English Study

Since the first Starbucks opened in 1971, the Seattle-based company has grown into an international powerhouse with 15,000 stores in 50 countries. The typical Starbucks store serves drip-brew coffee, espresso, and other hot and cold drinks. Stores also carry a variety of sandwiches, salads, and pastries. The company prides itself on creating store environments that are not only hip, but inviting, encouraging people to come together for meetings, socializing, to work or relax (see Figure 8.16).

Figure 8.16. Starbucks is popular for its gourmet coffee drinks and the social environments it creates in its stores. (Niall McDiarmid/Alamy)

In 2008, the company started mystarbucksidea.com, a social media site designed to solicit ideas and feedback from its customers. The site was built around four key themes:

* Sharing: Community members can post their ideas for Starbucks products, services, community contributions, or changes in operations.

* Voting: Anyone can create an electronic suggestion box. One of the things that makes mystarbucksidea.com special is that members can vote on the ideas. This helps the company prioritize ideas that are most likely to be attractive to its customers.

* Discussing: In addition to voting, members can provide feedback by commenting on the ideas of others. Designated "idea partners" (company employees) participate in these discussions, answer questions, and provide insights.

* Seeing: Community members can track an idea's progress toward implementation. A running tally of the votes (thumbs up or thumbs down) is displayed next to each entry. Next, ideas are tagged by the company with one of four status icons: "under review", "reviewed", "in the works", and "launched." This feedback helps demonstrate responsiveness.

Over 85,000 ideas have been submitted to the company through its crowdsourcing site since the launch. The company's social media initiative was rewarded in 2008 by Forrester Research with a Groundswell Award,...