Maggie Smith, who works in Seattle for an insurance company, visits a Starbucks drive-thru once or twice a week and orders her usual-a tall Caffe Americano. It's typically when she's out running errands and shopping and has places to go. "You want your coffee and you want to get out of there," she says. Now, instead of an unknown voice on the other end of a scratchy intercom taking her order, Smith can look into a digital screen on the menu kiosk and, from the comfort of her car, see her barista's head and shoulders. After testing video orders at some Seattle drive-thru locations over the past two years, the chain recently announced a plan to roll out the feature to 2,400 of its 3,000 U.S. drive-thru cafes over the next year. Bringing drivers face to face with baristas is part of the company's recent push to use technology to improve service, says Haley Drage, a Starbucks spokeswoman. More important, it's about the "customer-barista connection."
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