FUCK THE CUSTOMER CONNECTIONS! i once had a customer told me “leave me alone” while we waited for their order to finish. these people don’t want us to get to know them, they want their coffee and to leave!

Corporate never understood that we will connect to people all on our own, like normal adult humans do.

90% of our customer connection comments are things we can’t even control in my store “this store is always out of strawberry açaí” “this store has odd hours”(yeah you guys gave us COVID for 2 months straight) “barista was rude” okay I can control that but they usually start it

That’s why when I solo DT I close the door. It’s not important when 4 people are there and the store is busy as hell. The customers don’t care… they don’t care about anything but their drinks and if they have to wait a customer connection is the last thing the want. So I don’t even bother.

When I was a SSV, it was my “job” to enforce customer connections. So I did my research on exactly how those numbers are calculated.

It’s a Pass or Fail system from ONE question (just like OP said). So If you got a 4/5 or something, it was a FAIL. Giving a “perfect score” is so counter intuitive on surveys because it rarely happens, even for people that are otherwise very happy about their experience. To hinge something your store gets graded on that requires a perfect score is absolute BS.

honestly it is something that as a customer i never even noticed if the baristas "connected" with me or not. i didnt even know this was a "thing" till i started working there and thought how silly nobody even really notices....most people just want you to hand them their coffee and quit talking to them lol

Now as a customer I hate the forced connections. especially when its cold out and i have to keep my window open now too LOL

I have never cared for customer connections and never will. Half the customers would rather not see or interact with us at all (even if their order is wrong).

Literally the most common thing customers talk about is complaining about waiting too long or price increases. Blame corporate for cutting hours and/or the customer’s lack of time management, and blame corporate again for the price increase.

down vote this idc but i do not give a single shit about customer connection scores

They’re bullshit, I peeped a report on my store managers desk showing that my store was vastly over performing in projected sales and we’e had great reviews from people, yet we still get chided by the DM about our customer connections or our drive times. Which btw our average window time was fucking 39 seconds and better than neighboring stores.

We meet their window time goals, which lowers Customer Connection score. So we focus on that score and our window time increases a bit so they get on us about that. And it just keeps looping.

I don’t know what the fuck they want from us.

my chiropractor told me that most times when she goes to starbucks drive thru, thats her time to just be and not a big fan of being talked to. thats why i usually try to gauge who wants to talk and who doesnt. start by asking how their day is and go from there on whether i should keep trying to engage conversation or not

The question, “did the barista get to know you” doesn’t actually ask or answer if the customer was satisfied anyways!!! That’s the only question that determines your customer connection store. All mobile orders, want to get in and out and don’t give a flying fuck for conversation!!!! So that question isn’t fair when like 25% of orders are done mobiley. And when they want low asf drive times, and even with the low drive times customers complain the drive thru “takes too long” how tf are we supposed to connect with anyone???? Maybe 10% of customers if that come inside, and those 10% think that means they get to skip the mobile and drive thru lines and don’t want to be talked to either. Most people I greet ignore me. The expectation is too high.

They've always been bullshit even when staffing was good

Bit of a late post, but I've always felt that the contradicting demands of low times and bs connection metrics are designed to be contradicting just so they have something to hold against you. End of the day, I don't feel like the system is in good faith on that.

My store had the highest in the district and at one point the city and state.

They closed us down.

So yea, bullshit.

my DM came in one day and got pissed that my boyfriend wasn’t connecting with a customer who literally told him straight up that she didn’t wanna talk. DM said that was no excuse like excuse me but i don’t feel like invading into a persons life after they just told me they didn’t wanna talk all because you wanna make this “feel like a third place” like hun this hasn’t been a third place for a long time now. at least my SM understood and highly disagreed with the DM about it 😭

I just posted saying collective strike. Don't work yourself to the bone anymore. Take your time. Slow it all down until they properly staff us. F drive times, f connections. You wana connect with the customers, explain to them how drastically they cut our hours all over the country and how you are tired and your body hurts. Connect with them over the pain.

It’s either they want customer connections or lower drive times but if short staffed & someone orders 10 Frappuccinos then times are going to be slower so they take hours away from people trying to live on no shifts a week! Who wants Starbucks to be like McDonald’s

[removed]

Same went down in score and can agree it’s always we don’t have oat-milk or large straws but apparently these things don’t matter cause they always compare us to another store that has a high connection score. It’s almost like working retail and trying to get customers to sign up for their credit card lol 😂

Amen!