Here at Bridge Worldwide, all 260 (and growing) employees are preparing to go through our annual evaluation process and work-plan development for the year ahead. Our belief is that it is important to regularly review how each employee is doing and assess individuals’ strengths and opportunity areas. On the latter, we’re big believers in having open and honest conversations about what people need to improve on, and managers help direct reports create action plans to tackle them. While it can sometimes be a tough conversation to have, we strongly believe this is a reason we have such great employees and have been named one of the Best Small Businesses to Work For in America four years in a row. So I found it interesting to see that Starbucks stores seem to be taking the same approach.

Our President, Jay, sent me this photograph he took during a recent trip to a local Starbucks here in Cincinnati. As you can see, the store is proudly sharing what opportunity areas it is working on this month. It seems to be based on feedback that they have gotten from store visitors, and alternates every month.

There are several things I love about this big idea. First, it shows visitors that the store is listening and actually thankful for the feedback. Second, because it is handwritten and changes every month, visitors can tell that this is not just some big corporate B.S., but rather that the specific store cares and is listening. Third, by writing its opportunity area publicly, Starbucks effectively opens up the dialogue with its customers. I believe people will start giving more open and honest feedback to store employees, which in turn will make them even better.

Finally, this is a tremendous tool for educating and reminding store employees what is important for them to focus on. When they walk in to start working at 5:30 a.m., they are greeted with this same sign—a very vivid reminder of what each individual should focus on.

When he shared this photo, Jay suggested that this goes even further by allowing customers to feel like they are shaping the brand and experience—and that this helps reinforce Starbucks strategy as “the third place” people spend significant time in. After all, if it’s really your space, then you need to have a say in how it appears and functions, just like home and the office.

My buddy Pete Blackshaw recently pointed out that Starbucks claims it has implemented 50 customer suggestions that have come from its MyStarbucksIdea site. Pete literally wrote the book on how to turn great customer service into marketing, and Starbucks hits it out of the park here.

This is a great reminder that Marketing with Meaning works best when you make it personal, in-store, and face to face with the customers who hand you their money every day.