Talk about a tidal wave of change!
Starbucks recently made headlines with its decision to close the public restrooms in many of their New York locations. Too many people are using the Starbucks’ bathrooms, not all of whom are paying customers, and this makes it difficult for Starbucks’ employees to take bathroom breaks in a timely fashion. Add in the not-insignificant expense of keeping public restrooms clean and operational in New York City, factor in the fact that the chain is not by law required to provide restrooms in shops that seat less than 20 people, and it seems that switching to employees-only facilities is a sensible, straightforward business decision.
That is, of course, until you stop and think about what Starbucks sells.
Starbucks sells coffee. Coffee contains caffeine, and caffeine is a diuretic, especially when consumed in large amounts. Diuretics cause the body to produce increased amounts of urine. In other words, if you drink caffeinated coffee, sooner or later, you’re going to need a bathroom.
Coffee isn’t all Starbucks sells. In fact, coffee isn’t even Starbucks’ primary offering. What Starbucks sells is the experience. People choose Starbucks because of the coffee shop’s atmosphere, community, and unique culture. Starbucks is the hipster’s home away from home; a place to relax, read the paper, cruise the internet, and connect with like-minded friends. Enjoying the coffee is secondary entirely to the experience, but it still an essential element of the customer-brand interaction.
This cycle only works one way. When we drink coffee, we develop a need to use the bathroom. There’s only one way to resolve the tension we’re feeling. By removing the public restrooms from their facilities, Starbucks has introduced a biological limitation on their customer’s experience. People are free, of course, to continue to come in, order coffee, hang out, and enjoy the atmosphere and community—as long as their bladders hold out.
Once that threshold has been reached, and the need to visit the bathroom is one that can no longer be ignored, it doesn’t matter how compelling the community and ambiance may be. When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go! If there are no bathrooms in Starbucks, you have to leave the coffee shop and go somewhere else.
Brand Modeling: Predicting the Impact of Organizational Change
How quickly will you return? Brand Modeling tells us that success lies in understanding the wants and needs of your best customers, and fulfilling those needs better than anyone else does. Starbucks won valuable market share by being the coffee shop that provided a certain self-aware, self-congratulatory atmosphere for its patrons. They clearly understand the psychological and emotional needs of their clientele. But what about their physical needs?
It will only take one distressing experience for a Starbucks’ consumer to decide that they’ll get their next coffee at a shop that delivers less in the way of ambiance and community and more in the way of bathroom facilities. In the interest of saving a few dollars and some employee time, Starbucks is introducing an unnecessary tension into their operation that can damage the customer relationship. There are already rumbles about Starbucks failing to be a good corporate citizen; customers sense the disconnect when an organization has a millionaire CEO and can’t afford to fund basic bathroom maintenance.
Small resentments can create large problems, even for the world’s best brands. We’re really not sure that closing the bathrooms is a great move on Starbucks’ part. What do you think?