In previous posts I mentioned the need to empower the people who
deliver the service and create a working culture employees can and will
feel proud of.
But how do you maintain and reinforce an employee
centric culture for a varied employee base? How do you make sure
customers receive a consistently excellent experience across all touch
points? Pret a manger
is an example of a company which delivers a positive brand experience.
The idea is that customers have the same high quality experience when
they visit a Pret in any city or country. This is generally true, but
there will be cases where customers experience a service that does not
much the brand as the service is delivered by people and is not fully
automated.
Here is an example: I have been visiting the same Pret
every morning for a few months now and have been more than happy with
the service. The other day however, I visited a different Pret and I
received a brand shock, the Pret experience I received was nothing like
what I came to expect. The setting was familiar but the choreography
was all wrong. I will spare you the details but it suffices to say that
the whole experience fell short of what Pret got me used to and it all
had to do with the way the service was delivered by the Pret employees.
So how can we make sure that the experience offered remains consistent? Some ideas:
- Remind staff of brand values
- Maintain a physical environment that reinforces the brand
- While allowing staff to rewrite the rules, ensure these stay consistent to the brand values
