I love Starbucks Coffee. They also have these great cards that you can put money onto, and give them as gift cards or keep them for yourself to save time when you’re paying. If you pay by the card you can even get free extra shots and things like that.

At the moment the card is just a card that can contain a balance, but I think Starbucks could improve upon it in a simple way. Most of the time we all order the same drink every time we visit a Starbucks and although we get really good at knowing what we want, we order it from a different person every time we visit. If you order something really simple like a “Venti Latte, decaf” this isn’t a problem. But if your drink is a “Venti Latte, with Peppermint syrup and an extra shot – but the extra shot is decaf” it usually takes a little longer. Similarly, if you often visit Starbucks with your family it can be time consuming for them to note down all your drinks.

My solution is simple.The machine already has to contact the internet to check the balance of the card, so instead of merely retrieving the balance – the machine could also pull down a “favorite order” that the user has set-up on the Starbucks website. With all the details of your order shown on the screen, mistakes are less likely to be made in the incredibly busy environment that the Baristas are usually working in.

To make it worth doing, Starbucks could introduce “tiered” cards. The basic free Starbucks Gift Card could contain one drink. A “Silver” card could contain 3 different drinks, and be available for £2.

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A “Family” card could allow two different “orders” to be created. Each order being allowed to contain 4 drinks for £4.

Finally, a “Gold” card could be available for £10 and would allow 4 orders, each containing 4 drinks and the ability to set a “favorite drink” that would be free with every 20 drinks purchased.

Obviously all these numbers/prices/incentives could be altered/dropped, I have no idea about business models etc. I just think that even just the core idea of being able to save a “usual” to your account is pretty cool.