What I've learned from being a Starbucks manager
- Sarah Anthony
- Oct 27, 2016
- 2 min read
My time with the company has come to an end and reflecting on the past 7 years, I have learned so much from my experiences in all roles from barista to store manager.
Words matter: So often we speak without thinking (especially before coffee) but words can be a trigger for the people you're speaking with and in customer service it goes both ways. There was nothing worse than starting a transaction off by asking "Hi, how are you today?" and receiving a response such as "caramel macchiato." Orders beginning with"give me a..." or "I need a..." were pet peeves of mine. Although I would never treat a customer with disrespect, Customers who began their statement with "May I please have..." or "I'd like something..." always seemed to go better. Then from the other side of the counter, the wrong word choice from a barista often resulted in extensive manager recovery.
People are unpredictable: I've worked in good parts of towns and bad parts of towns and people never cease to amaze me with their unpredictable actions: From graffiti, to impulsively throwing hot coffee cups back threw the drive thru window, to entitled attitudes, to senseless hatred and discrimination. You never know whats coming to you when you serve behind a counter in the customer service industry. People have bad days and I can be empathetic to that, but it doesn't excuse some of the reactions people have (see my previous post about choosing against negativity). When working in this industry, you can never predict what's coming, so you've got to be prepared for it all. This job has taught me to be ready for anything!
Prioritization is key: You can never do all the things all the time. I am a human and I cannot control everything or complete a never-ending to-do list with all the moving pieces of the managerial position I held. Being a control freak, I had to learn tactics to be ok with not being able to do as much as I would have liked in the amount of time I would have liked. To be efficient, I had to get ahead of things before they happened and prioritize my time wisely and be able to adapt plans to the unexpected. Being in this role has fine tuned my prioritization skills.
We all want the same things: Everyone is very different, but I have found that regardless of people's backgrounds or socio-economic statuses, they just want to be happy and drink lot's of coffee. When we all treat each other with the dignity and respect that we all deserve, we can live in a more peaceful society.
