Why The Starbucks For Outlook Add-In Nails The Customer Experience

By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1

If you’re a Starbucks fan, you may have heard about and perhaps may have already installed the Starbucks for Outlook Add-In. Yet, you don’t need to be a Starbucks loyalist to see that the company has taken brand awareness and customer engagement to the next level by meeting professionals where they already are — their email. Here’s how they’ve done it.

The coffee giant knows that many of its customers spend their days tethered to their email and tangled up in meetings.  Just as easy as it is to add an attachment to your email, Outlook users click on the “Meet At Starbucks” button in Outlook’s nav bar, and off to the right appears the map of nearby Starbucks locations, allowing parties to choose the location to meet, turning a conference call or a boardroom meeting into a meet up at Starbucks.  The Add-In also allows Outlook users to purchase customized e-gift cards in the amounts of their choice.