Oh Canada!

It's no secret: I like Starbucks. I like their choice of coffee beans, I like the way they roast, grind, and brew their beans, and I like the great service I receive (almost) every time I walk into a Starbucks store.

But Starbucks doesn't merely succeed at the level of goods, commodities, and service. Its greatest achievement is the ability to provide customers with great experiences ... maybe even the best experiences of their day. Whenever I visit a Starbucks store, my baristas connect with me in meaningful ways. They might talk about my choice of coffee, the music playing in the store, or family/school/job. They might offer to press a new coffee blend for me at no charge or ask if I'd like to sample one of their featured foods. Some baristas even include me on their learning journey to become coffee masters.

At Starbucks, baristas are mentored by their peers and supervisors to be "welcoming", "genuine", "knowledgeable", "involved", and "considerate". These five foundations ensure my Starbucks experience is more than just good coffee. It's good coffee combined with consideration, appreciation, education, etc.

Starbucks gets it. The world doesn't really need more good coffee ... it needs more great experiences.

Patriotic Canadians are quick to argue that Starbucks is a U.S. company and that we should support home-grown coffee corporations. They typically champion Tim Horton's as the pride and joy of Canada -- the emblem of Canadian culture. If it is, Canada is in a lot of trouble.

Today, CanWest News Service reports that Tim Horton's employees have created a Facebook group called Tim Hortons Rules of Ordering and More. The group was created by Timmie's staff who are fed up with customers who "don't know what they want or how to order properly". The site contains a wealth of insulting and inane information, such as

• When you want a coffee with NO sugar, DO NOT say "no sugar" -- it sounds like your saying "one sugar".
• We only carry one kind of milk so don’t ask for something dumb like homogenized milk -- we don’t have any.
• If you want a decaf coffee, don’t say, "I would like a large coffee 2 milk 1 sugar DECAF"; say "Large DECAF coffee 2 milk 1 sugar".
• When you drive up to the speaker box, have your order ready -- we don’t carry "Give me a second's" or "Hold on's".
• DO NOT yell, "Hello..." as soon as you reach the speaker box.
• When you receive everything at the window, leave immediately -- don’t just sit there.

This is the pride and joy of Canada? I don't think so. Canadians are respected around the world as "welcoming", "genuine", "knowledgeable", "involved", and "considerate". Let's stop selling ourselves short. We're a Starbucks kind of country. We just don't know it yet.