Starbucks news update: Survey receipts change, and Starbucks to add a Teacher Appreciation card:
Time for a brief news update in the world of Starbucks. Yesterday, April 11, 2012, I dropped by one of my regular Starbucks and received a Customer Voice survey receipt. Something big has changed! The survey receipts (once the customer has completed the survey) now offer the perk of $1.00 off your next purchase, and do not offer a free tall beverage. For a long time, the perk was a free tall-sized beverage.
Just as a reminder, a store’s customer voice results are important to the partners, and Starbucks stresses to managers that their customers need to be “highly satisfied,” which is the highest rating on this survey. One takes the survey at MyStarbucksVisit, after having received a special Customer Voice survey receipt during a store visit.
For me, I prefer the $1.00 off. I definitely grab a quick panani now and then, and I like the flexibility of being able to use a perk on either food or beverage. Also, with a “tall” sized drink (12 ounces), it never feels like quite enough if you’re getting an iced drink. If I am buying an iced drink, I almost always get a “grande” (16 ounces) or “venti” (24 ounces). I’ve always thought that the free tall drinks probably frustrate customers in warm climates where iced drinks make up a large percentage business segment.
Also, there are millions of gold card holders already earning free drink coupons. I know that for me, it feels like I am drowning in free drink coupons.
I recognize that not everyone will agree with me on that, and so I am very curious… What do you think of the change to $1.00 off your purchase?
In other news, a regular reader in Georgia sent me Teacher Appreciation card for my collection. She said she walked into her local Starbucks (which happens to be a licensed location) saw the cards out, and grabbed one for me, thinking of this blog! This is the first time Starbucks has offered a Teacher Appreciation card. As you can see, it says “Thanks, teacher!” on it.
What do you think of the survey change or the new card? Sorry this blog post is sloppy. I am trying to quickly type this out before work!
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Thanks Melody for quickly writing a post on the new survey reward. I will not repeat what I have said already re my feelings towards the change. But, I do want to say that getting free drinks every 15 purchases to me is a bit different than this former reward for completing the survey. As far a teacher appreciation cards- terrific – I actually might buy one to give to a good friend that used to teach because she so deserves it.
I love the $1 off and wish I got more survey receipts. I nearly 99% of the time order venti or trenta sized drinks so the $1 off is a better offer for me since the tall doesn’t fill me up either. Cannot wait to get one!
Love the teacher appreciation card…I will be posting it to my Pinterest collection of pics today.
Thanks for all you do. Melody.
http://pinterest.com/trolsgirl/starbucks-addict/
I can’t remember the last time I got a receipt, so I guess the change is neither here nor there for me.
I think the teacher appreciation card is cute. No kids means no teachers, but theoretically, I would give them away 🙂
If you take a peek behind the scenes, you’ll also note the number of invitations is much higher than before the benefit change. More responses give us more feedback and the changed benefit allows it to not balloon the cost of the program.
It’s a very good change IMHO
@greyghostx – Great point, and I completely missed that! Palm to forehead. More receipts means a larger sample size means more accurate aggregate survey results. That’s better for the store – Because in the past one or two poorly rated surveys could really skew a month’s CV score.
Is the comma supposed to be there on the teacher apppreciation card? It seems out of place to me ; ) I don’t think a pause is needed. Grammer control : )
Serina, yes, you use a comma to separate a name in a sentence so it is grammatically correct. (Grammar, by the way, is the correct spelling. LOL) Have a great day!
Just back from my local SB and saw the teacher appreciation cards. Very nice. I suppose not to open a can of worms but it would be so nice to be able to have appreciation cards for other professions as well.
I HATE the $1 off. Why would I rather have $1.00 off than a free drink? I can only see this being helpful if you only eat, sonce the least expensive coffee srink is in the $1.50 range.
Im so happy they made this switch, and i completely agree with you. I have about 3 of these in my wallet right now, because i never buy tall drinks. At least now i can put them toward a purchase i was going to get anyway. Thanks for the share.
I usually tell them I don’t want a receipt but now I’ll have to start asking for them!
