Matthew Starner

People like going to Starbucks. There are a lot of things about it that I think have added to the success. Why else would people pay 4 bucks for coffee? Besides the “status” of Starbucks, there are other things that make them successful. Here are some things that the church could learn from Starbucks.

• Comfortability: Make the area comfortable for visitors. Starbucks reminds me a lot of a living room. It’s a comfortable place. The tables and chairs, paint, lighting, and everything invite you to stay a while. In fact, they have as their goal to be your “third place” besides work and home. They want to be the next place you go to besides those first two obvious places, so they make it comfortable for you while you are there.
• Choices: I read somewhere that there are over 19,000 combinations of Starbucks drinks. That’s a lot of coffee variations. Isn’t it funny how usually we only offer things one way? Why can’t we allow people to choose what they want?
• Friendliness: There’s no formal talk in Starbucks. You have entered a friendly place. In church, however, we talk to everyone in formal tone, most of the time in a stuffy manner. Let’s talk more informally in church. Let’s make friends with our clients in the business world.
• Quality: Starbucks takes pride in their expertise in coffee. They say they try all sorts of coffees and select the best for their customers. Everything is done with quality in Starbucks. We ought to offer quality, too.
• Give Back: They say that they are giving back to the communities where the coffee is grown. They do toy drives at Christmas. They offer coffee grounds for your garden. There is definitely a culture of giving back to the community at the Starbucks.

What other things could we learn from Starbucks? Leave a comment.