➀ Starbucks Overview

• Starbucks aims to deliver more than just coffee—it creates exceptional customer experiences.

➁ Why Starbucks Chose Dataspace

• As research needs grew across departments, Starbucks needed a more efficient way to manage surveys and reduce operational bottlenecks.

➂ Key Results

• In-app survey setup time dropped from five days to two.
• Now able to run five surveys at once (up from just one at a time)
• Starbucks makes customer data-backed insights through both regular and ad-hoc surveys, improving decision-making and customer engagement.

---

Company Overview

Starbucks: Creating more than just coffe

Starbucks is a leading global coffee brand known for delivering more than just beverages—it’s committed to providing exceptional experiences. Since opening its first store in Korea in 1999, Starbucks has introduced a new coffee culture and now operates around 1,960 stores nationwide as of October 2024.
Starbucks serves millions of customers daily and aims to positively impact not only individuals’ everyday lives but also the communities in which its stores are located.

At the core of Starbucks’ strategy is a focus on customer experience. Starbucks collects and analyzes customer data to foster innovation. Every department—marketing, planning, food & beverage, store development, operations, and HR—embraces data-driven decision making as a core part of their organizational culture.

Background

Creating Delight Through Brand Experience

Starbucks’ mission extends beyond great coffee—it strives to deliver a special brand experience. That means giving customers opportunities to casually share their thoughts on products, services, and experiences, and using that feedback to launch new and delightful offerings.

The brand discovered that loyal customers not only praise but also provide thoughtful critiques and suggestions. Starbucks has leveraged surveys to listen to customers and evolve its offerings accordingly. Several standout services came directly from customer input, including low-sugar beverages like the Light Pink Grapefruit Fizzy, exclusive product collaborations such as Starbucks x Dodosae, and contactless drive-thru payment services like My DT Pass.

From Capturing the Moment to Engaging Loyal Customers

As an early adopter of mobile app-based membership, Starbucks launched the “My Starbucks Review” in-app survey system in 2016. Initially, survey push notifications were sent only to customers who placed orders via Siren Order (Starbucks’ mobile order system), allowing them to respond within 24 hours. This enabled Starbucks to capture customer impressions in the moment—without relying on memory—ensuring feedback was timely and authentic

Because the survey occurred directly in the app, participation rates were high and responses came predominantly from highly engaged, loyal customers. Furthermore, responses could be linked to actual purchase data, enhancing the value of each insight. From the beginning, Starbucks treated in-app surveys as a serious user research channel.

Since then, My Starbucks Review has expanded beyond marketing and product teams to become a valuable feedback and ideation tool across all departments. The system now plays a dual role: as a communication channel that strengthens relationships with loyal customers and as a marketing tool to promote new products and services.

Challenge

Challenges in Running Surveys and Data Collection

Despite the effectiveness of in-app surveys, Starbucks faced several limitations.

First, only one survey could be run at a time. This restriction made it difficult to meet the increasing demand for customer research from not only marketing and product teams but across all departments. It also limited the ability to collect timely and diverse data, reducing the effectiveness of the survey channel as a tool for engagement.

Second, the platform lacked research-specialized features. It was difficult to design surveys that matched UX researchers’ needs, and editing surveys often required significant development resources. For analysis, teams had to manually process raw data on Excel, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Third, research teams couldn’t independently manage the survey operation from end-to-end. After designing the survey, they needed to collaborate with other departments for mobile formatting, testing, and deployment through the app. Coordinating this process required significant time and effort, and managing multiple points of contact was complicated.

Solution

Enhancing In-App Research with a SaaS Platform

To streamline research operations and to upgrade the My Starbucks Review program, Starbucks began evaluating dedicated research platforms. The goal was to find a SaaS solution with deep research expertise, but also a strong product and development team equipped to stay ahead of evolving infrastructure, AI capabilities, and advancements in product standards.

Starbucks evaluated potential solutions on the following key criteria. First was research expertise—the platform needed to offer features like flexible questionnaire editing and robust analysis capabilities grounded in research methodology expertise. Second was usability—even non-researchers from other teams had to be able to create and manage survey research with ease. Third was responsiveness—Starbucks needed a partner that could respond quickly to any issues, especially given the high volume of respondents.

Security was another key consideration, as the platform would handle sensitive customer data. After thorough evaluation, Starbucks selected Opensurvey’s Dataspace as its research solution.

With Dataspace, the research team gained full control over the survey lifecycle. Surveys could be created and customized—complete with complex logic—without relying on developers. URL parameter functions enabled personalized surveys, while customer identifiers could be stored for reward automation. All collected data could be analyzed directly within the platform.

With the adoption of a research-specialized platform, Starbucks significantly reduced time spent hard coding and improved cross-functional collaboration. The average time required to set up mobile surveys was dramatically shortened—from five days to just two.

The system, which previously allowed only one survey at a time, now enables multiple surveys to run simultaneously. In fact, up to five surveys can be operated at once, allowing Starbucks to collect more data faster and provide a more convenient environment for customer participation.

Mobile surveys conducted through the Starbucks app now serve as both a regular tracking tool and an ad-hoc research channel. These surveys help capture customer feedback at critical decision-making moments and act as a touchpoint to increase customer engagement.

Results

Improved Operational Speed, Increased Data Volume, and Enhanced Stability

After adopting Dataspace, Starbucks significantly improved operational efficiency in its research process, along with both the quantity and quality of collected data.

Previously, it took at least five days to write, set up, and test a survey. Now, in urgent cases, surveys can go live in less than half a day. While the old system required hard coding in collaboration with the dev team to configure survey logic, the research team can now manage the entire process independently using Dataspace.

Where only one survey could be run at a time before, there are now no such restrictions. Multiple surveys can be executed concurrently without limitation.

This also led to a better experience for customers participating in surveys. In the past, the limited number of survey slots meant that multiple topics were often crammed into a single survey, causing dissatisfaction and response fatigue. With flexible control over survey frequency and respondent scale, Starbucks is now able to design more concise and focused surveys.

Surveys can also be branded within Dataspace, allowing customers to engage with surveys in an interface that reflects the Starbucks brand image.

The speed of survey analysis has also improved significantly. Survey results can be downloaded immediately in a preferred format via Dataspace, enabling the research team to provide topline results instantly. The timeline for in-depth analysis and report creation—previously around two weeks—has been drastically reduced.

Now, survey data can be linked with customer information and purchase data for deeper, more efficient analysis and understanding of customer behavior.

In terms of data security, the improvements have been substantial. In the past, collecting customer information for marketing events required custom-built participation forms, which was resource-intensive. Free online survey tools were avoided due to concerns over personal data security.

With the introduction of Dataspace, Starbucks can now securely manage customer data without compromising efficiency. Event operations have become more streamlined, with no need to worry about privacy risks.

Streamlining In-App Research Through Platform Integration

By choosing Dataspace, Starbucks successfully streamlined its entire in-app research workflow. The research team reduced unnecessary time spent on survey logic setup, and by gaining the ability to manage survey planning and distribution in-house, they cut survey development time by more than half.

On the data collection side, Starbucks is now able to run multiple surveys simultaneously in a stable environment, allowing for larger volumes of data to be gathered more efficiently. With increased customer participation, the research team collects more data than ever before—and thanks to Dataspace’s built-in analysis features, they can quickly spot trends and make faster, more accurate decisions.

As a result, Starbucks is now able to capture customer feedback in real time and actively reflect those insights in business strategy, driving even greater brand value.

If you’re looking to overcome the limitations of in-app research and unlock the full potential of your customer data, it’s time to explore what Dataspace can do for you.