By now you've heard that Starbucks is in the midst of an image revamp led by CEO Howard Schultz (new tile bar! new Clover coffee machines! Pike Place Roast!). We've been covering it with some interest, primarily to address whether an overhaul can actually help bump sales for the struggling coffee behemoth. So far, I've personally been unimpressed with the changes, but then I never noticed that the odor of the toasted breakfast sandwiches (which were 86ed for that reason) overwhelmed the frangrance of the coffee anyway.
Starbucks announced the next phase of its revamp today by finally launching FREE Wi-Fi in its 7,000 shops nationwide.
While it's fantastic that Starbucks customers no longer have to pay out to T-Mobile to use the Internet, Starbucks still hasn't gotten it right. The problem is that not only are they about three years behind other coffee shops, but they don't make it simple enough. Here's how it works at most espresso joints: you buy coffee, you go live. At Starbucks, you first have to purchase a Starbucks Card and put a minimum of $5 on it. Then (yes, there's a next step) you have to register online for their Rewards program, which gives you two free hours a day. While they give you a coupon for a free drink, in order to maintain your account you have to use the card once a month, and the two hours of Wi-Fi have to be used all in one go. If that sounds like a mouthful of caveats, rules, and restrictions, it's because it is.
What is Starbucks thinking? Here's the bottom line, Starbucks, I don't want to join your rewards program, and I don't want to have to buy a card and register it online. I just want to get a cup of coffee and get on the Internet quickly to check my email—which means given the option, I'll just go to the coffee shop next store. To me this just illustrates the magnitude of the disconnect Starbucks has not only with its customers, but with what other, smaller coffee shops are already doing.
Thoughts, anyone? Did Starbucks manage to screw this up, or is it a step in the right direction?
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It's not hard to serve free wireless securely. If they were smart, they'd just pay the city to setup a Metro-fi location over/in their business. I've actually never met anyone who can hack a simple linksys box. They're screwing up again. How's about printing a simple key on a sticky if you ask for WiFi with your Orange Mocha Frappuccino? Maybe that simple key is set to expire in 4 hours or whatever.
—matteo
17:38, June 3rd, 2008
It's free and easy if you have an iPhone... AT & T customers with a data package get the 'bucks for free.
They should make it free but you should get an annoying pop up every 30 minutes you are on their network that says "Buy something."
—bryanh
16:52, June 3rd, 2008
This is ridiculous. Seriously. I avoid Starbucks anyway, for the same reason I avoid Denny's, but what you've described is absurd.
Brent has a good point about security, but we don't know that the flaming hoops you jump through to connect with Starbucks WiFi earn you a more secure connection than simply password-protecting the network does (or do we?). This is smart and common: password-protect your network, give the password out to paying customers, and change the password every day.
—richard
15:04, June 3rd, 2008
I can't profess whether or not Howie's strategy is a good one, he seems to be light years ahead on many fronts. However, I can make some speculations. 1) All news is good news... people are talking about Starbucks again; and 2)Maybe they don't want to give away Internet in mass and or get sued when someone hacks your laptop from a van outside because the process is too easy.
To the first point. Starbucks does have a history of keeping their locations up to date. So the question was, "how do we turn this capital expense into good press?"
Second, there are a myriad of stories of people visiting the "local" coffee shop with its free wireless and having someone in a van outside pirating their computer and personal information. I don't know if security is the reason, but if I could get some mileage out of "free wireless" and yet still protect my customers, it might be worth it. However, I don't suck up free internet to write a screen play.
Just some thoughts.
—brentbutler
14:14, June 3rd, 2008
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