Last week, Starbucks unveiled Starbucks Card Mobile, the company’s proprietary mobile payment solution. Available as an app for iPhone, iPod touch and BlackBerry devices, Starbucks’ mobile payment application will now be accepted at over 7800 locations within the United States.
Starbucks Card Mobile: A Confusing First Impression
First Impressions
Most mobile application users have become accustomed to the simplicity and intuitive nature of apps, such as those from foursquare, GetGlue and Seesmic. By contrast, the Starbucks app will likely leave many people wondering, “Well, what do I do now?” upon download. There are options to add a Starbucks card number to the application, create a new Starbucks account and enter in credit card information. The latter two features alone will not produce any kind of a prompt for making a payment. Furthermore, the “Payments” section — which many new users are likely to visit hoping to pay for goods — instead provides both a video overview of Starbucks Card Mobile and an option to search for participating Starbucks locations.
The correct process for enabling Starbucks Card Mobile involves buying a plastic Starbucks card, registering it online at starbucks.com and then linking the physical card to the application through the “Cards” section. Current cardholders can link existing cards.
The Interface and Payment Process
Once a plastic card has been linked to the app, the Starbucks mobile payment application is ready to use. Other than the aforementioned ”Payments” section — which is poorly-named — the Starbucks Card Mobile application is easy to navigate and use. Within the “Cards” section, a “Touch to Pay” button appears once a link has been established to a physical card. Other sections within the application allow customers to track any rewards they’ve earned, search for nearby Starbucks stores and manage account details such as billing information, passwords, etc.
Likewise, the process of paying for coffee is intuitive, quick and easy. After placing an order, simply press the “Touch to Pay” button — which produces a bar code — and position your device in front of the cashier’s scanner. The payment process takes less than 10 seconds.
Starbucks Mobile: Touch to Pay
One Small Step for Mobile, One Giant Leap for Mobile Commerce
Despite the ease-of-use associated with Starbucks Card Mobile, the technology behind the application is not the future of mobile commerce. The next generation of smartphones from Apple and Google will employ Near Field Communication (NFC), which allows for wireless data transmission between two NFC-enabled devices. In the very near future, most consumers will have phones that are pre-loaded with the capability to pay for groceries, coffee and nearly all other transactions without ever reaching for their wallets (see also: NFC: 6 Ways It Could Change Our Daily Lives)
Starbucks, however, should be commended for helping to bring mobile payments into the mainstream. Undoubtedly, by exposing its millions of customers to the new world of fast, easy mobile payments, Starbucks will expedite the adoption of wallet-less commerce.
While the efforts of companies such as Square, Bling Nation and Venmo have all helped push mobile commerce forward, none of them have the brand recognition, daily foot traffic and marketing might of Starbucks. The release of Starbucks Card Mobile builds upon the small steps of these pioneering predecessors.
Thus, by the time NFC arrives as an option for the masses, a large, highly-caffeinated segment of the American public will already be prepared to take the giant leap of leaving their wallets behind. Someday, debit cards, physical signatures and checks are likely to be but mere secondary payment options. When that day arrives, we’ll have this offering from Starbucks to look back upon, as Dennis Stevenson notes, “as the beginning” of a new era of commerce.
Have you tried Starbucks Card Mobile? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts about the application. Let me know what you think!
You’re probably familiar with trolls, those endlessly negative critics who infect blog comments, spray virtual graffiti on Facebook fan pages, and either beg for followers or try to pick fights on Twitter. If you’ve managed the social media presence for an organization, or just simply for yourself, then you’re probably adept by now at handling the occasional troll who is simply looking to be provocative. Perhaps you even enjoy mixing it up from time to time, debating the trolls where you have home field advantage.
Fight the Trolls!
But just when you thought you had it all figured out so that it was safe to go back into the social waters, there’s a new troll on the loose. This one, unfortunately, is far more insidious than the trolls that you’re used to fighting. This troll attacks on turf that you don’t own. He throws jabs just as potent as those that you’re used to dealing with, but they land silently so that you can’t feel the effect.
Enter… The Foursquare Troll.
I uncovered one of these creatures recently while meeting a friend out for a drink after work. This friend — we’ll call him “Eric” — is relatively new to foursquare and was happy to have recently taken over the mayor’s seat at the local brewery where we were meeting.
Upon checking into the venue with him, I clicked on the “Eric is the mayor” link within the foursquare app on my phone in order to view my friend’s profile and check out his mayor titles. As I examined Eric’s profile, I noticed that he’d also nabbed the mayorship of a local sushi joint that my wife had been wanting to try, so I decided to examine the tips to see what Eric and others were saying about the place. Lo and behold, within those tips I discovered… Libel by Foursquare (check out the screenshot below to see the three tips that the troll left about the mayor).
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Needless to say, Eric wasn’t pleased with the comments left by this cowardly troll. To his credit, however, he did manage to laugh, raise a glass, and offer a toast: “To idiots.”
Would you have reacted the same way? In today’s world where digital records persist indefinitely, people are becoming increasingly aware of the need to control Facebook privacy settings, friend others carefully and even download social media sobriety tests to prevent PWI (Posting While Intoxicated).
This new type of trolling attack, however, represents a fresh challenge for those seeking to carefully manage their online reputations. Unlike blog comments (which can be previewed), Facebook page comments (which can be removed) and Twitter barbs (which can at least be tracked), attacks via foursquare are nearly impossible to detect unless you revisit the foursquare page for every venue where you’ve ever left a tip.
So what can you do fight this new foe? Sadly, not much, unless you want to dedicate an entire blog post to the topic of trolls in order to shame one of them. So this one’s for you, “JR A.” You’re a jerk.
Have you witnessed any similar incidents? If so, let me know with a comment. Thanks!
UPDATE: Foursquare’s support team (@4sqsupport) removed the troll’s offensive tips within 48 hours after the original release of this blog post. I owe them a big thanks!
