Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol says a Reddit thread about people interviewing at the company convinced him his ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan is working
“If you don't like customer service, you're probably not going to like working at Starbucks. We're in that transition of getting people to understand that,” Niccol said.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol found evidence his efforts to turnaround the coffee chain’s fortunes are working while scrolling on Reddit.
During an interview at the Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute earlier this month and published on Monday, Niccol said he was reading a Reddit thread of people going through the interview process at Starbucks, with some users asking what interview question they should be prepared for. Other users, ostensibly those who work at the coffee chain, responded that candidates should be prepared to talk about their value of customer service.
“If you don’t like customer service, you’re probably not going to like working at Starbucks. We’re in that transition of getting people to understand that,” Niccol said. “When I saw that in the Reddit thread, I was like, ‘OK, we’re making progress on what the standard of services that we want [are].’”
Customer service has been at the core of Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan he implemented when he took the help of the company in September 2024. Niccol has espoused the hopes of returning Starbucks to a cozy third space, away from the image of being a hurried pitstop to pick up a morning espresso, and toward 1990s nostalgia of lingering over a latte. He told WSJ he wants the Starbucks experience to harken back to the fictional coffee shop Central Perk, beloved by the sitcom Friends characters.
To achieve this relaxed effect, the coffee chain has implemented a swath of changes to its stores, including installing comfier seating and returning seats to thousands of locations where most furniture was moved to accommodate more mobile ordering, as well as writing customers’ names in Sharpie on each to-go cup. It cut back on its menu size in hopes of speeding up orders and introduced trendy items like protein-infused drinks to lure in customers.
“There is tremendous value in being a world-class, customer-service company combined with great craft, great quality food,” Niccol said at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in September. “When you look at putting those two things together for the price that we will have to charge for it, I think it will turn out to be invaluable.”
Early signs indicate Niccol’s efforts to revive the brand are working. In October, the company global sales in stores open for at least one year had risen for the first time in two years.