Will Starbucks Digital Network Get the Wifi Access Portal Right?

I travel a lot. It gives me a chance to live on the road where I become dependent on the places I do business to take care of more than what I am there for. Hotels, planes, rental car centers. Each offers a customer experience. Some are tied directly to delivering their core product. Most of what I get from Hertz is about streamlining the rental experience. Some expand their core service. I have become a fan of the wireless service from GoGo while on Delta. Obviously, it has nothing to do with getting me from point A to point B. It does allow me to be more productive. 

Starbucks just launched their new in-store Digital Network. They realized that they could enhance the customer experience by extending the concept of the "third place" to the Internet. When a user logs on to wireless access in the store (made more simple via one-click access), they arrive at the Digital Network main screen which gives them local information and access to paywall content made free for the customer. 

A View from the CIO

Robert Scoble captured a great interview with Starbuck's CIO Stephen Gillet that explains the service in brand terms. One datapoint he delivers is that laptop usage in-store remains flat while mobile devices (iPhones most of all) are growing fast. There is something super-smart in Starbucks mining of the network usage data to better understand their customer. It's impossible to comment on the economics of this offer. We all know that bandwidth can be expensive to dole out especially as many of us gobble up more video wherever we are. 

Customer Experience

But from a pure customer experience POV, this is a great and smart move. They have already seen session-time increase with the advent of free wifi (up to 12 minutes). The paywall access - subscription editions of The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today - may even increase that and one would hope for Starbuck's case that means at least another tall latte at the register.The service is a partnership with Yahoo. I assume they provide some of the infrastructure, content and hosting. 

Think of all the places you get wireless on the road (usually for a fee). Hotels, airport lounges, airplanes and more. Have you ever logged onto a protal that had any value for you whatsoever? Usually it either defaults to a web page (hotels) or to the service provider portal or to some white label version of same. They are all near useless and appear to have been designed with about as much user experience care as an airport security line. When you think about the customer experience that Starbucks is trying to grow, they have a pretty good chance of getting it right.

What could they do to tip the design in their favor (some they may do or may be planning):

1. Daily song giveaways (they used to do this in-store)

2. Continue with the paywall content 

3. Keep it simple - most people are logging on via laptop to get something done. Give them some quick value and let them move on. 

4. Connect the experience to the smartphone app so when I move between devices I am not learning a whole new universe

5. Give out random coupons to surprise us when we log on

6. Recognize me when I log back on

7. Let me check-in to Facebook Places and FourSquare from within the interface

Comments

[Ian]

It's an interesting move, and I'm surprised to see how much criticism has been shoveled on this idea (mostly along the lines of "Hey SBUX, 2003 called and wants its idea back."). But that's typical of the social media echo chamber I suppose.

Personally I think it's a nice value add, whether you're in a long latte line and want a quick news hit or spend your days in the cafe freelancing.

Really like the idea of a prominent "check in here" button for mobile users - it's an easy win for SBUX.

But mostly what I like is SBUX' commitment to trying new things. When I was with Nokia I met with their marketing team in Seattle in 2006. Nearly 5 years ago - a lifetime in digital - and they were very much focused on things like this, and particularly how mobile fit in their strategy.

Next time I get a quiet minute (ha!) at SBUX I plan on tooling around with this.

[john moore (from Brand Autopsy)]

I tooled around on the Starbucks Digital Network and didn't think it was special enough to make it worth doing.

The USA Today already puts its daily content online for free. Yes, the digital version of the NYT and WSJ are nice to haves. However, much of the other content can be found elsewhere from sources that have far more tastemaker credibility than does Starbucks.

I view this, along with the ENTIRE management of the program, as a distraction for Starbucks and not a "value add."

People will linger longer inside Starbucks for the free wi-fi, not for the Starbucks Digital Network. Starbucks has overcomplicated something that didn't need to be overcomplicated. Making in-store wi-fi free is the real draw for customers. Anything else is overcomplicating the opportunity.