3-4 people in Starbucks at a time, holy shit. You can probably talk to Coqui more about that. My store is mid volume. We have single coverage all day Monday through Thursday (except I get a couple hours on Mondays and Thursdays for off the floor stuff and my order), and then we get some double coverage on weekends. I would absolutely say that it's Starbucks' job to clean the lobby. If they're following Playbook, they should have one person at the register, one person making drinks, and a third person stocking, cleaning, and potentially helping the other 2 out when it's really busy. I don't know for sure because I have actual double coverage (no one on break, etc.) for about 5% of the week. I only have triple coverage on Black Friday, and only for part of that day.
Anyway, I agree with everything redeye said, especially about recipes. When you first look at all of the recipe cards and then hear that you can customize each drink about a thousand different ways, it seems overwhelming. But the vast majority of them are based off of about 3 different recipes - take those 3 and just change the syrup flavor, type of milk, etc, and that's how you get the thousands of different drinks. I was promoted to Starbucks without ever drinking a cup of coffee in my life, and I didn't even know what a latte was until the 3rd or 4th day of training, so that was the hardest part for me. I was trying to think of each drink as completely separate. Learn how to make a latte, a frappuccino, and a tea. Then think of (almost) all the other drinks as variations of those 3 drinks, instead of as unique drinks. It's not as complicated as people try to make it.
My best piece of advice is to try to follow Starbucks' standards as best you can. I've seen TMs change recipes because that's how they liked the drink, and they thought guests liked it to. It just creates inconsistency in your store (and even if all of your baristas make it the same way, it won't be the same as other stores and the guests will be confused and frustrated). Starbucks is a good company that has been successful for a while; do what they tell you to do and you'll be successful, too.
And hold your team accountable. That's something that has never come easy to me. I can lead by example, I can correct their small mistakes, but it takes courage to coach on conduct issues (bad attitude, deliberately taking shortcuts to make things easier, etc).