@Jessica: I am told that they will tell you if there’s a survey on your potential receipt so, you don’t, as I’ve been told, have to ask for it..altho I still highly recommend it just because things go wrong….
and, as I already wrote: no way is a dollar even close to a free tall drink to me. period. I understand they are sending out MORE of them now, since they’re a dollar, but supposedly the reason for that was because they were not getting the other ones returned. ??? so, for a (supposed) coffee shop, getting a dollar is worth more than a tall ANY drink? does not seem like incentive to me but, I can see I am in the minority here.
I also agree, I’ve not gotten a receipt survery in ~ 6mnths??? So, I don’t know where all the non-returns were ‘not’ coming from. and I hear the same from others; here there and everywhere.
as for the “teacher cards”: I think it’s fine if they intended to it for even more professions as in maybe literally life-saving ones: police/fire/all first responders/all healthcare. bla bla bla. Teachers already get so many Sbux cards at the end of each semester….Christmas and end of the school yr when they head off for the SUMMER…… who else gets that? I knew this was coming and I think it’s a bad idea to isolate one career over another…..especially since this group is already gettting cards quite often.
I’m indifferent to the change. When I’d (rarely) get the surveys before, I’d use the free drink on a tall hot beverage. I’d just save the receipt until I wanted a hot beverage. Now the receipt is worth less, but probably more user friendly because it can be used on everything.
@denise r & @Jessica – Unless the system has changed, the register would automatically print the receipt if it had a survey on it. So, there is no need to ask for a receipt in just hope of getting a survey.
Denise R as you can see from an earlier comment I made in this post I do think although teachers deserve recognition there are so many other professions as you mentioned that would appreciate a gift card. There has to be a way to have SB create a gift card to show these people the same appreciation. Maybe SB can create a contest for customers or partners to design a card? I can only see customers asking why aren’t others recognized? I bet MSI will be run over with comments!
I work at a store in Canada, and they’re keeping the free drink. Not only that, but receipts can cross the border (US receipts for the $1 off and Canadian receipts for the free drink can be accepted in each other’s locations, with the exceptions of licensed stores of course!)
I think GreyGhostX hits the nail on the head with the change, I just wonder why its not being done in Canada yet? Perhaps because our gold card program just launched recently, so the free drink with the receipt goes to many customers who have not yet been able to accumulate the 30 stars.
I am going to be real brief.
$1 off is way too little. $2 would be more appropriate.
Nice to see the Teacher Appreciation card. Now I want to see a whole series (Mom, Dad, Son, Daughter, Nurse, Fireman, Policeman, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, etc.). Would be a bit much to have all in the store, but should be available online.
@merrynicole: what you wrote about the receipts is exactly what I had just posted to Jessica.
and, additionally: DadCooks is right. I don’t think $1.00 is anything to Sbux and it’s way too little..if they’re intending to do this at all. Considering the rather large quietly slipped in price increases, I’d say to take away some “reward” and make it $1.00 from a free tall any drink….. almost insulting. I take that back: it is insulting. and very very greedy on the part of Sbux.
plus!!!!! why couldn’t it have been enough to just have the “thank you” cards instead of obviously favoring one 3/4 of a yr profession?
I have completed many of those receipt surveys and every single time I have redeemed them I was given the beverage size of my choice. The $1.00 off is a bit disappointing on one hand, but as you said Melody, I would be able to use that $1.00 off a food item instead.
Melody, Glad you got the Starbucks Teacher gift card. Thanks for the Evolution card. I’m adding it to my collection!
I’m still convinced that these receipts don’t exist in Boston. I have never received nor do I know anyone here that has received one.
But I think they should have changed it from a free tall drink to a $2.00 off coupon.
I think I like the $1.00 off better. Since the main pastry I get is the oat bar and after tax it comes to just over a $1.00. Plus, I’m already earning tons of free drinks with my gold card! It does seem a little bit less, but it’s a free discount so no complaints!
Also, I want to emphasize that these customer voice surveys do NOT represent a random survey of the entire customer population at your store. Yes it is “randomly generated”, but that doesn’t mean each customer will complete the survey. Voluntary surveys tend to only draw in people who have strong opinions. And the people who don’t have access to computers at home can’t do it. I have had many elderly people refuse to take the invite receipt because they don’t have a computer at home.
