What's it like to be a barista at Starbucks?

From green apron star barista to black apron coffee master to brown apron coffee minister, this is the growth ladder of Starbucks baristas.

"except for going home to sleep, I spend almost all my time in the store because I like it." Binbin said.

Many people like to stay at home when they are not working, but the post-90s barista who works at Starbucks in Shenzhen says he likes to stay in the store. Binbin compares coffee culture and knowledge to an earth, modestly saying that his current knowledge is only the size of a city in a certain country. In the store, he can communicate with many coffee-loving friends and learn new things from time to time.

Last week, Binbin represented Starbucks South China in the finals of the 2017 Starbucks China Coffee Ambassadors Competition held in Shanghai. He won the third place and grew into a Starbucks regional coffee minister in South China. In this competition, Starbucks South China also won two post-90s baristas-Rekey won the runner-up, and Joe won the "most popular" award in the national latte art competition. Door Jiamei from Starbucks Shenyang won the crown to become the new "brown skirt" coffee minister.

2017 Starbucks China Coffee Minister finals champion and second runner-up (middle: door Jiamei in brown apron; right: second runner-up Rekey; left: second runner-up Binbin)

From green apron star barista to black apron coffee master to brown apron coffee minister, this is the growth ladder of Starbucks baristas. These coffee skills certification are not directly related to salary and promotion, but more to inspire employees' enthusiasm to practice their core skills through honor. As for job promotion, the path is also particularly clear: star barista-duty supervisor-assistant store manager-store manager-area manager-senior operational position.

Joe likes such a clear career path. "in this way, I know the direction of my efforts." His next small goal, he says, is to become an assistant store manager. Joe started working part-time at Starbucks as a freshman and became a full-time job after graduating. In October last year, he became a duty supervisor shortly after graduation.

Starbucks China Coffee Ambassadors Competition is held every two years and has been held five times so far. Although the term of office of Starbucks China Coffee Minister is only two years, winning the brown apron is the ultimate dream of every Starbucks barista. However, it is not easy to reach the top of the pyramid of the Starbucks barista system and achieve the supreme glory of the "brown skirt".

It not only requires baristas to have a comprehensive theoretical knowledge of coffee-from coffee history and geographical origin to coffee agriculture, procurement, raw bean quality control, baking and mixing, but also to be familiar with the cooking skills of Starbucks coffee drinks. Excellent coffee taste. At the same time, we should also be good at spreading Starbucks' humanistic spirit and be keen to share coffee enthusiasm with customers.

Joe: on the right of the picture above, won the "most popular Award" in the National Latte Competition.

All this is to build the craftsman spirit of Starbucks coffee. No matter how much outside analysis tries to explain the secret of Starbucks' success, it can't get around the foundation of the business-the coffee drink itself.

"when making coffee, it is important for partners to improve every step and pay attention to every detail of the operation, which can be as small as cherishing every drop of milk and paying attention to the placement of every milk carton." Cai Deyi, chief operating officer of Starbucks China, said, "it is the bearing of a generation of masters to let ordinary people find extraordinary themselves in Starbucks and make baristas a prestigious and important profession in the market."

With the development of Starbucks in China, the team of Starbucks baristas is also expanding rapidly. How to maintain the high level of coffee production, how to train and motivate "partners" (the company calls employees "partners"), how to make a new generation of post-90s baristas fall in love with their work, and how to encourage them to pursue technological progress on their own? the company has come up with a lot of "tricks".

In 2012, the company established Starbucks University, with four colleges-the School of Coffee and Culture, the College of Retail, the College of leadership and the College of Professional functions-to help baristas develop more comprehensive skills. In April last year, the Wechat official account of "Mobile Campus" was launched and included nearly 100 courses in the four colleges, which Starbucks employees can learn anytime, anywhere.

Access to the coffee knowledge system is the reason why many baristas love to work at Starbucks.

Rekey, an Australian returnee with a bachelor's degree in business administration from Australia, returned home in 2015 and joined Starbucks in May of the same year. She joined Starbucks as a star barista in a green apron and was promoted to duty supervisor last July.

She liked coffee when she was a student, and at that time she dreamed of opening her own coffee shop one day, so she came to work at Starbucks, hoping to open her own coffee shop after she had mastered the ability to make coffee. But in the course of working at Starbucks, Rekey gradually realized that coffee is a very broad and profound knowledge, which requires a long time to learn and grow.

Rekey studies in the origin of Starbucks Yunnan Coffee

Later, compared to opening a coffee shop, she completely fell in love with working at Starbucks, and her dream at this stage is to learn more about coffee and the culture behind it. Rekey said that every barista who works at Starbucks can get systematic learning, and partners who officially enter the coffee master learning journey will get the "Starbucks Coffee Master" manual.

As a barista at Starbucks, the joy of sharing and communication is also what they care about most.

In Joe's view, going to work is a "party" + "study", and every cup of coffee he makes is a communication. Binbin likes to share what he gets and thinks he grows the fastest when he works at Starbucks. Rekey also mentioned that by participating in activities and competitions, he was never used to sharing with others, but gradually found that "sharing" turned out to be a very meaningful thing.

In order to retain talent, Starbucks also offers many benefits to baristas.

For example, supplementary commercial insurance covering family members, paid annual leave of 10-20 days, and star leave of up to one year for those who have served continuously for more than 10 years; the "Partners know the World" program gives baristas the opportunity to communicate with cities at home and abroad. you can also apply for transfer back to your hometown store through the "partner Home" program; eligible partners can receive a "housing allowance". In addition, both full-time and part-time partners will be given coffee bean shares to become "shareholders" of their own companies.

A fact ignored by many companies is that the real customer experience takes place in sincere communication between employees and customers. At the moment of emphasizing the consumption upgrading of experience, providing employees with a good work experience, so as to bring a good consumer experience to consumers, has become a new type of competitiveness for the long-term development of consumer goods and retail companies.

As mentioned in Starbucks: nothing to do with Coffee: "Starbucks is not in the business of selling coffee to customers, but in a business about people who provide coffee."