Starbucks’ system to make ordering better isn’t the solution the company hoped for, an employee says

Starbucks said it would roll out the Siren Craft System nationwide this year.

Starbucks has rolled out a new way of making hot coffee and frappuccinos over the last few months in an effort to cut customer wait times and get back its reputation as a place to hang out.

But so far, it’s not so effective, according to one Starbucks employee who has experienced the new approach firsthand.

In July, Starbucks said it said it would roll out the “Siren Craft System,” which the company said was a faster way of making beverages and managing the teams that run its cafés, to all of its US and Canadian stores. The System’s name is a nod to the mythological, mermaid-like being in the center of Starbuck’s logo.

The system includes streamlined methods of making Starbucks’ most popular beverages. For instance, baristas now prepare espresso before steaming the milk to add to it to save time.

Under the approach, Starbucks stores also now include a “Peak Play Caller,” a role that involves keeping an eye on the order queue and shifting employees around between different tasks, such as operating the cash register or making frappuccinos, based on demand. Depending on staffing levels, the Caller might step into the production process themselves.

But one employee — or “partner,” as Starbucks calls them — at a store that adopted the Siren Craft System earlier this year told B-17 that the system isn’t as effective as Starbucks has portrayed. The employee asked not to be named in this article, citing potential retaliation from Starbucks, but B-17 has verified his identity and work for the company.

At the store where he works, he said, an employee took on the Peak Play Caller role in addition to their existing duties. That person has assisted with drink production at busy times of day and reduced long waits for customers, the partner said.

That’s useful because wait times have become such an issue that some customers who use the Starbucks mobile app start ordering but then decide not to once they see how long it will be before their order is ready, former CEO Laxman Narasimhan said on an earnings call in April.

The Siren Craft System has helped reduce how long customers wait for their drinks during the morning rush and other peak order times, he said. But being a Peak Play Caller takes the employee away from other duties, such as cleaning the café, washing dishes, brewing coffee, and taking out the trash, the partner said.

“It’s supposed to help alleviate bottlenecks, which it does, but at the expense of other tasks that still need to be completed,” the partner said of the Peak Play Caller role.

Former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol took over as Starbucks’ CEO this month. In an open letter that Starbucks published during his first week, Niccol said that long wait times were among the problems facing the company’s stores.

The Siren Craft System is supposed to free up time that partners can devote to customer service and improving their coffee-making skills, Starbucks said in July.

“With all of the small changes that we’ve made in our store, I have the time to practice my own drinks and latte art,” Thomas, a partner at a café in Plano, Texas, said in the July announcement. “I am able to provide a happy experience, not only for myself but for the customer.”

But the Starbucks partner who spoke with B-17 said the store he works at still needs more people on duty, particularly during busy times, in order to provide that kind of service. Another partner previously told B-17 that his Starbucks store faces chronic understaffing, which makes it tough to keep up with orders, especially those from customers using the chain’s app.

“Unless it’s insanely slow, there’s no time at any time of day to practice latte art or make samples for customers,” the employee who has used the Siren Craft System said. “The way Starbucks expects us to be staffed based on our labor algorithm is to have just enough labor to fill demand.”

The Siren Craft System is just Starbucks’ latest effort to shorten wait times and improve operations at its stores.

In 2022, it introduced the Siren System, which created a centralized workstation with a blender, automated measuring of ingredients, and other tools that Starbucks said would cut the time it takes baristas to make cold drinks.

The Siren System has shaved time off of preparing Refreshers, Starbucks’ fruit-flavored shaken drinks, the partner said. But the System doesn’t help when someone orders a frappuccino, which requires blending everything together.

Before the Siren System, the partner’s store had two blenders available for making frappuccinos at any given time. But now, the Siren System reserves one blender for frappuccinos and the other for Refreshers. That can actually slow down production, the partner said.

“The most complex beverage that we have is a frappuccino, and this system does not alleviate any wait time,” the partner said. “It does not make it faster.”

A Starbucks spokesperson told B-17: “Siren Craft System has helped the company address pain points and the addition of the new Peak Play Caller position allows us to deploy partners where they’re needed most.”

Many store managers seek feedback on the new system during meetings with partners, which helps “improve the store’s approach” to the system, the spokesperson said.

“We continue to refine our staffing model as we evolve to a more dynamic and store-specific approach,” the spokesperson said in response to a question about why it decided to fill the Peak Play Caller role using employees and hours that stores already had instead of hiring more people or assigning more hours for the role.