An interesting critique by Justin Hunt of Starbuck’s attempts to crowd surf, including some useful thoughts on how the company’s online suggestion box – MyStarbucksIdea – could be improved. He also takes issue with Starbuck’s noisy championing of its environmental credentials, which suffered further damage this week with an expose in the press about the amount of water wasted in the stores.
I may not be a fan of their coffee, but despite these criticisms I still think that Starbucks deserves credit for their attempts to involve and engage customers and employees. Some of their efforts to crowd surf may be clumsy or limited, but Howard Schultz and his team have shown a willingness in the past to listen and learn from their mistakes. They will not be able to deliver everything the social media evangelists demand in the short term, but I hope that they take the advice from people like Justin and that, despite the criticism, they don’t stop trying.