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Go Starbucks or go home

Is your business an experience?


Starbucks announced they would no longer sell their products on their own website. You can still buy Starbucks products online through other retailers, just not on the Starbucks website.

In the announcement, Starbucks said they want their customers to have the Starbucks experience. While they still want you to come in and purchase something to eat and drink, they want the person purchasing Starbucks products to have the Starbucks experience.

Instead, they so believe in their employees and how they can interact with their customers that they want to make sure the customer gets to have an experience first hand with Starbucks. You can’t get very personal with a website.

How many of us think the experience in our business, and the interaction with our staff is so awesome, that we want to be sure a new or existing customer has that interaction with our employees?
It is not just our employees that make a difference. What about the overall experience a person has starting when they can first see our business? Research shows that over 50% of the impression a customer has of your business comes from when they can first see your building, sign, or parking lot.

When the customer comes in, what do they see, hear, smell, taste and touch? Can we provide an experience that will overload their senses on, “awesome”? All of this in addition to wonderful salespeople.

If we can, we have something the Internet cannot duplicate. Even the founder of the largest online retailer knows it. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, said, “We can never duplicate that experience you can have by walking in a bookstore, sitting in a comfortable chair with a cup of coffee and enjoying the feel and smell of a new book”.

The National Retail Federation reports that 15% to 30% of all online purchases are returned by the consumer. That speaks to the customer not having enough product knowledge to make an intelligent decision about what they are buying. Is your store providing that product knowledge? Do you have an ongoing staff education program? Or do your employees just learn as they go along?

Think about the bookstores, coffee shops and other local businesses you have experienced. Any of them like the bookstore Bezos is talking about? Any of them provide an experience for which they are so confident, they do not sell online?

If our businesses are going to beat the online businesses, we have to do the things the Internet retailers cannot or will not do.

It is not about beating Amazon and other Internet retailers at their own game. It is about playing the game the way the customer wants to play.

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This article is copyrighted by Tom Shay and Profits Plus Solutions, who can be reached at: PO Box 128, Dardanelle, AR. 72834. Phone 727-823-7205. It may be printed for an individual to read, but not duplicated or distributed without expressed written consent of the copyright owner.

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©1998-2026 Profits Plus Solutions, Inc.
Tom Shay
PO Box 128
Dardanelle, AR 72834
(727)823-7205

MAY 2026
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Small Business

AdvisoriES


"It's all fun and games", is the title of the May Small Business Advisory. Too many employees think the business owner is simply renting their time. Showing up is sufficient.

 

This month's advisory shares a series of engaging activities that remind, and reward, employees that making the sale is what creates their pay check.

Small Business

NewS

Top Story

Meeting with the accountant in February before the tax return is due. I am not sure how this became a tradition. There is nothing you can do to change the numbers for 2025.

 

Why not meet in May, instead? One-third of the year would be completed, and a May meeting would allow for a discussion about what can and should be changed for the last eight months of 2026.

Article of the Month

The article of the month for May is titled, "No more tears". The discussion focuses on inventory which is a great investment in your business. But, only if you know how to manage the "open to buy" and will monitor the inventory turn rate.


Book of the Month

Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, PhD. As one who has found over the years that many of the problems in a small business occur because of the mindset of the owner of the business, this book is a must read.

All this plus the Internet Tool for Your Business and a staff incentive idea for your business.
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BOOK US

With over 25 years of frontline experience Tom Shay is America's leading Small Business Management Expert. He's a "Must Have" for your next event.

Small Business

Advisories

The April Small Business Advisory quotes research performed by a faculty member at Purdue. The question was asked of 20,000 people, "What do you want in an experience with a business?".

 

The advisory shares the top five answers, for which the majority require the skills that only a human can have. It is not artificual intelligence or software that deals with customer service management.

Small Business

News

 

Top Story

It has been many years since we received an email from Ron of Arrow Floor Covering. Yet we still read it time and again as there are words of wisdom in his message.

 

Would the next generation want to work in your small business?


Article of the Month

Owning a small business has a lot of similarities to owning a small business. Not so much because of the hours you spent with the business, but because of the commitment you are making to yourself, your employees and your customers.

 

The April Article of the Month is titled, "With this ring, I thee wed".


Book of the Month

Everything in the April edition of Small Business News has a tie to the connection of you and your employees to your business. The same is true with this month's book suggestion which is, "Hit Refresh" by Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft.

 

All this plus the Internet Tool for Your Business and a staff incentive idea for your business.