Rob Howe reports in Business 2.0 (subscription required) on Starbucks’ success with its gift card program.
“We ask ourselves, As we get big, how do we stay small?” says Anne Saunders, a company vice president and head of Starbucks Interactive, the group that manages the card and the chain’s wireless hotspot network. “Our baristas know the customers. The card allows the company to finally know them.”