Pret a Manger, client of Jonas Consultancy, is widely recognised for its commitment to high-quality customer service and the people who deliver it. In February it was sold to private equity firm, Bridgepoint, for £350 million. The co-founders Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham have made £50m from the deal, but are reinvesting much of it in the business in their attempt to transform Pret into a global brand.
How has it built its reputation as the only fast-food chain where you receive consistently good customer service? Do happy staff = happy customers? Earlier this year, CRF International, a global publishing organisation, voted it among the top 10 employers in the UK. So why are Pret employees so happy?
Staff in the shops work closely as a team - arriving at 6am to make the sandwiches they sell that day. Recognising that its success depends on teamwork, staff have a say in the selection of new team members and teams receive a bonus if their shop scores highly in a weekly mystery shopper report.
Salaries and bonuses are above average for the food retail industry and the package includes regular training and career development opportunities, plus huge, bi-annual parties for all staff. When a team member graduates on a Pret training programme, they are given £50 of vouchers to give away to other team members who helped them with their training. Perhaps as a consequence of all this, team member turnover is around 90% a year – which sounds high but is very impressive, compared to an industry average of 250-280% – and a turnover among managers of around 14%.
Even head office staff have a two-week trial period working in a shop before starting their job, and everyone works at least one day in sixty making sandwiches and serving customers. All Pret trainers have worked their way up the ranks.
Whenever a customer calls or writes to congratulate a member of staff for being helpful, they are rewarded with a solid silver star made by renowned jewellers Tiffany & Co. Letters from satisfied customers wallpaper the reception in head office. Individual recognition and team rewards are a major part of the culture at Pret. Staff are treated like individuals with personality, managers are given total autonomy, and staff have the authority to discard any ingredients they consider to be substandard.
It seems that customer service is a key differentiator between good, bad and indifferent companies. Good customer service keeps customers coming back; bad customer service drives customers away, taking their friends, family and workmates with them.
Pret a Manger founder Sinclair Beecham, said: “You can't train people in customer service, but you can train them to make great sandwiches. We appoint people for their attitude and personality and then train them to make sandwiches. If our teams are happy they will make our customers happy. Customer satisfaction is the result, not the cause, of happy staff.”
Bite-sized Pret facts
- Metcalfe and co-founder Sinclair Beecham established Pret a Manger with a £17,500 loan and left the Polytechnic of Central London to set up the sandwich business.
- Metcalfe once sent a solid silver Tiffany's yo-yo to a customer who found a hair in her sandwich.
- Metcalfe has an almost religious view of the power of the sandwich. He described Pret's business as "selling food that has real integrity at a price that millions and millions of people can afford. It's about food that has a heart and a soul and a reason to be there".
- Metcalfe has described himself and Beecham as "useless managers. The entrepreneurial mind is hopeless at running companies." Since its creation in 1986, Pret has almost gone bust on several occasions, has had disastrous overseas forays; and an almost terminal experiment with a new management team.
- Metcalfe is also the creator of Itsu, the uber-fashionable sushi restaurant and retail operator.
- His grandfather, "Fruity" Metcalfe was best man at the wedding of Edward VIII.
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