authentic or AUTHENTIC?

by Bill

If you have been into Starbucks in the last few months yo may have noticed a sudden change in focus by the barristas..suddenly they want to be your friend. I noticed back in April I think, suddenly a new guy serving up my coffee wanted to know about my day, what I was doing. I noticed the guy forcing his questions as if trying to recall a script… it just felt wierd to me since I didn’t know this guy from Adam. Now contrast this with what has always been present in the same Starbucks but occured organically. There have always been at least 2 and usually three of the barristas who knew me and what I liked and how I liked it. And I wasn’t alone these stars made mental notes of regulars and over time through thoughtful observation built a relationship with me. Sometimes when times were slow we traded news other times it was only the fact that my coffee was almost ready by the time I walked in the door. So what is the big deal? Well, the first example was the result of a corporate edict to “build connections by interacting with customers”. The second example occured organically without corporate or managerial PR efforts. Which do you think would make you want to come back? More importantly which one was really authentic? Next time you purchase something pay attention to the energy of the salesperson. If you feel like chopped liver when you walked away you may have very well been seen as chopped liver in other words in that sales person’s eyes you had little or no value. Now if you walk away feeling warm ( not about your purchase) you have just experienced the fact that you had value to that salesperson. So once again…there is authenticity and then there is Authenticiy. Which do you think will add followers to your business?