Why Starbucks, Once Calling Customers "OOgogaeknim," Is Increasing Stores Using Vibrating Buzzers?

Ensuring Employee Convenience in Large Stores
"Principles of Communication with Customers Remain Unchanged"

Starbucks, which has upheld human communication between customers and employees, is set to expand the number of stores using vibrating pagers.

According to industry sources on the 16th, the number of Starbucks stores in South Korea using vibrating pagers, which were piloted in some stores since the second half of last year, has increased to nearly 100.

Stores equipped with vibrating pagers account for about 5% of the approximately 1,900 Starbucks stores nationwide. Currently, Starbucks operates vibrating pagers at The Bukhan Mountain Store, The Bukhan River R Store, Yeouido Station R Store, Jongno R Store, and Gyeongdong 1960 Store, among others.

[Photo by Starbucks]

Starbucks explained, "Vibrating pagers are used only in multi-level stores with two or more floors or some large stores where the staff's voice does not carry well, for the convenience of customers and employees."

Starbucks' U.S. headquarters is known for valuing human communication with customers. For this reason, unlike other coffee brands such as Coffee Bean, vibrating pagers were not used in domestic stores until now. The traditional method of staff taking orders and calling out customers' waiting numbers or nicknames has been maintained.

However, when customers crowd large stores during lunchtime and it becomes difficult for staff to call out customers, Starbucks has tried various methods such as displaying numbers on monitors. Starbucks plans to increase the number of stores using vibrating pagers to about 110 within this year.

A Starbucks representative said, "The basic principle is to call customers directly, and this principle based on communication with customers remains unchanged. However, in stores where this is physically impossible, vibrating pagers are used flexibly as part of customer service."