New Seasons Market
Talk is cheap and easy. Platitudes about caring for employees and taking into consideration everyone’s opinion are spouted ad nauseam without ever requiring that specifics or details be provided.
New Seasons Market is different.
Behind their tremendous growth as a regional natural foods market chain are a specific set of practices that provide a tremendous sense of purpose and ownership for employees.
A “Get Out of Jail Free” card, handed out to every employee, is one such practice:
Dear Supervisor: The holder of this card was, in their best judgment, doing whatever was necessary to make a happy customer. If you think they may have gone overboard, please take the following steps: 1) Thank them for giving great customer service. 2) Listen to the story about the events. 3) Offer feedback on how they might do it differently next time. 4) Thank them for giving great customer service.
The Random Acts of Demo program is another example.
RAD empowers staff to open something for a customer at any time. If they are deciding on a type of granola bar, we will open a few packages and let them taste them all. Then we turn that into an opportunity to do spontaneous tastings for other customers, and it creates a fun scene. The staff member then fills out a form saying “I opened these two packages of granola bars, and here’s what customers thought.” We post these forms in the back room, and the RADs are entered into a raffle for gift cards. This is how we celebrate staff for creating RAD. It also benefits the business because we get a better understanding of what our customers like and why. We are institutionalizing empowerment — and the idea for the RAD program itself came from staff. We are also engaging customers and creating a buzz in the store.
Beyond these employee and customer centric practices is the fact that New Seasons Market is a certified B-Corporation.
Much of this explains the companies tremendous growth and good will in the Pacific North West where it operates, expanding from 1 store to 18 in under 2 decades and without compromising quality.
Sources:
