Dive Brief:
- Starbucks mobile ordering is growing in popularity, with more than 3 in 10 Starbucks orders made through the Starbucks Rewards app during the last quarter, CEO Laxman Narasimhan said on a Q2 2024 earnings call Tuesday. But workers are struggling to keep up.
- A “mid-teens percent” of mobile orders went uncompleted, according to Narasimhan. Customers said long wait times and lack of product availability made them abandon their orders.
- Starbucks will establish a new set of procedures for baristas called the Siren Craft System to speed up order fulfillment, according to Narasimhan.
Dive Insight:
The popularity of mobile orders — which accounted for at least 30% of sales for two quarters in a row — has inadvertently harmed customers’ experience, as baristas have struggled to fill the sheer number of orders.
Starbucks is taking measures to help workers keep up with demand and minimize customer frustration.
“We are working to increase throughput and improve product availability to enhance the customer experience, improve convenience and better capture existing demand,” Narasimhan said during the call.
The Siren Craft System is a simpler version of the Siren System, which was announced in 2022 and includes new machinery alongside revamped processes for workers. The Siren System cuts down the time and steps to make a Grande Mocha Frappuccino, for example, from 87 seconds and 16 steps to 36 seconds and 13 steps, Starbucks said at the time.
However, the full Siren System will be in less than 10% of stores by the end of 2024, Narasimhan said.
The Siren Craft System implements the new order fulfillment processes without the new equipment, which speeds up order fulfillment without the cost of installing new machinery, according to Narasimhan.
“What we've added here is the underlying processes to ensure that we can reduce the wait time in the store,” he said.
