Crowdsourcing at Starbucks

| Crowdsourcing at Starbucks: Case Study |

MIS 641-102

Contents

1. Summary 2

2. Problem 4

3. Alternative 8

4. Course Integration 10

5. Critical Analysis 12

6. Lessons Learned 15

7. References 16

8. Case Questions 18

Summary

As social media has slowly worked itself into the business utility box, more and more companies have embraced this new tool to tap into the much needed resource of customer feedback. Starbucks proves no different as it has also jumped into the realm of using social media to capture customer feedback in the shape of ideation.

Starbucks was born in 1971, in the great city of Seattle. So far it has now grown to cover 50 countries worldwide with 15,000 stores currently open. Starbucks is known for its variety of coffee and espresso drinks, as well as a variety sandwiches, salads and pastries. But, it does not stop there as it also provides people with an in store atmosphere that compels people to socialize, making it the ideal place for meetings or friendly reunions and hangouts.

In 2008, the company started mystarbucksidea.com, a site designed to tap into the customers experience by soliciting ideas and feedback. Four key themes were used to build the site; sharing, voting, discussing and seeing.

Sharing is accomplished through the posting of ideas related to the company’s products, services, community contributions or changes in operations.

Voting capabilities are provided through electronic suggestion boxes that can be created by anyone, in addition members can vote on these ideas and this provides the company with idea prioritization.

Discussing ideas is also a huge goal of the company as it lets its members comment on the ideas of others. Company employees, also known as “idea partners”, participate within these discussions and also answer questions and insights.

Seeing, or for a better label “track-ability”, is provided to the members of the community by allowing them to view vote counts, displayed through a tally...