America’s favorite coffee chain just got a new CEO, and everyone, including Starbucks employees and a barista-turned-BI-reporter, has something to say about the switch.
Narasimhan joined the company as an outsider to the coffee world, and falling sales, union clashes, and activist investors have tainted his time heading the chain.
On the other hand, Niccol is known for breathing new life into struggling brands. Chipotle’s stock price tripled over the past five years that he led the company.
But what do regular Starbucks employees think of the change?
Five Starbucks employees in stores in London and Singapore, some of whom were around when Narasimhan took over from Howard Schultz, spoke to Business Insider and said they want their new chief to change a number of things at the company.
All employees spoke on the condition of anonymity. Their identities and employment have been verified by BI.
Compensation and team culture
A barista in a Singapore outlet said that one of the most important things she wants to see change is her compensation.
“I would love an increase in pay. Right now, the basic pay is S$9, or $6.84, an hour. I earn slightly more as I’ve been working for 1.5 years so far.”
A part-time shift manager in the same Starbucks outlet echoed her sentiments.
“Salary would be a good change, too,” she said. “In general food and beverage salaries aren’t that much, for the amount of work we do.”
Of the three workers BI spoke to in London, none mentioned compensation as an issue.
Apart from that, the Singapore barista said team bonding needs to be strengthened.
The barista said that one of the few things that changed when Narasimhan took over from founder and CEO Schultz was the company’s mission statement.
The mission statement Narasimhan established was: “With every cup, with every conversation, with every community — we nurture the limitless possibilities of human connection.”
“With our previous CEO, not much changed in Singapore,” she said. “But I’m excited about the new CEO.”
Another Starbucks worker in London said she found the company well organized, particularly when it came time for menu changes.
However, she hoped that with the new CEO, there would be “more outside-of-store training” available.
The worker said that the training she received from her colleagues often differed depending on the worker, and she would like to see more standardization of methods and recipes.
Bring US concepts to international stores
Some baristas in Singapore also think their stores lag behind US stores in terms of updated equipment.
A shift manager said that their espresso machine changed from manual to electronic just recently.
“In the US they have more advanced technology in the stores. Ours gets updated a lot later,” she said about certain coffee machines and digital labeling systems. “It would be good for there to be a standardization of technology.”
The display board could also be digitalized to match those of other coffee chains, such as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
Starbucks, like many food companies, offers different menus in different countries to appeal to local tastes. One Singapore barista said their work can be more difficult when customers ask for drinks based on US TikTok videos.
“Sometimes we don’t have the ingredients required to make the items they want,” she said.
Take customer feedback into consideration
One barista in another London Starbucks branch said that some of the incentives for customers to return to Starbucks could be improved under the new leadership.
He said introducing a drink subscription model like those at chains such as Pret a Manger and Blank Street Coffee would be a good idea.
By comparison, he said, Starbucks’ rewards program is not as generous.
“Right now, you have to spend like £50, about $64, to get one free drink, which is a lot,” he said.
In the UK, the program requires you to collect 150 “stars” for a free item; you earn three stars every time you spend £1.
Starbucks can also do more to consider customers’ suggestions and feedback, a Starbucks barista in Singapore said.
“I would love for our special drinks on offer to become regular parts of the menu,” she said.
She and one of her colleagues on shift said that Starbucks should run a poll to gauge customers’ preferences and update the menu accordingly.
Representatives for Starbucks did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
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