7 ways Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol plans to change the coffee chain

Starbucks customers have become used to walking into a cafe and seeing a counter crowded with mobile orders. Niccol wants to change that.

“When it works well, it’s great, but sometimes it can be a challenge for both customers and partners,” he told investors on the company’s conference call.

Mobile orders account for more than 30% of Starbucks’ U.S. transactions.

Niccol said Starbucks is working to improve the accuracy of the app’s timing, so customers know when their drinks are ready. Plus, he wants to better separate mobile order pickups from in-person ordering inside restaurants and curtail how much customers can customize their drinks.

“Right now, I think there’s some customization specifically in the mobile order app execution that’s just really wide and unnecessary,” Niccol told CNBC. “So I just think that we need to put better guardrails in place so that we get you access to customization that’s correct for the drink you’re ordering, and then also it allows our baristas to be more consistent with what they execute.”

The Starbucks menu will be getting a makeover.

Niccol said the coffee chain needs to focus on “fewer, better” offerings. Slimming down the menu will make it easier for baristas to make every drink consistently. It should also improve speed of service since they’ll have fewer drink recipes to remember.

“There’s always a long tail on the menu, and those items, frankly, we don’t execute all that great,” Niccol said, adding that baristas often take longer to make drinks that are unfamiliar.

Niccol said Starbucks would also be taking a look at the items that it wouldn’t have put on the menu if the four-minute standard was already in place.

While the changes may disappoint some customers, Niccol said he thinks that they’ll appreciate faster, more consistent service in the long run.

As part of Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan, he wants the company’s locations to feel like “third places” for customers to work and socialize in outside of their homes and offices.

The coffee chain’s positioning as a “third place” helped it grow into a global behemoth, but somewhere along the way, it lost that reputation. Niccol said he wants to reintroduce more personal touches, like serving coffee in ceramic mugs to customers who choose to linger in cafes. Sharpies will also be making their triumphant return, after being supplanted by printed labels.

Starbucks is also reviewing its store designs, with a focus on bringing back more comfortable seating and amenities.

In the early days of the Covid pandemic, Starbucks banished its condiment bars behind the counter. Since then, when customers want to add milk or sugar to their drinks — even a simple drip coffee — they have to ask baristas directly.

But that will change soon. Niccol said the condiment bars will reappear, freeing up more time for baristas and easing some customer headaches.

Starbucks has already been increasing the average number of hours that it schedules baristas. More shifts — and more consistent scheduling — have lowered the company’s turnover and helped overall retention.

But Niccol also wants to make sure that cafes are properly staffed, from the busy morning rush to “shoulder hours,” leading up to and away from peak times.