They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I agree. What does this picture of the cappuccino machine with an out of order sign tell you? 
Well this photo tells me that someone is asleep at the wheel. Perhaps because they haven’t had their coffee.
This is a photo of the Starbucks at the Doubletree Hotel in Dallas where I stayed for two nights. I’m no expert in the coffee business, however I can tell you this hotel shop lost a heck of a lot of revenue with all their dreary eyed guests leaving in the morning without their Starbucks in hand. What would it have taken to prevent this service failure from happening?
I would think at a minimum, Starbucks could have Fedexed a new cappuccino machine to this location. This hotel was located at the airport, so I’m sure they could have had it there well ahead of the morning coffee rush hour crowd. But as of this writing, the sign is still up.
Companies set standards and when they disappoint their customers, whose to say these people will run back again to see if these failures have been corrected. Prevention is always less expensive than contingent action. Think about this the next time you decide to delay maintenance on your equipment or if you choose not to have a backup machine close by.
