I don't care about your brand jargon, I just want a coffee

This morning at Second Cup (a high-end Canadian coffee chain) I accidentally asked for a Grande instead of a Medium. Second Cup's major competitor in Canada - Starbucks, labels its coffee sizes Tall, Grande and Venti instead of Medium, Large and Extra Large.  The server reacted to my Grande gaffe with a smiling, 'That's a bad word around  here'.  When I did this a few years back at a different location, the server responded with a cold, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'  Today's incident was benign but the first one ensured I didn't visit that outlet again. These were missed opportunities for the coffee servers to take the higher road by translating what I asked for rather than acting insulted.

 

Some thoughts:

• Embarrassing your customers who mention a competitor is not going to force them into loyalty. 
• When a customer uses a competitor's language, translate and go with it. It's your responsibility to understand your customer's language, not the other way around.

Employees really do guard the brand. I can't blame the coffee chain for how its servers respond in such a high turnover industry, and I usually have a great experience at Second Cup.  But I'm surprised some servers are willing to embarass existing customers for the sake of getting across the brand jargon.

Published 19 November 2006 17:08 by Lisa Walker

Comments

• 

  James Barbour said:

  When I was sixteen I worked at McDonalds.  For three days, then I quit.
  
  This was before Mickey D's signed a distribution agreement with Coke.  And if a customer asked for 'a Coke', we were duty-bound to respond with "We serve McDonalds' Cola, is that OK?".  There was hell to pay if you forgot.
  
  It tasted pretty much the same, though.
  November 19, 2006 23:27
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  Patrick Baird said:

  Aside from being a bit disasteful on the part of the employee (and I must admit, I do love Second Cup when I travel to Montreal). I think you got to the heart of, all these different shops/brands have different names to differentiate themselves and their products, but at the end of the day, a small, medium, and large coffee will always be.. just that.
  November 20, 2006 04:05
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  Elliott Silverstein said:

  There are companies out there that live in a bubble and fail to recognize their competition publicly.  I'm not suggesting this is right, but I wonder what would the reaction be for a novice java drinker who ordered a "small double double".
  November 20, 2006 04:33
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  Leo Bottary said:

  I take it you won't be having a third cup.  I wouldn't either.  Nice post Lisa!
  November 20, 2006 11:57
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  Jonathan Dunn said:

  Not to be difficult (b/c I think you're point is a good one), but I'm sure Starbucks would be pleased to see how well you've integrated their branding into your daily caffination.
  November 20, 2006 17:10
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  Jonathan Dunn said:

  Grrr..."your" not "you're"...Disgusted for falling victim to my own pet peeve.
  November 20, 2006 17:15
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  Niall Cook said:

  I think there's a lesson for internal jargon here too (and yes, I stand guilty as charged!).
  
  HR and Finance are the biggest culprits - I've been here 7 years and I still don't know what people are talking about when they ask me if I want to offset my fees to BIA.
  November 20, 2006 21:46
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  Sean Moffitt said:

  I have to concur with your cafe insurrection. Having made the same mistake many times through a fog-induced morning, it would be so easy for the employee to imply re-educate then demonize. I've now gone to another independent coffee shop - their issue - their large is just not large enough, i have to order jumbo. Don't get me started on A&W's convoluted sizing strategy.
  November 21, 2006 03:30
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  Lisa Walker said:

  I think the coffee server had been well-messaged because after he told me I used a bad word, he said; "We think calling sizes by their real names is a lot less confusing for people." I didn’t object to that and I agree with him. I just didn’t like the reprimand from both servers when I dared to mention a competitor’s jargon. Another server listening in then asked what I thought of the difference in quality between Starbucks and Second Cup, and the difference in the overall brand experience.  She then blushed that she was new and really trying hard to learn and understand the differences. I was kind of impressed that she cared.
  As an experiment, I’ll be visiting Starbucks next week to see their reaction when I ask for a Medium. I can’t imagine it will be that bad, I’m sure they hear the regular names used a lot more than does Second Cup.
  
  November 21, 2006 19:08