Starbucks Fail (Netflix Proportions…)
My Story
Here’s the deal: I like my routine. I mostly work from home, but when I need a break for a few hours, Starbucks is my other office. I know my store’s entire staff and we’re friendly. I think of them like extended family.
I’m also a gold club member, which means I drink a lot of coffee and get free syrup and soy.
Sadly, Starbucks is doing away with the free soy and syrup perk of gold member status. They recently sent out an email to customers letting us know. (See above for a snippet.)
The Problem
As you can imagine, my fellow Starbucks fans and I were annoyed with the way this change.
I think they made a tiny mistake that I’ll take as a good lesson learned for myself and clients.
They included their social media links on the announcement that they could easily anticipate would be poorly received. Whoops. Now normally, I would get that kind of email, be annoyed, delete it and move on. However, the FB link was right there and I was instantly able to post on Starbucks wall about my disappointment. Apparently, many millions are too.
I wonder, however, if as many people would have done that if those links weren’t included in the email.
The lesson
If you’re sending policy changes or other possible sensitive things that may cause a stir, remove the social links from that piece of correspondence. I get it. Sometimes rates and policies change. If you’re raising prices or doing away with peoples’ favorite products, etc, it’s probably best to leave your social media links out of that email.