Something’s off at Starbucks.
You notice it the moment you walk in to grab your favorite drink order.
The Barista locks eyes, making prolonged eye contact. “Welcome to Starbucks.”
Two seconds later, someone else walks in. She looks up from the Grande Iced Shaken Espresso with Oatmilk and Toffee Nut Syrup she’s making, and it happens again. Same prolonged eye contact. “Welcome to Starbucks.”
Then again. And again.
You appreciate the effort, but it feels like you’ve wandered into a dress rehearsal where everyone’s still reading stage directions.
Turns out, you have.
After six straight quarters of same-store sales drops (shares are down about 7% this year and locations are being closed), Starbucks handed 200,000 Baristas a carefully designed script.
Paired with three-hour long training sessions teaching them how they greet customers. Instructions on how to hand over beverages. Even a folded card for their aprons: “Get to know each customer in a way that’s right for them.”
Under the heading “Thank with eye contact,” the new training manual advises Baristas to ‘“Pause for a second to make eye contact. Don’t rush the moment.”
The problem is you can’t script Sprezzatura. It’s an Italian word for effortless grace. A fashion term these days, though it goes back to courtly manners back in the Italian middle ages.
It means easy elegance. The studied nonchalance that makes difficult things look easy. It’s why the perfectly tailored suit needs a slight rumple, why the virtuoso makes the concerto sound casual.
Meaningful connection without it, isn’t connection. It’s theatre.
A poster recently posted in an elevator at Starbuck’s Seattle offices got it right: “Getting ‘Back to Starbucks’ isn’t just about comfy chairs. It’s about our culture, values, mission and how we treat people.”
They just forgot that you can’t train culture. You can only believe it into being.
Instead of telling baristas what to say, give them something worth believing:
Every interaction with a customer is a chance to turn someone’s day around.
Genuine kindness costs nothing and changes everything.
The world is starving for unhurried human moments.
Really believe that and eye contact, familiarity, and moments of connection happen naturally.
The script becomes unnecessary.
And the coffee tastes better.
