Anyways was so annoyed, decided to give Starbucks a call and an e-mail about this...sent e-mail first, then only called.
Phone call went quite OK - first of all these was no extension to get to the customer relations team, so I spoke to someone on the marketing team. She was very patient and listened to my rant and explained that the survey was set up together with MOL, blah blah blah. Apologised that I was offended by the survey, but also stated that they need to do this for marketing, to understand their customer demographics, etc.
Received a similar-sounding e-mail just a few minutes ago. The best part of the entire e-mail was that the person said they want to know my race so that they can send personalised festive greetings to me in time to come! Can-ah like that? Just because I put myself down as an ethnic Chinese means I get Chinese New Year greetings? What if I am a Chinese Muslim or Chinese Christian or whatever other combination? How will knowing my RACE tell you that? Seriously?!
On the one hand, I do understand that they want to profile their customers, see who spends more time at their outlets, etc, etc. At the same time, I also think that this kind of profiling reinforces stereotypes, e.g., Chinese people can't eat spicy food, Indians like mutton, etc, etc. Just because I am of a certain ethnic background, it doesn't mean I subscribe to a particular behaviour JUST BECAUSE of my ethnicity! It probably has more to do with my upbringing and surroundings more than my genetic make-up.
My issue also was that I did not have the opportunity to decline answering the question, neither could I say "It's none of your business, I am MALAYSIAN first and foremost." In addition, I think it is wrong for these marketing-types to just assume that they have the right to ask these kind of questions without explaining the context, ie WHY they were seeking this info, and HOW they were going to use my personal information. It is not their god-given RIGHT to find out these things, it's a privilege that we share with them our information. So they should have a bit more respect for our intelligence and explain to us what they're doing and why, and give us a choice if we want to answer their questions or not. It is OUR right to choose whether to answer or not.
Anyways, FYI, here is the e-mail I sent to Starbucks this morning, followed by the response which came in about 3-4 hours after I'd sent the mail.
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 2:18 PM
To: Customer
Subject: Query: relevance of race
Dear Sir/Madam
I would like to express my disappointment at my experience at Starbucks Bangsar (Telawi) this morning. I went there to use the internet after a long time, and after getting my food and drinks, I attempted to log on to the internet at this outlet. I was surprised to see that I needed to fill in a questionnaire with my e-mail address and other personal information before being able to use the internet at this outlet.
I was particularly annoyed to see that the questionnaire required me to state my race. I am Malaysian first and foremost and I do not think it is anybody's business what my ethnicity is. The usage of the term race in itself is insulting and derogatory, and does not respect my right to privacy as an individual.
I would understand if you were gathering such information (in addition to my annual income, which again, I think is none of your business) for demographic purposes. But I think that best practice survey methods would include the following elements as well:
i) A brief explanation as to WHY you are gathering such information and HOW my personal data would be used
ii) An option such as "Not Applicable" or "Choose not to respond" so that people do not need to disclose private information if they want to.
As an international company which purports to be a responsible business and social citizen, I am amazed that Starbucks stoops to racial profiling and such irresponsible information gathering methods. I hope that you will address this matter and correct the situation ASAP, before this matter is blown out of proportion in the media.
Thank you and regards
Dear efghi
Greetings from Starbucks Coffee!
Thank you for taking the time to let us know about your recent experience on completing the Wi-Fi questionnaire in our outlet at Bangsar.
At Starbucks, we go to great lengths and take very many steps to ensure 100% customer satisfaction every day, every time and every single cup. It appears that we have let you down, and for that, we apologize for the negative experience you encountered.
The questionnaire, initiated by our Wi-Fi provider and tie-in partner, MOL, is not intended to discriminate any of our customers. The data collected will be used to help us understand our customers better demographically and present us as chance to communicate to them on a more personalized approach.
By knowing customers’ race, we intend to send personalized festive greetings in near future and by no means that we are trying to profile any of our customers.
We would like to assure you that we take your comments seriously and we will work closely with MOL to review and modify the format of the questionnaire accordingly to avoid any further confusion.
Again, thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention .The best way that we can improve is when people who aren’t satisfied tell us so and tell us why. You’ve given us an opportunity to improve, and hopefully we will not disappoint you on your next visit.
Once again, thank you for writing to us and we welcome any comments for us to further enhance your Starbucks Experience at our stores.
We look forward to seeing you back in our Starbucks stores and serving you for many years to come.
Have a “Grande” Day!
Best Regards,
abcd
manager, marketing and category
district coffee master
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