(really) entrepreneureal

As I was walking down the street to work today, I arrived at a street corner and was faced with an interesting problem: should I visit the local store that touts “organic” coffee, or keep going half a block and visit Starbucks?

My knee-jerk reaction was to support the local coffee joint, if only to give a nod to organic coffee (and local business to boot). The underlying logic was that Starbucks is an evil giant that A. does not serve organic coffee and B. is big and evil.  Logical, of course, but that was my gut reaction – and I used to work there!

The problem is, though, I assumed that by pulling my support for Starbucks I would encourage better behaviour on their part.  Of course, this is flawed because by no longer self-identifying as a Starbucks customer, I would effectively remove myself from the conversation.  No conversation = no chance to affect change.

Alternatively, I could just go to the local organic shop and hope Starbucks notices when I stop showing up for my daily fix.  Of course, this only works if thousands and thousands do the same, because as much as I’d like to think my cute barista notices me, I am, after all, nothing more than another upside-down iced caramel macchiato.

And that got me thinking: the problem with big companies is that they lose touch with their audience, their fans, their loyal customers.  As a company grows, it becomes more and more difficult to internalize what customers are saying – it’s not that having the conversation is difficult (customers are there, day in, day out, and usually like it when given the chance to offer input), it’s more that even with valuable information (like customer feedback), the company has so much inertia that actually bridging the gap between information and change is often all but impossible.

Add to the mix the problem of a huge customer base (with a gazillion ideas for how to improve the customer experience), and it gets even harder to respond.  So the Starbucks Problem is this: if the main way that customers show displeasure is by no longer self-identifying as such, is it too late?

My sense is no, because even though it goes against the adage, I do believe that people – and companies – can change.

Check out Starbucks’ effort to avoid the Starbucks Problem, or at least show that it can change: www.mystarbucksidea.com