Starbucks says it’s fixing a customer frustration: ordering drinks to the wrong pickup location

• Starbucks says it’s rolling out a fix to prevent customers from ordering drinks to the wrong pickup location.
• Mistakenly placed orders aren’t just inconvenient, they could also be costing the company.
• The coffee chain also said it this week it planned to open 1,000 stores per year.

Starbucks says it’s fixing a common customer frustration: ordering drinks to the wrong pickup location.

“We know that finding the right store to order and pay in our app can be challenging at times,” Brady Brewer, Starbucks’ chief marketing officer, said during an investor presentation on Thursday. “So we recently improved the ability for people to select a store and significantly reduce the orders that are sent to the wrong store.”

The company was light on technical details of how the process was improved, and a company spokesperson did not comment in time for publication.

Ordering a drink to the wrong pickup location isn’t just inconvenient for customers. It could also be costing the company.

Some customers who have complained about the issue on social media say baristas have been willing to remake their drinks at the mistaken location. It’s unclear if they are asked to pay for these drinks.

As Starbucks expands to more locations, mistaken orders could become even more common. The company recently announced it aims to open 1,000 stores a year on its already impressive 38,000 store base. The company has 75 million rewards members who have used the app in the past 90 days, it said during the investor presentation.

The move follows a similar plan from Chipotle to limit mistakenly placed orders. During an earnings call in April, CEO Brian Niccol said Chipotle would send customers using its app a notification if it appeared that were ordering from — or en route to — the wrong location to pick up their order.

These mistakenly placed orders are “our most frequent refund requests,” Niccol said. Starbucks didn’t mention refunds.

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