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Our customers, products and suppliers


Dealing fairly with our suppliers and selling responsibly sourced quality products


The Partnership aims to attract, retain and deepen relationships with loyal customers. We do this by building their trust and confidence in our reputation for value, choice, good service and honest trading, and behaving as good citizens in everything we do.


Commitments

Our Waitrose Customer Service mission statements are that our customers will:

experience excellent service that differentiates us from our competitors

enjoy a consistent and integrated service across all formats and channels

be able to interact with Waitrose in the ways that suit them best.

John Lewis aims to:

offer every customer the best possible experience, backing up the product offer with an outstanding level of service from initial purchase to after-sales, whether it’s face to face, online or over the telephone

ensure all selling Partners have excellent product knowledge and communication skills.


Our customers

Committed to service

Giving great service is something we take pride in as co-owners of our business. We know that empowered and happy Partners will ensure our customers are happy, and so drive loyalty to our brand. Good service has to be management-led, but we believe in empowering Partners too, training them to make their own decisions. Read more about skills and training on page 16.

Our Partners’ dedication to service on a daily basis is a key factor in driving our business forward, so it was particularly rewarding to have their efforts recognised by our customers (see Awards and recognition below).

Combining value, quality and ethics

The Waitrose reputation for freshness, quality, safety and provenance is the reason its customers choose to shop there, and its ‘Price Commitment’ is a promise to bring customers consistently good value for money. To reinforce this commitment, by October 2009, the new ‘essential Waitrose’ identity had been rolled out across 1,400 own-brand, everyday products. This brand-new range of products at affordable prices provides an easily recognisable brand without compromising the quality standards and sourcing integrity that customers expect from Waitrose.

John Lewis aims to provide the best value on the high street by offering a wide range of great-quality products, which are fairly priced and supported by excellent service. Never Knowingly Undersold has represented this commitment to value since 1925 and remains central to our business.

Our quality standards are high, we are committed to responsible sourcing (see pages 11 to 14) and have a regular programme of benchmarking John Lewis branded products against the competition. The wide range of products we sell means we can offer items to suit most budgets, from our newly launched value range to exclusive products from the best British designers. And, with a dedicated team checking and matching the prices of our competitors, our prices are some of the most competitive on the high street, even during sales. Our Partners’ vested interest in our business success is reflected in the impartial advice and excellent after-sales support we provide. We have recently strengthened our Never Knowingly Undersold promotional material, to better communicate these value messages to our customers.


Awards and recognition

John Lewis

• Named ‘best high-street retailer’ in the Which? Awards in June 2009.
• Voted ‘Britain’s favourite retailer’ in Verdict Research’s Consumer Satisfaction Index for the second time in a row.
• Topped the latest UK Customer Satisfaction Index from the Institute of Customer Service, scoring 90.9% in an online poll of 24,000 people.

Waitrose

• Voted ‘favourite supermarket’ in an online poll of 36,000 viewers of BBC1’s Watchdog programme, and by readers of Good Housekeeping magazine for the fourth time.
• Pipped John Lewis in the Which? annual retailers survey, making it a Partnership one-two for the fourth year.
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