As usual, I must agree with Denise and DadCooks. I kind of look at it like an entitlement just for teachers, so where does it end? I’m in no way disrespecting teachers! Any past or present Military personnel deserve it most. Without their sacrifice, where would any of us be? I can’t speak for everywhere else, but Cops and Firemen in uniform in Chicago tend to be taken care of already in many places, including many Starbucks. It’s just the Chicago Way!
I really don’t like the $1 off on the mystarbucksvisit survey receipt. I think they should just have left it alone, or as DadCooks said, $2 would be more appropriate. I am kind of surprised by some of the comments about the frequency of receiving the survey receipts? Awhile back, I stated at msi, that I received a couple in a short period of time. Since then, I have received a couple more. The last one I received was 2 weeks ago. I think that is 4 total since the Christmas Holiday? I’m wondering if cash paying customers like myself receive them more often than those with a Starbucks card. They can’t keep track of me with cash. Maybe they aren’t interested in the opinion of those with a Starbucks card. If they can monitor a card carriers spending, isn’t it somewhat obvious that they are possibly satisfied? After all, they see that those with a card keep coming back and how much they spend. You don’t usually spend money where your not happy. It’s just a theory.
I don’t really mind the change with the survey treat change. It seems common across every other place I visit. As for the teacher cards, I wish they were donating a portion of sales on it (even five cents) to DonorsChoose. Of course, I wish the gold cards did that also.
@Jessica @FoundTheMarbles there will be a pop up on screen prompting the barista to give out the receipts with surveys.
Most baristas at my store were so used to telling people they would get a free drink. They werent reading the receipts which told of the new discount. I just happened to read it the second day of change so I was able to tell the other baristas before we gave out too much wrong info. I think there should be an option, free drink or dollar off larger drink.
I still feel that SB is making a mistake to take away the free drink reward for completing the survey and think Dad Cooks is on target that if that continues to be the case then they should increase the discount to $2 off. As much as these surveys help stores and I always filled them out, I am less inclined now to fill it out. As minor as this change may be, I think SB has made a mistake in doing this.
Melody curious have you or anyone else gotten any info or response from SB as to why they changed the reward for completing the survey? I asked SB on twitter and wonder if they will respond.
I can see the argument that maybe the receipt value should be $2 off ($1.00 off doesn’t cover a solo shot of espresso?) but I genuinely do like the new flexibility, and if this change means that more receipts print so that stores get a larger sample size, that too is a good thing.
@purple1 – I didn’t contact anyone at the SSC over this change. Also, generally speaking, I don’t find the Starbucks twitter account to be responsive. They’re overwhelmed with “@” replies. And they haven’t “@” replied me in a long long long time (even when I’ve tried reaching out to them) – I can only assume that they think ‘why bother’ since they have so many other people to reply to and they possibly think I have my own resources. I can see that logic, but it still doesn’t feel good.
first, for those of you who have so many free sweet 15 cards that you never use them…I can tell you that for sure I’d be buying drinks for anyone in the store who wanted one. Or give them away! I pretty much regularly have 2-4 free cards on me and I always use them. It would seem crazy to me not to.
and re: $1.00 off: it absolutely is so minimal compared to almost any talll drink. It’s fine if that’s what you prefer but you can’t say it compares to the price of….even $1.85 tall coffee (pre-tax, of course). My evereyday hot drink is just under $6.00, after the c.dolce syrup is ‘rewarded’.
I realize we all have our own opinions, preferences etc. But, a dollar is a dollar and no matter what, that doesn’t go far at any Sbux I know. With all the (not small) price increases that Sbux has recently done, and reduction in coffees and various other “changes”……. I just feel it is really sinking low for Sbux to change a tall drink to a dollar.
Denise I absolutely get your point and just do not understand why they changed the reward. I often wonder why (and maybe SB does do this) they do not conduct focus groups especially on a regional level with customers. I bet they would get some concrete feedback that they could use.
Hmm…Well I know Starbucks had to be losing a ton of money considering how much the cost of one drink can actually be, and changing the reward to $1 off could also encourage people to try new products so I understand the reward change from the company’s perspective.
In my opinion, I’d rather take a free drink any day!
