Will Starbucks’s New Coffeehouse Code of Conduct Make It Better?

It’s been a rough couple of years for Starbucks. The once-beloved coffee chain has seen declining foot traffic and sales for months, and new CEO Brian Niccol is tasked with turning the ship around and helping customers fall back in love with the world’s largest coffee chain. This week, we got a glimpse into some policy changes — including a new Coffeehouse Code of Conduct — Starbucks hopes will entice customers back into the fold.

According to CNN, Starbucks baristas will soon return to hand-writing customers’ names in Sharpie on their cups, a practice that in 2016 was replaced by stickers with the customer’s order and name printed on them. In October, Niccol described the decision to go back to handwritten names as an attempt to make customers feel welcome again at the chain. Also making a comeback is the self-service condiment bar, where customers can add cream and sugar themselves. For the orders that will actually be consumed inside a Starbucks cafe, the chain will now offer free refills on drip coffee and tea, which will be served in ceramic mugs or “clean personal cups brought from home.” It’s unclear whether or not those reusable cups will also get the Sharpie treatment.

Yet while those changes seem to harken to a more homespun version of Starbucks, others seem to run counter to the idea that Starbucks is aiming to be more welcoming to its customers. The aforementioned code of conduct essentially requires that everyone in a Starbucks space is a paying customer, or someone accompanying a paying customer. The same goes if you want to order a cup of filtered ice water — these recent policy changes mean those, too, are only for paying customers. While these may seem like reasonable shifts for a business to make, it’s important to remember that, in 2018, the company said that any “customer” was welcome in its spaces, regardless of whether or not they’d made a purchase, after three Black men were kicked out of a Philadelphia Starbucks in a racist incident that sparked backlash and protests.

“We want everyone to feel welcome and comfortable in our stores. Implementing a Coffeehouse Code of Conduct is something most retailers already have and is a practical step that helps us prioritize our paying customers who want to sit and enjoy our cafes or need to use the restroom during their visit,” Jaci Anderson, Starbucks director of corporate communications said via email. “This means our cafes, patios, and restrooms are for customers and partners. By setting clear expectations for behavior and use of our spaces, we can create a better environment for everyone. These updates are part of a broader set of changes we are making to enhance the cafe experience as we work to get back to Starbucks.”

While it’s true that some of these changes recall an earlier, cozier iteration of the chain, it seems unlikely that the overall customer experience will meaningfully change for most Starbucks customers, many of whom are only experiencing the coffee shop via its drive-thru. As Starbucks itself acknowledges, some 70 percent of its orders are placed via the Starbucks mobile app, which all but eliminates interaction with a barista — and the self-serve condiment bar.

More importantly, none of this really gets at the root of what many customers feel like has been a decline in quality of product or service at Starbucks, all in the midst of significant price increases. People are mad that their latte now costs $9, not that the barista stopped personally writing their first name on a cup. They’re annoyed because many Starbucks locations are not adequately staffed, meaning that stores are dirtier and orders take longer to get out the door. They’ve seen the way that Starbucks has behaved during a multi-year union effort from Starbucks baristas, who say that they have long been underpaid and not given the resources to succeed in their jobs.

If Starbucks wants to win back customers who have stopped going because of the chain’s own business moves — not to mention the proliferation of competitors like Dutch Bros Coffee, 7Brew, and others — they’re going to have to do a whole lot more than invest in 200,000 Sharpies and some ceramic mugs. They’re going to have to treat their workers better, stop raising prices, and perhaps most essential, figure out a way to make everyone — whether or not they’ve paid yet — feel welcome inside a Starbucks.