News: Customer Service/Care
Starbucks shuts US stores for training
27 February 2008
Starbucks closed around 7,100 of its stores in the US yesterday in a bid to improve customer service among its staff.
The world's biggest gourmet coffee provider shut its doors to the public for a three-hour training session, entitled Transformation Agenda Communication.
Howard Schultz, who came out of retirement to address the company's flagging sales, told employees in a video taped message: "This is not about training. This is about the love and compassion and commitment that we all need to have for the customer."
In a memorandum released last year Mr Schultz blamed the rapid growth of the company for removing "much of the romance and theatre" of the Starbucks experience, the New York Times reports.
Around 135,000 employees took part in the training session, the costs of which have not been made public.
The company has, however, received extensive publicity over the move, reports the Seattle Times. 
