Why Starbucks Is Working on Wait Times

Responding to five quarters of descending same-store sales, the “Back to Starbucks” plan has kicked in. After turnaround success at Chipotle, Starbucks’s new CEO, Brian Niccol, says his target is the customer experience.

He knows that we’ve been complaining about wait time.

Starbucks Wait Times

Curious about wait times, a Business Insider reporter visited several Starbucks. Not terrible, estimated wait times ranging from 6 to 12 minutes were close to what his app had predicted. However, others reported as a much a 30-minute wait.

Trying for four minutes or less, a new Starbucks pilot program redesigned employee deployment, streamlined routines, and changed order sequencing. Rather than first-come first-served, an experimental algorithm expedited in-store, drive thru, and app response by recognizing drink complexity. They also are coordinating store staffing with demand. So far, having tried it at 700 locations, wait time frequently dropped by two minutes.

Below, you can see how four minutes compares to fast food drive-thru service:

Three Kinds of Queues

For most of us, lines involve three possibilities. Sometimes we have no choice. At other times we can refuse to wait. And yes, the third possibility is when we want to wait for something.

Mandatory Queues

You know the list. At the airport, we wait to pass through security checkpoints. There are also lines we cannot avoid at government-related offices like the DMV.

The characteristics of a pleasant queuing environment include distractions like music and employee visibility. In addition, studies indicate that we feel better with more people behind us.

Optional Queues

Research indicates that (under normal circumstances) we are only willing to make a quick stop at the ATM–no more than 3 minutes. And just slightly longer–3.6 minutes–in convenience stores. Meanwhile, we will stand in line for 8 minutes in a drugstore.

Desirable Queues

Those people happily waiting for the newest iPhone might have been signaling that they were trendy techies. Similarly, that 20-minute wait at a night club, a restaurant, an art exhibit could also attract individuals who value the service or product more than their time. One researcher found that art lovers were happy to wait an average of 59 minutes to see a Paul Gauguin exhibit.

Our Bottom Line: Cost

One common denominator for all three scenarios is time. When the wait actually exceeds or just seems to exceed our expectations, its cost (defined economically as sacrifice) increases. That cost can determine when we abandon the queue…

And leave our local Starbucks.

My sources and more: Hearing about Starbucks’s earnings and seeing this WSJ article on speed, I remembered our econlife post on queues. But for the most interesting facts about Starbucks’s wait times, Business Insider had the story. In addition, QSR, here and here had more insight.

Please note that parts of today’s post were in a past econlife post.