Kim Gaskill waited 17 minutes in a Starbucks drive-through because the espresso machine broke. She uses the story to argue that telling customers about delays upfront lets them decide whether to stay, and that managing expectations matters in customer service and relationships.
Good morning from Phoenix, Arizona. I'm Kim Gaskill and this is the Daily Spark. If you guys know me, you know I love coffee. I stop at Starbucks 2 or 3 times a day. I do my work blocks there. I am a big coffee drinker. Well, today I had something to do this morning, so I wasn't going to work at the location, so I went through the drive-through. There's about 7 cars in the drive-through, so my expectation was It would take me 7, 8, maybe 10 minutes at most. So I get into the drive-through and it's one of those drive-throughs, once you get in it, you can't leave. It's got the big stone wall around the side. It curves around the building. You can't see the order window. So I get into the drive-through and I'm always leery about getting in those drive-throughs because I can't— I don't have the option to leave and it kind of weirds me out. But I got in there and I got stuck. Car came up behind me, the line wasn't moving. I started to get frustrated. I'm like, oh man, this is gonna take forever. And immediately I started to get frustrated because my expectations were not being met. It wasn't moving as fast as I thought it was, as fast as I had expected it to. Long story short, 17 minutes later, I get up to the order window. And the kid tells me they have a broken espresso machine. I'm sorry for the wait, which is good. Always acknowledge and apologize to your customers if they've been waiting because they get frustrated, and sometimes that's all they need is, you know, to acknowledge and apologize. But I suggested to the kid, I said, you're going to take a lot of flak today, um, because people's expectations are not going to be met. Somebody probably needs to go out there and put a sign at the front of the drive-through and let people know you have a broken machine, it's going to be an extra long wait. That way it gives the customer the choice of whether or not they want to wait that long. Now, it's not that I minded the wait. What I got frustrated by is that my expectations were not met, and they were not met because there was not proper communication prior to me getting into the drive-through. Once I got in the drive-through, the The choice was taken away from me. So give your customers a choice. Set the right expectations. Give them all the information that they need to, to set their expectations correctly. Now there's always going to be customers that have very unrealistic expectations, but if you give the best information that you can to them, 9 times out of 10, the customer is going to have realistic expectations and they're not going to get frustrated. And it's the same with you and your communications and your relationships. Make sure you're managing your expectations correctly. Get all the information that you need and don't get frustrated. Don't get mad. See you again tomorrow for another Daily Spark.
