So I was struck by this napkin I received while at the Caribou Coffee in the Denver airport last week:

I’m what one might consider a Starbucks junkie.  A gold-card toting, drink order naming convention devotee along with my “specialty” food order (blueberry scone warmed up).  The Denver airport only has Caribou and with trepidation I stepped up and ordered my “usual” Starbucks order (double tall, one Splenda, vanilla latte) along with a blackberry (no blueberry available) scone and said a small prayer.  As I waited for my latte I had an opportunity to look at the napkin shown above.  They certainly had already set the bar high with me — here they were telling me on this napkin, that I should expect an amazing cup of coffee, staff that cares about me, a company that gives back to the rainforest and that the oatmeal is “handcrafted.”

I was pleasantly surprised at how great this latte was!!  I mean really, really good.  Now don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of places can make a great latte but in the case of my day-in-day-out addiction there are Starbucks’ on every corner so my choices are limited for the daily caffeine injection.  Sadly, because of that I have allowed myself to lower my expectations of Starbucks.  Sometimes they remember the Splenda, about 40% of the time there is no foam and one time the coffee was so bad (I mean un-drinkable awful) that I took the time to go back! Yikes.

What they do really well every day is the people.  My local Starbucks folks are awesome and the scones have only let me down once.  But now….hmm….Caribou is going to give them a run for my money!  The point of all of this what will the Caribou experience be like on the next latte, the 10th latte, the 100th latte.

Details.  Process.  Consistency.  Over-and-over the same every time.  It’s not easy that much I know.  I’ve spent almost 20 years leading many, many go-to-market programs on the execution and implementation side.  Most people want to come up with the ideas, the vision, the strategy.  I get that — it’s fun, sexy and way cooler to talk about at a dinner party than the details of a program.  But it really is those details that make or break how well a service or product does down the road.

Think about it as you get ready to approach your next project, product or service offering.  I know I will when I see a Starbucks and a Caribou — time will tell!