!” because Mary had gone old school, she was outstanding at customer service, as were her colleagues, at that particular Starbucks.  To me the secret to great customer service is getting to know your customers, making them feel welcome, and treating them with kindness and compassion.  If you do, as long as you have a reasonably good product, they’ll keep coming back.  And if you haven’t figured it out, I have a passion for customer service, I believe it’s critical for our businesses, it’s critical for our economy.

Well, I was cured.  I came close to cutting up my gold Starbucks card, which I had carried since 2008, and sending it back to Starbucks to let them know that I was cured, don’t expect any more card refills from me.  And then Jack happened…

The one Saturday, Laurel and I had gone to yoga, somewhere between home and work, and I stopped into a different Starbucks.  We ordered, got our drinks, and we went on our way.  A few days later, I was out near that Starbucks, and I stopped by, and a funny thing happened.  Jack knew me by name.  And he also asked where my wife was.  I was astounded that after just one visit, he remembered me, and he also knew my wife had been with me the time before. 

The good news was that we had just built a new building and my work location moved, so I’m maybe five minutes from this Starbucks, so I started going in almost daily.  Jack would go out of his way to strike up a conversation with me anytime I’d come in, but it wasn’t just Jack.  The one time I tried ordering a drink, and they were out of the flavor I asked for, but Mary excitedly “sold” me on the Sugar Cookie Almond Milk Latte.  She couldn’t wait for me to try it, and the next time I came in, she couldn’t wait to find out if I liked it or not.  She was ecstatic that I gave it a thumbs up.

And it didn’t end.  The one day as I was waiting for my drink, a young lady was mopping the floor, and she struck up a conversation with me.  She spent her time as she mopped talking to me, asking questions, making me feel like, well, a valued customer. 

I have not had one bad experience at this Starbucks, so I have to chalk it up to good management, or maybe it’s they hire really well, or maybe we just have moved past the pandemic and Old School is on the rebound.  Each time I go there, the staff treats me like one of their friends (or maybe more appropriately, the grandfather of one of their friends).  I look forward to seeing them each time I stop in, and yes, I’m back to a daily Starbucks fix, largely due to great customer service.

I have to say, this Starbucks is not the only beacon of real customer service, there are at least pockets of it around us.

There is a small boutique shop called Honey & Abernathy in Delaware, near where we live.  They have unique gift items, but the draw is the great customer service that the ladies provide there.  Each time we go in, they are friendly, offer help, offer suggestions if we need it, tell us what is new in the store, and generally, just treat us like their friends.  Maggie is one of the young ladies that works there, and as Laurel said the one time, “she is just adorable”.  And in each of their own ways, all of the people that work there provide outstanding customer service.  I find it hard to believe that I’m admitting this, but over the Thanksgiving holiday, I saw on our credit card statement that we had made five purchases there. 

My favorite story though doesn’t even involve me.  I love it so much because it shows, as I noted in my previous blog, customer service, or essentially, kindness, flows both ways.  Laurel stopped into our local Kroger the one day to do her regular grocery shopping for the week.  As she was checking out, the cashier made the comment, “You’re always so nice, you always smile when you come through the check-out line.”  Laurel’s reaction was, “What other choice do I have?  What else would I do?”  But I’m sure that’s not what this lady experiences each day, there are so many times we can be rude, mean, or even scrolling on our phones rather than greeting the person who is providing a service to us.  It takes so little to be kind and compassionate to those around us, but as Laurel found that time, it can mean so much to the recipient.  Laurel brightened that cashier’s day, and in turn, she brightened Laurel’s day.

The monkey is firmly planted on my back again.  I blame Jack for this.  No, I blame Mary.  No, I blame Danielle and Katie and Samantha and Kyra and all the rest of the wonderful baristas at the Starbucks in Lewis Center.  I’ll gladly carry that monkey around if it means I get to experience Old School again.  Customer service isn’t dead.  Even COVID couldn’t kill it.

Epilogue: Today, I was on my way to Starbucks, and I called Laurel.  She said, “Are you on your way to Starbucks?  You really have a monkey on your back.”  And that was before I published this.