Service Innovation

As an update to the post about Starbucks having to reinvent the coffee experience in its stores, the New York Times has an article that sums it up much better than I can, titled “Overhaul, Make it a Venti” (link).  They highlight the fact that the coffee experience has developed since the inception of Starbucks, and how user expectations have changed.  Geoff Vuleta from Fahrenheit 212, an innovation consultancy, is quoted in the article, saying:

“We all remember our initial encounters with Starbucks: the exoticism of new language, space, sounds and smells. Fast-forward a decade, and the first thing that jumps out is that the mystique that so thoroughly defined the initial experience is conspicuously absent — trampled in the stampede of proliferation.”