John Lewis’s secret mantras

“Never knowingly undersold” is the somewhat ambiguous strap line that John Lewis has used down through the years. The great British institution, an oasis of quality and service in the high street, let us know of its more important mantras during a revealing presentation by Lesley Ballantyne, director of operational development at the said store. These mantras are so simple, direct and would leave any employee (“partner” in John Lewis’s unique organisation) without doubt about what matters.

“The customer always leaves happy” is the first and the second is “The lifetime value of each customer is the most important thing”. Not only are these neat phrases, the kind of which you might find in many an organisation striving to put service value at the heart of the business, they are priciples  which the management then take and drive it’s performance.

Net promoter score is now there key indicator and this means scoring 9′s or 10′s in a scale from  1- 10 on the likelihood of recommending JL to a friend. They are currently the highest scoring retail group in the UK.

When faced with a difficult customer or a customer wanting money back “The Lifetime value of the customer” mantra is utilised. No referring up the chain, no delays, but a simple trusted delegated decision to be taken based on the likely outcome of acceding to the customer’s request – or not. It didnt’ take long for one of the attendees at Lesley Bannatyne’s presentation to ask the question that this must lead to staff just “giving things away”.  “Not so” was the clear cut answer. But then we get into the nature of the organisation at John Lewis where the partners (employees) are all stakeholders in the business. This model is unique to John Lewis but it is compelling in it’s evidence that ownership produces highly engaged staff and very accountable leadership. Any conversation, at any level within the business, can be interrupted to deal with a customer and any member of staff can ask a manager why any decision was made.    Simple, clear and compelling. Little wonder they excel – and turn in some of the best profits in UK retailing.