Be like Panera Bread

More than just sandwiches

Last week a new Panera Bread restaurant opened up down the street from my house. They are the zen masters of soup and sandwiches. Nearly everyone I talked to eagerly awaited the store to start business. There was buzz created for months just seeing the building go up. This word of mouth marketing power is well earned by the business.

From top to bottom Panera is designed to serve fast food that tastes great. The decor and vibe is well suited to a fantastic breakfast, lunch or dinner. Their bread and other baked goods are all freshly made in house before the store opens each morning. The soups are always hot and delicious. But enough about this particular store, let me go over briefly why I believe Panera Bread is such a successful business model.

Quality Food
1) The business focuses on this number one discriminant between restaurants. It achieves high quality flavor by focusing on a core selection of food. They make the best soups, sandwiches, and baked goods. That’s it. It does this at a price that is well matched to the eating experience (somewhere in cost between Mcdonalds and a diner).

Service
2) From the time an order is taken, to the moment a customer’s name is called, and throughout the dining experience, we are made to feel welcome. Drinks are self served for the most part (fresh lemonade or specialty drinks are made behind the counter), which grants folks free refills. This is a big plus for those that guzzle down a couple of iced coffees during a meal. Employees for the greater part appear to be enjoying working there. This is a huge plus for customers. Seeing folks making your food that are generally happy instills greater comfort and trust in customers.

Style
3) The dining area is arranged to feel cozy yet comfortable. Each booth or table caters to a relaxed and open eating experience. Customers can clean up after themselves, while employees wipe down each eating area intermittently.

If you’re going to start a business in any area, repeat after me, “be like Panera”. They’re the best in a highly competitive space.

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  • http://www.joshourisman.com Josh

    Also: free WiFi (at least at some locations).

  • Drew Caster

    You got to be kidding. Panera has gone to hell.

    I've had horrible experiences the last few times I've gone there. Trashed dining areas, rude staff and poor quality food. This has happened on both coasts for me. I'm glad your experience is better. But I wouldn't use them as a model for anything other than how to run a good franchise into the ground.

  • http://astrogirl.com/ Nicole

    I have never seen free refills of iced coffee at a Panera or St. Louis Bread Co, and I've been to A LOT of them.

  • http://donmcarthur.com/ Don McArthur

    Free, but it is slow and unreliable. I think their DNS resolution is outsourced to an old Atari running off car batteries in Guam.

  • http://www.joshourisman.com Josh

    That's what OpenDNS is for!

    –
    Josh Ourisman
    dy/dx tech

    Tel: +1 857-753-0060
    Web: http://www.dydxtech.com
    Blog: http://www.joshourisman.com

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    I haven't been to a bad one yet, maybe it's store by store but at least the four I've been to have been excellent (3 on Long Island, 1 in Ohio)

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    I wasn't aware they had free wifi, will have to check that out. Thanks for the tip.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Rats Nicole, it must be a regional thing. Maybe it is something they'd consider changing. It's a big selling point for auto coffee chuggers like me.

  • Mike

    Never had a bad one yet, either… some may have been kept better than others (kinda hard to clean a restaurant that's ALWAYS busy) but of the approximately 10 locations (in IL, MI, and Canada) I've visited more than once, I've never run into a bad one.

  • gorbachev

    I gotta question the objectivity of this article.

    I like Panera. I think my wife and I go about two times a month.

    I think the food is good. It's not great (it's too salty, for one), but it's good. It's certainly better than many other fast food restaurants' offerings. But I really don't have any trouble finding similar quality anywhere near me…I just have to avoid chain restaurants.

    I am really struggling to see how the customer service is anything special, however. They take your order, you pay, then you go to the pick up counter where you can see the order prepared, if you know which one of the 100 they're making at the same time is yours. Then you pick your order, fill your drink and fight for the other million customers for a table. This is in no way different from McDonalds, except that the surroundings are cleaner and more attractive.

    I've seen my food get dropped on the counter.

