 Anyone who knows me understands my affection for Starbucks. Those venti non-fat hazelnut lattes are definitely my friend.  At least I think they are anyway. So when I found this recently released site called My Starbucks Idea the other day I was pretty excited about it. 
I have found that most businesses in the retail sector typically just put up with customer suggestions and feedback. Starbucks has taken the bull by the horns and devoted an entire website to customer interaction by setting up a community where ideas are shared open discussions about ways Starbucks can improve.
When I saw the site I couldn’t believe it. Who would have thought a company would set up systems to facilitate easy communication with their customers? Seriously, there is staff from Starbucks on site and a lot of them too.
Each of the Starbucks Product Specialists that monitor the site pick out the best ideas which could be implemented to improve the products and service at Starbucks. The best are then forwarded on to the upper management of Starbucks for evaluation and possible implementation.
The site itself is set up similar to social networking sites to allow visitors to post their ideas, discuss them with other customers and Starbucks product specialists, vote on the suggestions and see which are implemented. It is online brainstorming at its best.
Within just a few weeks of My Starbucks Idea going live it has seen over 100,000 suggestions come in from customers and generated enormous traffic.Â
Some of the suggestions so far include free Wi-Fi access, a punch card system, coffee ice cubes and more which can be found in a couple categories. The first category allows you to view all the suggestions and the second allows you to see which ideas are under review.
Other companies have attempted to take advantage of customer suggestions in an attempt to make improvements. So far Starbucks seems to be pulling it off. Â
