By 2002, Starbucks had already been established as an unarguable leader on the US Specialty Coffee Market. However, recent market research is causing some concerns to the top management of the company. It indicates that the level of customer satisfaction declines.
In order to respond the mentioned market research, the company is considering a proposal for increasing the labor hours, which would cost an extra $40 million per year.
Obviously, Starbucks is an example for a very successful and fast-growing company. According to the latest financial figures, Starbucks has increased its net revenues by more than 24% for the last year. There is a clear tendency of increasing the net revenues every year.
By 2002, NR has reached $ 3,288.9 million compared to $ 1,308.7 million in 1998 (more than 150% rise in that 5-year period). The net income of the company also marks an excellent growth, reaching $ 215.1 million in 2002 compared to $ 68.4 in 1998 (more than 3 times rise in a half decade). The increase in the number of company's stores is also significant. In 1998, Starbucks has operated 1,886 stores and in 2002 the number of the stores has expanded to 5,886 (4,000 stores more than in 1998). During that 5-year period of expansion, the company has increased its market share of the US Specialty Coffee Market, reaching 42% in 2002.
[...] Other very important factor is the quality of the customer service. The company has created a specific training programme for its new employees and every partner who has been hired to work in one of the retail stores, has had to undergo two types of training - "hard" and "soft" skills. The "hard" skills training has included learning how to mix drinks and how to use the cash register. The "soft" skills training has aimed to teach the partners how to establish a relationship with the customers and to create a friendly environment. [...]
[...] The market research that has been done by Starbucks doesn't provide information about the different customer groups and their demands, so it is very difficult to make a decision based on it. It is a good approach to do a market research, but first of all you have to know the aim for doing it and you have to do it in the right way in order to be credible and useful. I don't think that the proposed $ 40 million investment is reasonable. [...]
[...] Most importantly, the company has set a very successful product development process and this process has allowed to Starbucks not only to launch new products, but to launch bestsellers. The best example is Frappuccino, which has become an unarguable number 1 in the ready-to-drink coffee category. One of the biggest and most significant challenges that Starbucks has faced, is the changing environment. The future success of the company depends on the way the respond to this challenge. According to the market research the customer profile has changed. [...]
[...] Starbucks has done a market research. But what about the credibility of this research, how useful has it been, have they asked the right questions, have they defined the customer groups precisely . Doing a market research is really a good approach. However, the challenge is to do it right and the biggest challenge is to analyze the results in the right way. First of all, the results of Starbucks' research have been potentially useful for the US market, as mentioned above they haven't been useful for the various international markets. [...]
[...] Starbucks: Delivering customer service By 2002, Starbucks had already been established as an unarguable leader on the US Specialty Coffee Market. However, recent market research is causing some concerns to the top management of the company. It indicates that the level of customer satisfaction declines. In order to respond the mentioned market research, the company is considering a proposal for increasing the labour hours, which would cost an extra $40 million per year. Obviously, Starbucks is an example for a very successful and fast- growing company. [...]
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