Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

You are right. I left Starbucks 10 years ago, and the licensed locations were difficult to understand and manage then, and they remain so.

Starbucks should run with the ball and create the appropriate signage to avoid confusion. It is in their brand's best interest.

Hey Maria,
Congrats on being an SOB! I agree with Liz that you are both a successful and outstanding blogger!

Lewis,

I wonder if customers have even addressed this issue with the corporate office. I'm sure employees have said something to management?

Kirsten,

Thank you for the congrats! I feel very honored and Liz Strauss is a great inspiration to me ;)

I use to manage a BN Cafe in NJ and the Starbucks GC was definately a sore point. You really can't blame the customers, because BN has the Starbucks logo on their menu, aprons, coffee cups, etc.

BN has it's reasons, but they've been more then made aware of this customer service issue by fustrated cafe servers and managers. I think they're more interested in reaping the benefits of Starbucks name recognition then spending money on fixing a huge (and it is huge) problem.

For my part, I found the less you explain the situation the better. A simple "we're owned by the bookstore" usually made people happy (although not all of them). It's when you start getting smart about how we're not a real Starbucks, and so on, that customers become fustrated because they feel you're talking down to them.

I work at a Barnes and Noble. And yes, we have that problem as well. I'm not at the cafe but I hear almost everyday a customer coming in through the front door smelling the coffee and assuming 'Oh look! There's a Starbucks!' They don't even read signs! It clearly says Barnes and Noble Cafe serving Starbucks coffee. Can it be more confusing? I think if customers actually read more signs, things could go a whole lot better. I've never noticed this kind of stuff before, but working there for the past few years has shown me a lot of the ignorance customers can have. Just because you see a Starbucks logo doesn't mean there's one. You see Nike logos in a shoe store, doesn't mean you're in a Nike store!

Ironically, B&N DOES have a sign stating they do not accept Starbucks gift cards - too bad no one reads it!