Running a restaurant is like finishing a puzzle; you need all the pieces. But as we all know, it’s tough to do that every day.  But when something happens two days in a row and on three separate instances, you’ve got a problem.

In Episode 715 of my podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, I discussed two recent visits to a Starbucks next to our Airbnb in Buffalo.  Well, this blog post is about visit #3.

This afternoon, we returned for the third and final visit, but this time, it was to use the drive-thru.  As you’ll hear from the podcast, the 1st two visits were in-store experiences gone wrong.  On our way home from the National Buffalo Wing Festival, I thought, “Let’s see if the drive-thru experience is any better at the Starbucks.”

Well, the answer was NO!

We pulled up and ordered three drinks, and when she asked if we were done, we said, “One second,” and then ordered a fourth drink.  She said, “is that all?”  We responded, “Yes,” and in a smart-ass, rude voice, she said, “Are you sure?”

We were curious: would we get rockstar service using the drive-thru, or would it be the same issues as inside?  Well, we found out first-hand.

Great customer service is a HUGE piece, the biggest piece of the puzzle.  And this Starbucks is sorely missing that.