Beverage restaurant chain Starbucks (NSDQ:SBUX) represents a shareholder’s dream. It puts the customer at the center of the universe by serving a quality product and providing a superior experience. Moreover, Starbucks shows no sign of letting up on aggressive growth. Starbucks wants to expand aggressively both geographically, across marketing channels, and through product innovation. Let’s examine.

Customer focus

Starbucks shows the public every intention of pleasing the customer. The company seems to understand that customer happiness translates into business success. Starbucks revamped its reward program in an effort to improve customer movement (throughput) within its locations. Mobile ordering can speed up the process by allowing customers to order by cell phone while in the store, making the wait shorter for drink preparation. Mobile ordering remains a small part of Starbucks’ overall transactions, meaning that a huge opportunity for throughput improvement remains.

Another way Starbucks demonstrates customer focus is its upcoming partnership with JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) and Visa (NYSE:V). Starbucks customers who use a prepaid debit card are rewarded with stars even on non-Starbucks transactions. The potential for larger transactions increase, as people looking to get “free” drinks from the card return as repeat paying customers. Moreover, the co-branding agreement represents another way for Starbucks to increase the ubiquity of its brand.

In Starbucks’ most recent earnings call, I took note of an interesting phrase that reflected Starbucks’ attitude towards the customer—the “third place”. Starbucks indicated that it wants consumers relaxed enough to utilize Starbucks as an alternative to the office and home, within reason. The company wants consumers to socialize, work and study without feeling rushed or tense. In essence, customer focus is in Starbucks’ cultural corporate DNA.