Issues & Recommendations

Issue #1:

Customers have complained about accuracy of their order most frequently.  Customers get extremely bothered when they have made specific requests on their order that have not been fulfilled and is a huge problem that needs to be addressed.  The first issue includes our customer leaving unsatisfied with their experience with the risk of spreading negative word of mouth to their peers.  The second issue involved is that food is being wasted.  Now an employee will have to throw out that item and start assembling it again from scratch in the correct way.  The third issue involved is that time is taken away from employees to fix a wrong order already made instead of focusing their time on the next new customer in line.

Employees need to make sure they are accurately recording the customer’s order with any customization specifications they may have.  To avoid any miscommunication, it is important for the employee to repeat the order back to the customer to make sure everything is correct.  Another helpful tool will be the kiosks Panera is starting to implement.  This allows the customer to choose everything they want in their order themselves.  Kiosks have not been implemented in all stores yet, but once they do so, the orders received should be more accurate and complaints should decrease immensely.

Issue #2:

Corporate should take customer opinions into consideration before they make drastic menu changes.  Panera occasionally takes off items that are very popular to their consumers and replaces them with  new items or less popular items.

Panera should survey multiple locations to see what the customer preferences are.  After they have taken into consideration what is most popular, they will know what menu items should stay or go.  This will keep the customers happy to know that their inputs helped to keep their favorite items on the menu.

Issue #3:

In today’s society many people have different food preferences and/or allergies such as vegan, vegetarian, or nut allergies.  Panera doesn't have much variety for customers with these specific food preferences.

Because Panera already promotes itself as having "clean ingredients", it should take a step further and incorporate more healthy varieties available for people with gluten allergies dairy allergies etc.  This would promote more customers knowing that even if they have a food sensitivity, they can still count on Panera to be the place they can go eat out and not have as many worries.  With the increasing amount of people who have these issues, Panera should cater more to this market segment by implementing variety on their menu for people with these food/health concerns.

Issue #4:

Workers should be recognized for achievements in the Panera company.  When an employee feel empowered and rewarded for their jobs, it influences them in many ways to want to work harder and perform at their best.  Creating a positive work environment for employees will create a higher morale and a higher production rate.  It will also save the company money on hiring costs because if employees are happy with their job, they will stay longer.

Managers and supervisors should compliment workers and let them know what a great job they are doing.  It would also be helpful to have "Employee of the Month" as an incentive so employees feel special and appreciated.  Another suggestion would be to provide other incentives along with employee of the month such as gift cards to employees that are excelling at their job, ability to choose their work schedule for the next two weeks, corporate recognition, etc.