Lots of people email me.  Anyone can click on the “contact me” tab and send me an email.  I really do read all my email, though I don’t actually reply to every single one that I receive.  I wish I could write everyone a beautiful reply, but I get enough email that I don’t have quite that much time.

I have been thinking about doing a column – perhaps a bi-weekly feature – calling out a particular question in an email, or a particular comment.  Not sure if this will really work, but this week is the first week that I am giving it a try.

Once again, email me by clicking here.

So here’s the first of the “From the StarbucksMelody.com mailbag” emails:

Hi Melody, I’m a partner barista in district xx. I’d like to know what other stores are doing for barista recognition. Partners who are taking the on the job of barista recognition could share ideas and ways to recognize those who are on the front line each day. What are the possibilities?
Are there any partners who want to chime in the comments about the things that you do recognize partners?  I have to say that the things that come to my mind are the more obvious things like, “Partner of the Quarter” and such.  In previous episodes about Starbucks t-shirts, we saw that Starbucks used to do things like “Manager of the Quarter” t-shirts.  (I assume there is the same thing out there for other store-level employees.)  I think it is a great question.
If you readers think this is a bad idea for a regular column, please tell me!  I’m willing to gamble this could be an interesting regular column.  And please post in the comments, if you have any thoughts on partner recognition ideas.  The next “From the StarbucksMelody.com mailbag” column will be October 6, 2011.  Please email me now if you wish to submit a question to be posted on the blog.
(Edit:  This column will have both customer-focused ideas and partner-focused ideas.  Either one is fine.  I just happened to start out with something a little more partner-focused.)