Caribou Coffee Brews Up Innovative Customer Service Using IBM Retail Systems

Caribou Coffee Brews Up Innovative Customer Service Using IBM Retail Systems

Gourmet coffeehouse operator Caribou Coffee says it has helped improve the customer experience at its 400 shops worldwide by implementing innovative IBM kiosk and point of sale (POS) technologies. Working with RDS Systems of Minneapolis, Minnesota, IBM has installed more than 900 SurePOS 500 point of sale systems and more than 100 IBM Anyplace Kiosk units at the Caribou locations, with plans to install 300 additional Anyplace Kiosk units by 2008. As a result, Caribou can be even more responsive to customer requests, handling even the most complex orders quickly, efficiently and accurately.

“Caribou is committed to providing both its customers and employees with the best service and support available, and IBM’s retail technology solutions help us to offer this quality of customer experience,” said Steven Bolduc, Senior POS Manager, IT Support for Caribou Coffee. “We’re driven by our service motto: ‘Guests are always our priority – Everything else waits.’ IBM is the technology company we trust to provide us with the most reliable, integrated and easy-to-use systems for our coffeehouses.”

Innovative IBM Anyplace Kiosks help Caribou enhance employee productivity. Located in the barista (coffee-making) stations, these compact units help employees process orders quickly and easily using an advanced infrared touch screen display. Caribou says they are piloting these all-in-one kiosks as a manager’s workstation at two of its freestanding mall stores and are evaluating their use for employee training. Caribou is also looking at customer-facing applications. One of these would feature easy-to-read information on menu items, specials and promotions.

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