It was only a generation ago when I was a child, but I remember clearly that the weekly shop was something of a ritual. My parents would pack us all into the car each Friday night and go to the same shop every week.
How times have changed. Customers now have more choice than ever before and our competitors are only a click or short drive away. If a customer doesn’t get what they want, they will quite rightly find another retailer who meets their needs, with little extra effort.
Even before we’d ever heard of Covid, the range of attractive options for shoppers had increased. But the pandemic has tested customer loyalty even more. Over the past couple of years, many of us just wanted to make sure our families had the basics, regardless of where they came from.
As we look to the future, we as a retailer need to work harder than ever before to earn customer loyalty – building on the commitment to service which is at the heart of our DNA.
Only by continuing to offer service which is truly best in class can we expect our customers to shop with us again and again.
And great service isn’t just about being knowledgeable and helpful, although I am constantly proud of the ways our Partners delight customers. It’s also about creating and sustaining a bond with customers through a genuine shared understanding.
We are facing challenging times in the grocery industry and feel a huge responsibility to ensure we are providing our customers with the best possible value for money on the products they love and buy most often. Loyalty isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ concept – we have to develop an offer which makes a real and personal difference to our customers.
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Our ambition for Waitrose has always been to be totally customer-focused, to offer a life-enhancing experience tailored to their needs and based on an understanding of what really matters to them.
Every one of our customers is seeking something specific that they value: high animal welfare standards, sustainably sourced products, outstanding service from a Partner, great value, or simply a flavour or product they love. We want to be able to help our customers make conscious choices through our new myWaitrose benefits package. New systems and technology will look at individual shopping habits, allowing us to offer rewards tailored specifically to what our customers are buying. My family’s weekly shop for five adults and a dog will be completely different to a young family with a cat – each will receive rewards tailored to their personal needs.
So our new loyalty offer will be more personalised than ever before. We will also give every member 20% off our service counter products, from shopping basket staples through to specialist products from exclusive small suppliers.
Our service counters are absolutely key in offering our customers an experience that is tailored to their needs. They allow us to showcase our finest British and in-season products, all of which meet our high animal welfare standards, making us one of the top five companies in the world with respect to farm animal welfare standards [Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare]. Our highly trained meat, fish and cheese specialists are taught traditional butchery and fishmonger skills and have expert knowledge to help customers make an informed choice. It’s a wonderful personal service that allows our Partners to share their love of great food with our customers.
The relaunched myWaitrose is built on the success of our Just for You campaign, which gave our customers discounts on their favourite products. Importantly we’ve been able to evolve myWaitrose with the help of our Partners, who offer us a window into our customers’ lives. By talking to them on a daily basis in our shops and on doorsteps across the country, it enables us to better understand and offer something meaningful for each of them – it’s our way of saying thank you to our customers.
Our aspiration is that customers will feel a more personal bond with us, and I hope we earn their long-term loyalty and trust.
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