I doubt Starbucks is losing a ton of money over this. Starbucks is a company that makes BILLIONS in profit. I do think it’s possible that they were trying to make it more cost-effective to be able to print out a lot more CV receipts, and that they were trying to add in some flexibility.
Before the free drink, there was a time (2006? or 2007?) that when you did the survey receipts your name went into a drawing for a $1,000 giveaway. I actually kind of liked that idea, but I think I was in the minority and most people wanted than a ‘mere chance’ to win money.
I realize that I personally am not really all that motivated by free drinks. A friendly hello, (or at the SSC level friendly partners who are responsive) means a lot more than a free drink.
Since most people statistically speaking won’t get very many of these – maybe one a year – maybe that’s why there are so few replies on this thread. Most customers don’t care about the change since it’s not really a noticeable change if the difference is one free drink a year??
I will take any free drink Starbucks wants to give me and do it with a smile. I always use my free drink postcard but I usually spend about $75 to $100 a month in their stores.
I will take surveys to respond on the service in the store and I love giving feedback. I like that they respond to their customers needs/wants and I emailed them last week about an issue and I got a response within 2 days from a customer service rep.
Love the Teacher Appreciation card! Awesome.
As for the swap from Free Drink to $1 off, it really doesn’t bother me either way. I mean, clearly a Tall drink is more than $1, so it seems like an uneven trade—but then, it’s nice to be able to use the $1 on something from the pastry case, etc. I, too, usually find a Tall isn’t quite enough if I’m getting an iced drink, so I’d probably end up buying another cup of coffee anyway, making the free drink a little less exciting. If that makes sense.
Anyway. Enjoyed the post, as always! 🙂
Cheap!
I was told by a couple sms that the reason behind the $1.00 change on the survey receopts was becasue they weren’t getting enough of them (the ones with a drink reward) returned so…thye lowered the “reward’ and are “increasing” the number of surveys put out.
As Melody said, you can be assured Sbux is not losing (was not losing) any $$$ on those drink surveys…plus, as has been reasoned by Sbux, I have been told, they weren’t being returned. (enough) Regrdless of printing more of them, a dollar coupon is very little incentive to return a survey…. for me. Certainly less than a tall any-drink.
Just one more (less) thing……
I wish I could persuade people who twitter reply to me to leave comments here, because often times the conversation is so insightful. And if it is a comment here, it’s memorialized, not lost in a twitter stream, and more likely to be read by the community and the ssc even.
I thought this was an interesting tweet:
@SbuxMel I would rather have the coupon be a percentage off like 30% than a dollar.
http://twitter.com/#!/SBUX75DEVILDOG/status/190987311289344000
Though it is possible that 30% off could quickly get more expensive than one tall free drink, so it doesn’t make sense from a business stand point. Maybe 10% off?
Another great couple of tweets:
@SbuxMel Yes. Definitely printing out more surveys. I’m interested to see how more surveys affect our overall percentages.
http://twitter.com/#!/Steph1751/status/190933505012801536
and
@SbuxMel The way I look at it. We had 5 surveys done last month. Now I have given out an average of 6 per shift instead of 1.
http://twitter.com/#!/Steph1751/status/190932332444786688
And there is no doubt that many customers want the free tall back – At least, that’s what I think this tweet means:
@SbuxMel I don’t think I’ll take the surveys. I spend a lot of money at @Starbucks. Those freebies keep me coming back.
http://twitter.com/#!/NoahKoch/status/191000533111287808
Melody great twitter comments you posted especially the two about percentage off and the freebies keep me coming back. I hope perhaps SB sees all these comments and reverses their decision and goes back to the free drink. I go to SB even without the free drinks but it sure does make it nice to have! I also think from conversations with a few partners that they do not like the $1 off reward.
Are the surveys any better than they have been in the past? I’ve always been amazed at how many questions on the Starbucks surveys address information that has already been acquired by Starbucks (what did you drink, hot, cold, etc.) It is tough to get customer engagement. If you’re lucky enough to get it, wouldn’t it be better to focus on asking more meaningful questions? (level of service, store appearance, friendliness of partners, where you were before you went to Starbucks and where you were going next, etc.)
