It’s Always a Great Day for Starbucks

Guest post by Judy Mathews

Thanks to my beloved husband for allowing me to be a guest on his blog this week. Today, as I sit here enjoying a drink and the nice Starbucks atmosphere, I will be blogging about the benefits of the Starbucks app, which, of course, is extremely accessible with voiceover. If you’re anything like me, and you just can’t pass up an opportunity for Starbucks, you always want to be ready with your app, to minimize wait times, or to treat your benefactor to a cuppa. Often times I’m on the way somewhere on Uber or Lyft, and I just can’t resist a Starbucks swing-by. TO be considerate of my driver’s time, I usually try to order in advance. It used to be that I might make a call to the particular Starbucks I was going to, and order the drinks by phone to save time. Sometimes they’d do it. Other times they’d say they couldn’t take phone orders. With the app, not only are you sure to be able to place your order, but you can customize your drink to your heart’s content. So, without further ado, let’s delve into Starbucks goodness.

Getting Started

The first step would be to get a Starbucks card and load some money onto it.  I think you could probably use another form of payment, but I have always used it with a Starbucks card. Plus, if you have the card, you can use it even if you don’t want to use the app, and get free stuff after you collect a certain number of stars. Feel free to go to:

www.starbucks.com/rewards

to learn more about the rewards program. Another cool thing about having a card is that you can show Starbucks that you appreciate how accessibility conscious they are by making sure to purchase a card that has braille on it. It’s a great way to identify your card if you’re visually impaired, and if not, it’s a great way to support accessibility efforts.

Once you’ve installed the Starbucks app , you can go in and create an account, or log in if you already have one. I am not familiar with the app on an Android phone, but it is likely very similar. Today, I will focus on placing an order using the iPhone app. Besides placing orders, some other things you can do with the app are: reload a card, pay in store, look up store information, add stores to favorites, activate personalized offers, brows the menu and dream of your next yummy treat. Oh yes, and if you wish, you can also tip your barista after you pay for your order. You have a limited time after your order to do that, a few hours I believe. Now, let’s place an order together.

Placing an Order

At the bottom of the screen are the following tabs: Home, Cards, Order, Gift, and Stores. Once you navigate to the Order tab, you have several choices. You can search for your desired item(s) by name, check out the menu, brows featured items, view previous orders, or pull up your favorites. Because making decisions is not one of my strong suits, I will go to the menu  and look around a bit. Under Drinks, aside from the button to view all 175, you have the following sections: Hot Coffees, Hot Teas, Hot Drinks, Frappuccino® Blended Beverages, Cold Coffees, Iced Teas, and Cold Drinks. Under Food, you can view all 110 items. You also have: Hot Breakfast, Bakery, Lunch, Snacks & Sweets, Yogurt & Custard. There are also sections for At Home Coffee and Shopping Bags. It will then show you your current pikc-up store, and how many items in your order. You can change the pick-up store at any time by tapping on the current store and either selecting a store from the list or navigating the map.

Now,back to our order. At the moment, I think I am in the mood for a Frappuccino, so I will navigate to that section. I will choose the S’mores Frap, since it’s only a seasonal item and we must enjoy it as much as possible before it’s gone for the year. Once I go into the desired item, starting at the top, I have a description of the drink, the number of stars required for that item, and a Share button. Next are all the customization options: Size, Blended Options, Espresso & Shot Options, Flavors, Toppings, Add-ins, and Milk. There is a Reset Recipe button, the nutritional information, allergens (which by the way are not available), and finally an Add Item button. The buttons for store pickup and order items are always at the bottom of every order screen.

Always customize your size first, as you would lose any customization when the size is changed. Other than that, you can do it in any order. There will be a save button at the bottom of the screen in each of those sections.

Customizing Your Drink

For the sake of example, let’s customize my drink together as follows:

Size: Grande, which, by the way, is the default. Other sizes include Short (8 oz., not available for cold drinks), Tall (12 oz.), and Vente (20 oz.). I have seen Trenta (30 oz.), but I think it’s only available for certain types of drinks.

I’m leaving the next three options as they come.

Toppings: It comes with marshmallow whipped cream and graham cracker topping. You can choose None, Light, Regular, or Extra for each of these. I am choosing light marshmallow whipped cream, extra graham cracker, and I’m adding extra caramel drizzle, because I can, and caramel makes anything better. By the way, some of these items are specific to the s’mores frap, so they are not available to add to any other drink. Of course, you can always do it if you’re ordering in person, or you can call right after you place an order, and ask to add, say, graham cracker topping to any drink.

Add-ins: As is. Regular ice will work fine.

Milk: not changing that either. Whole milk will work. The default changes depending on the drink or type of drink. Alternative choices include soy, coconut, almond, breve (half & half), and heavy cream. You also have regular milk choices of whole, 2%, 1%, and fat free.

Once your drink is exactly the way you’d like it, add it to the order. At this point, you would cancel out of the drink and either add more items or complete your order. I will complete the order at this point. Toward the bottom, there is an option that will say, in this case, One Item In Your Order. I will tap on that one, and it will expand the order. I will then confirm the store where I wish to pick up this order. Before checking out, if I want to change my mind, be a good wife, and add a drink for my husband, who by the way does not love Starbucks,  I can collapse the order and do that, then expand it again to check out. The Collapse Order button is at the top left. Before checking out, I can also use a reward. With the new rewards system, different types of items require a different number of stars. It will give you the star options you can use given the items you ordered. You will then see your tax and total. In addition, Starbucks will give you recommendations—they really want you to keep shopping.

Checkout

Once I have verified that my order is correct, and I have added a reward if desired, I can tap on Check Out. If I’ve depleted my Starbucks fund, which of course never happens, I will have the option to Reload And Place Order. It will automatically add $25 and charge the necessary amount. I’m sure if your order is more than $25, it will probably add $50. I believe it does this in $25 increments on this screen. Of course, if you have enough money on your card, there is just a Place Order button.

Now my day just got a little better, because Starbucks usually does that for me. I hope you have found this helpful, and that if you haven’t already done so, you will try the Starbucks app. If you are the type of person who usually orders the same thing(s), the good news for you is that it keeps track of previous orders, so you can just add these items quickly without having to tap on them and customize them. You can also add items to your favorites to make them easier to find, and your preferences are also saved along with the food or drink.

I hope you make your day great by ordering a Starbucks. And, if you’re feeling generous, order one for me, too. J *smile*

At the bottom of this post, I will include a funny Starbucks rap, hopefully to make you smile. My dear husband has been known to play this very early in the morning when trying to wake me up. I don’t recommend doing that if you value your life.

Long live Starbucks!

Starbucks Song

As  always… Qapla!