Since its establishment in 1987, Starbucks has become a global iconic brand, dedicating itself to deliver ‘Starbucks Experience’ which refers to three elements: their handcrafted coffee and beverages, superior service from baristas or ‘partners’, and the stores’ cozy atmosphere.
Nonetheless, the customer behavior has drastically changed nowadays, especially on online shopping and the movements towards becoming a ‘cashless society’ that has become a rising trend. It is, therefore, a key challenge for Starbucks to find new solutions that enable the brand to continue to deliver the best experience and immerse itself into customer’s daily life through the online channels.
Starbucks (Thailand) has many strong digital assets such as website, application, and social media channels, but continue to extend its reach with the launch of its LINE Official Account, connecting to LINE API to complete its digital ecosystem on the LINE platform in order to meet the needs of customers in every touch point of the journey where the focus is not merely on building engagement.
Starbucks sees that LINE Official Account is not only a media channel, but also a medium that enables them to create a new ‘Starbucks Experience’ by providing a wide range of online experiences such as receiving news, locating stores, ordering a delivery, and cashless payment through the ‘My Cards’ feature.
The LINE Starbucks Card was launched as a digital membership card in the form of a digital loyalty platform. It allows customers to search for menus, new promotions, and store locations. Customers can now make a payment at Starbucks stores as well as easily collect Starbucks Reward stars through the LINE application.
In additional, for those who want to use the food delivery service, Starbucks has partnered with LINE MAN, one of the most popular food and beverage delivery services, to help with delivering handcrafted coffee, beverages and delicious food to the customers promptly and safely. Customers will enjoy the same in-store quality. The platform helps the brand keeps up with the pace of food delivery service that has grown 10% each year and has been reaping a progressive growth, meeting the needs of customers at every step of the journey without logging out the application a single minute. More importantly, the sign-up of this membership service can be done within a few clicks.
LINE Official Account allows Starbucks to collect behavioral information, both in terms of purchasing behavior and drinking habit. This information is the important ‘key’ that helps Starbucks able to offer better personalized promotions, anytime anywhere, and meet the various needs of modern customers without limiting itself to just in-store services.
As a result from a strategic deployment to elevate the customer experience in the digital age in terms of cashless payment, online delivery ordering, and personalized offers, Starbucks receives outstanding achievement. By using LINE Official Account, Starbucks makes a better success, comparing to the uses of other platforms as follow
Factors that bring success to Starbucks are
1. Using LINE Official Account to connect to the LINE API creates a hub for connecting a full-looped online experience, extending the usage to be more than just a communication channel.
2. LINE Official Account has various feature designs that can create and complement good experience for customers both online and offline.
3. The clear and attractive communication plan helps Starbucks constantly reach more people and acquire new customers.
4. The company collects customer behavioral data to develop its offer and create direct and personalized communication approach, making it a brand that wins the heart of customers and eventually creates ‘brand loyalty’ and ‘brand love’.
With all of these elements of success, you can see that LINE Official Account helped Starbucks fulfilled its stance of being a unique ‘People business serving coffee’ in the digital age, proving that they deserve the name of being the leader of coffee culture, which has been the top of mind brand in Thailand for more than 22 years
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