CD that is an interesting point about the questions on the survey. It might serve SB to ask different questions.
I am fine with the new survey amount. My opinion is that I had gotten so few of the customer voice surveys with the free drink on it (maybe 3 or 4) over the last 6 years, that it would be more worth it to me to receive 1 for $1 off more often than I had. Since I’ll be purchasing things there anyway, any little bit is nice to receive.
Wow! I find the idea of the teacher appreciation card simple genial! It is so cute! And the receipts will be cool, I am assured! And the line of the good news is not over… I really like the 1 Dollar off as well!
The interesting thing about the receipts as a barista is that I find a lot of our regular customers are excited to get them because they take less than five minutes and gives them a perk and a free drink (still in Canada) that they would not have otherwise received.
With customers who have not received the surveys before I find that they are a lot less enthused and most even refuse the opportunity to complete one.
I like the free tall beverage as a barista, and as @SuzanneC said, I usually comp the customer the size of their choice with a completed survey just to thank them for taking the time to complete the survey — the data (especially the written comments) are important to my store.
1$ won’t buy much, I liked the free drink better and am not sure I would be as excited to fill out a survey for 1$. A % off might work better (as mentioned above).
I agree that only $1 off just doesn’t seem like it’s worth the hassle.
Also, around here they just doubled the price of a biscotti while reducing the size and increasing the calories. Happen anywhere else?
I don’t think we’re going to get to a place of consensus, but boy the conversation in this thread is SOOO interesting. I’m sure there are others out there with thoughts on this. I think, having just done the survey, that it seems a little shorter than before. I don’t know what has been removed. It now tracks customers who go to Starbucks more than 20 times a month, whereas 16 times or more used to be the highest it would go, if memory serves me right.
@Melody: don’t remember 16X being the number but I do remember 20X…and haven’t had one for a LONGGGG time 🙁
am not sure I’d even respond now, for the $1.00….NOT because I don’t value a dolllar, no matter what, but I’d like Sbux to see it’s NOT such an incentive…..
of course, would have to get one first…..and I’m making 2-3 different purchases a day, for quite a while. and yet, no survey. ? whatever, as my niece used to say about 18yrs ago when she was a young teenager!
With all these comments and I have not been on MSI to see if there are comments there I wonder why SB does not make a formal
Statement with regard to the change in the reward for the completion of the survey. As with responses from other companies when consumers are upset it is surprising how quiet SB seems to be over the reaction from customers.
Wow. I am astonished at the conversation on this thread, so many conflicting opinions. I’ll add in my two cents…
First of all, I am incensed that the ‘Thanks, teacher!’ card was being slammed in one of the early comments. Just because Starbucks has chosen to honor our teachers in some small way, does NOT mean the company is snubbing other professions. It would be great if we had a gift card center in each store with lots of options, but at the moment it’s not reality. None of us would be anywhere in this life without the many teachers we’ve had over the years and it’s nice to have some small way to commemorate that if we so choose.
Second, I can understand the frustration some people have with the change in the survey, but it should only impact regular customers in that they will get them more often. If my busy drive through got 6 responses/month before and so far with the new one we’ve gotten 9 (already a significant jump) – most of our customers are still not ever seeing a survey. We hand out about 5/day right now and we have about 2500 customers/day… so your chance is about 1/500. That’s less than 1/year if you come in everyday. If you come in 2 or 3 times a day your chances improve, but it’s still a total lottery and we’re handing out almost five times as many now.
I don’t mind the change to $1 off, it’s easier for newer customers to understand and get excited about.
well, I just can’t understand how $1.00 off, as in these new surveys, is in any way “easier to understand” than: you get a free tall drink of your choice…..obviously worth always more than one dollar. I find it totally impossible to understand how any finds that complicated. Obviously, at least in this small segment of customers, I am in the minority. but complicated?
here’s simple: $1.00 vs possibly $6.00. as an example. that seems simple to me.
as for “teacher” cards, I guess there really should be, as DadCooks alluded to, cards for Mom’s first, and/or Dad’s. seems like that’s where it all begins…..
to be clear, he did not say make the Mom’s cards before teachers, but just that it really never ends. and I agree.