    I've seen my order put on another customer's tray, then transferred to mine with some of the fillings left on that other customer's tray.

    My order's been wrong more than once.

    They've forgotten about my order until I reminded them about it.

    There is absolutely nothing special about their service. It's typical minimum wage service…sometimes you get lucky and get served by someone who gives a s***, sometimes you don't.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    I'm definitely not an average customer. Maybe it's this particular store's management, but I went 5 times their opening week. I have seen and talked to employees there who I recognize, and who are cordial and polite. They don't appear to be unhappy working there. Either they are excellent actors (doubtful) or working for Panera is a better experience than other fast food chains.

    I'm not the only diehard Panera fan. Some combination of food, style, and setup is very appealing to me as a consumer. Totally respect that this is not the case for everyone though.

  • http://twitter.com/LouisC Louis Castrogivanni

    Where on Long Island? I work at the one in Hauppauge during the summer and winter breaks.

  • http://twitter.com/LouisC Louis Castrogivanni

    There are free refills of iced coffee and iced tea at the Panera I work at. Not the frozen mochas or caramels, just the iced coffee. You might have the two confused.

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    I've been to the Hauppauge one a few times, but one opened up in Port Jeff station. How does the business treat employees, or put better how is the company modeled to focus on maintaining morale for workers?

  • http://louisc.com Louis C.

    Maybe I've made you a sandwich.

    First of all, the Paneras on Long Island are all franchised, so I don't know how they are nationwide, but they treat us great! Whenever new stuff comes out, we usually have a meeting sort of thing (we used to call them “bread bashes” but I dunno anymore, we stopped for a little while but then started again) where we get to try the new stuff and learn how to make it. At the one I work at in Hauppauge, the management tends to be very laid back, but still assertive. Meaning, if you do something wrong, you know about it, and if guests complain, they tell you what's going on and expect you to know how to fix it. But other than that, it's a great environment full of fun people to talk to while doing whatever you're supposed to be doing. For instance, I work on the line, so while I'm making sandwiches/salads/giving people their orders, I also tend to talk to the guests or other people who work with me, and the managers do so as well (and they're good to talk to as well). We have regulars, and we generally know what they're going to order before-hand. Also, between the people who work on the line, we like to try to guess what people are going to order, do things like that. I have fun working there, and I know a lot of my coworkers do as well. I'd work during school too, but I don't have a car to travel to the nearby Panera (I go away to school).

    There will always be people who aren't motivated, or people who don't like their job, no matter where you work. I tend to get very annoyed when my coworkers do dumb things like halfass an order. But stuff happens sometimes. Occasionally the computer malfunctions, or an order gets “bumped” early and we have to ask a guest for their receipt or verify their order. A lot of the time this happens with to-go orders, because while the computer lets us recall to-stay orders, it doesn't let us recall to-go orders, and if one of us accidently “bumped” one off the screen, there's no way to get it back. That usually explains the few times we forget about an order. We tend to pick up on those rather quickly, though, unless you sit down (in which case, we have a bunch of bags behind the counter, but don't know where they go because there's nobody waiting for them, and the order got bumped from the screen). Another thing that happens sometimes is confusion with the trays on the counter. This happens because when it gets busy, two people will “consolidate” the orders. One person generally sets up the trays, and the other will put soups on them. Sometimes the first person knows what he/she's doing, but the second person isn't aware that the first person went slightly out of order because someone ordered something that'll take longer than the others, and will put the wrong salad on the wrong tray. This is almost always fixed before we call your name, but people tend to take the order before we're finished with it (which is usually fine), which causes confusion for us and for you.

    That's about all I have to say. I'm happy to hear you're happy with us (:

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Wow, awesome inside tips from a Panera pro. Sounds like a great team to work with. Thanks for sharing your experiences, great value add for the post!

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  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Wow, awesome inside tips from a Panera pro. Sounds like a great team to work with. Thanks for sharing your experiences, great value add for the post!

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