{"id":897,"date":"2010-06-14T12:28:07","date_gmt":"2010-06-14T17:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.adam-jackson.net\/?p=897"},"modified":"2010-06-14T12:28:07","modified_gmt":"2010-06-14T17:28:07","slug":"understanding-starbucks-up-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/06\/14\/understanding-starbucks-up-sell\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2605 Understanding Starbucks’ “Up sell”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m hoping someone representing Starbucks comments here as I’d like to use longhand to write this down beyond 140 characters<\/a> which is what I’ve been using all morning.<\/p>\n

Starbucks had Gold Card in 2008 as a $20-$25 (can’t remember exactly) yearly fee which enabled 10% off all Starbucks Purchases (not machines, coffee supplies or gift cards) but you could buy a coffee and a pound of coffee and get 10% off. For me, my $5 Starbucks expenditure each day really benefitted by this great deal.<\/p>\n

Then in December of 2009, they killed that program and transitioned to a free Gold Card model where any Starbucks gift card holder would register their card at http:\/\/starbucks.com\/card and would then they’d be a “registered” member. After five purchases with that card, they’d receive green level status and after 30 purchases, they’d be a gold member (w\/o paying any yearly fees) and, from what I could tell, that gold card membership was good for life so you could not purchase coffee for 5 years and still have your gold card.<\/p>\n

I wrote a review of this program on 12-22-2009. You can read the full review here<\/a>. I’m including the Starbucks chart for rewards that was current at the time of that review.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Today, this changes. Here’s today’s June 14th press release <\/a>but I’ve copied the relevant bits below.<\/p>\n

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As part of this commitment, Schultz recognized customers\u2019 desire for a better in store Wi-Fi experience and announced that on July 1, Starbucks will turn on one-click, free Wi-Fi through AT&T in all U.S. company operated stores.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Great! This is fantastic news to get more customers into Starbucks and it’s a pain point that has bothered me since I started working out of coffee shops full time in early 2008. Starbucks was always out as a meeting place as no one could connect to Wifi. So, in many ways this is a huge step forward and for that, I’m applauding Starbucks in finally giving away something mom & pop coffee houses have been doing since 1998 in big cities like NYC and SF.<\/p>\n

This also means that a perk that the small percentage of Green and Gold level Starbucks loyal customer is going away. Free Wi-Fi 2 hours a day was a perk. In fact, I’ve sat in a Starbucks for 8 hours authenticated with the same account on my Macbook, iPhone and iPad with no issues so they were being very relaxed about the 2 hour limit. Not a single person I met outside of Starbucks’ daily coffee drinkers knew what gold was. I had to tell them how to do it so, I believe Starbucks had a hard time selling the program and it could have been single digit conversions but don’t quote me on that. My point is, Starbucks green and gold wasn’t huge. No one knew about it and I rarely saw another person with a gold card.<\/p>\n

Starbucks said, “fine, let’s make the non green and gold people happy by giving them free wifi anytime for free.”<\/p>\n

My perks haven’t changed:<\/p>\n