I saw something on the Starbucks Facebook page yesterday that really struck my eye. It was a post about a Los Angeles-area partner named Riki Yamada. Every Facebook page has a “posts by others” section, and I think that’s often the most interesting area to browse. (My own Facebook page has it too).
Here’s the post:
(If you click onto that above image, it will be larger.)
So when I saw that post on Facebook, here’s the random array of thoughts that went through my head:
- ‘Hey that’s Riki Yamada! I know him!’
- ‘Proof that many customers like sunshiny partners – Riki is that all the time! I have met him!’
- ‘Proof positive that it’s a very small Starbucks world. I am amazed how I can stumble upon Facebook posts talking about partners I know when there are something like 200,000 partners.’
I have known Riki Yamada from Twitter since about when I first started on Twitter, in 2008. At one point he was working at a drive-through store in Orange County, and I swung by and met him in person when I was on a trip home to California.
I wonder if others reading this also have that feeling, or think, ‘It’s a small Starbucks world – I know that person!‘?
Congrats to Riki for making a customer’s day so much so that she shared about it on Facebook!
(If you are interested, I have a category called “Spotlight on Partners” which is more articles where I’ve highlighted specific partners.)
12 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Socialize
Melody, So glad I’m not the only one that thinks,” OK, there’s the world and then we have our own ‘Starbucks World’!” Where normal people are famous!
So well said Monica!
LOVE stories and partners like this 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing another amazing news. You are a true bloggers for us. Barista like him is truly an asset to our company for a lots. Riki looking genuine and passionate!
Melllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU thank you ThankYOU thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you, mucho thank you VERY MUCH thank you thank you THANK YOU YOU thank you THank YOU THANK YOU thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you a million gazillion tradillion villion GOOGLE-gigglion THANK YOU’s! SERIOUSLY, THANK YOU THANK YOU YOU THANK YOU! (I held down the ‘l’ key, but to express the level of gratitude & joy, I should have you know that I, manually, typed all of the thank you’s-no copy/paste, here! #LOL!
YES! I will never forget that day that I was in the back-of-the-house talking to my store mgr, when a partner came to get me: “Riki, there’s somebody @ the drive-thru who says she knows you.” We did communicate frequently via twitter before then, but #OHBOY! what a lovely surprise that was for you to pay me a visit from Washington to California! If my memory serves me well, you were in town b/c you were visiting your sister? Either way, it was truly AWESOME of you to personally stop in & visit me @ my starbucks @ that time! Without a doubt, it’s an honor to have met you in person, Mel! Your passion & wealth of knowledge of EVERYTHING SBUX has been (& still continues to be for me) INSPIRING!! I consider myself very lucky. ‘Til this day, I STILL look forward to going in to work, EVERY FLIPPIN’ DAY, looking forward to smiling & making guests smile even MORE! I wanna ALWAYS give guests the most unique, most positive, most welcoming experiences of their LIFE, as if I’m on a secret mission to prove to them, “Hey LOOK! This is to reconcile those times that you’ve been mistreated w/ poor cust svc @ ANY store/shop/place-great cust svc still DOES exist, THIS is how it feels & YES, you deserve it!!!” #LOL!
Thank you, Mel… simply, for being YOU!
Gosh, my head’s spinnin’ from the combined commotions of all of THIS, plus the craziness & busy-ness I pulled through via an amazing crew @ my sbux, today! I’m winding down… yet, I’ve SO MUCH TO SAY to this dear lady, Neda… SOOOOO MUCH to assure her of my gratitude!
okbye!
@Monica, double-triple DITTO! It’s an amazing world with the potential of infinitely-great things to experience! ;D
Awww, that’s my Starbucks. They were always so nice there (UCLA is my alma mater).
Good job, Riki! Always feels good to encounter a GREAT partner.
The partners can make the Starbucks experience ten fold better. I prefer to go to familiar stores for just that reason. Awesome job @riki keep it up
Wow, I want a Riki in my Starbucks! Haha 🙂 He seems like a genuinely awesome person. I think he deserves a raise or promotion.
Melody great post to read about a simply wonderful partner. Riki it is nice to know you are part of the SB community. When I read about great partners, it makes me feel good because there are also those partners that make the experience the total opposite to the one described. Let there be more partners like Riki.
@Laily, LOL! Thank you!
@purple1 THANK YOU! I just want people to feel good, when ever I serve them. I want them to feel like nothing of their own selves, whether it’s time, money, LIFE, is wasted & that they have a great experience, as a whole, from start to finish~
Massively overwhelmed here-THANK YOU to every one! #starbucks #airhugs