John Lewis IT a customer focussed service

John Lewis IT – a customer focussed service Andy Melson

John Lewis – a customer focussed IT service Agenda John Lewis - background, business model and culture John Lewis - Driving customer service standards higher IT in John Lewis - the scale of its operations IT in John Lewis - driving service standards higher Achilles Heel

JOHN LEWIS BUSINESS CONTEXT (Year to January 2012) SALES £ 3. 3 bn SHOPS catalogues 29 Dept Stores, 3 Flexible format stores, 7 @Home, online, RANGE 350, 000 active SKU’s – 30% own brand STAFF 28, 000 staff JL Financial Services • Group Turnover £ 9 bn approx • Predominantly UK • No Shareholders

PETER JONES

Trafford

John Lewis Business Model ‘Britain’s Favourite Department Store’ Ist class customer service Value Never knowingly undersold Wide assortment Convenient locations Quality shop interiors

John Lewis’s Culture ‘ Pbop’ – powered by our principles As an Employee Weekly dept/comm training meetings Directorate and Department Forums in HQ Ad hoc meetings when needed for particular issues Communication As a Co-owner Central Council, Branch Council Weekly branch and company magazines Customer service – external and internal customers AGM Annual results (bonus announcement)

Annual Bonus

John Lewis’s Culture ‘ Pbop’ – powered by our principles As an Employee Weekly dept/comm training meetings Directorate and Department Forums in HQ Ad hoc meetings when needed for particular issues Communication As a Co-owner Central Council, Branch Council Weekly branch and company magazines Customer service – external and internal customers AGM Annual results (bonus announcement)

Customer Service - ‘Making the experience of using the services of the company more rewarding’ Buyers – select the assortment that enhance the experience Merchandisers/ Logistics – ensure stock is available Marketing – set customer expectation, don’t over promise Shop design – shop layout easy to navigate, merchandise attractively displayed IT - simple processes, great system availability

Measuring Customer Service in John Lewis Mystery shoppers Highlighting exceptional service Anonymous letters Customer complaints Staff survey

Staff survey – ‘happy staff make happy customers’ Increase staff perception Increase customer perception Increase sales 40 questions: Company, branch, department, manager, processes, IT Influences manager’s pay

IT in John Lewis • IT Staff Development and Application Support - 300 (inc John. Lewis. com) London and flexible offshore resource • Technical Support/Data Centre/Infrastructure – 250 (shared with Waitrose) - Bracknell/London • Staff - 50% Grad recruits / 25% experienced / 25% ex busines • Turnover low (tracks industry by under 50%) • Systems Portfolio – 60% in-house/40% package ……. but changing • Infrastructure – most systems on-line, mainframe - centric, DB 2/CICS/COBOL/JAVA etc. Hardware in Branches & D Cs • 10, 000 PCs and 15, 000 printers • 3, 500 Registers using POS systems at 60 locations • 4, 000 Hand-Held Terminals • 2, 500 cordless phones Systems • 50 m + POS transactions per year, 99. 95% reliability • 45, 000 Gift Lists (£ 70 m sales) • 600+ Call Centre ‘seats’ answer 130, 000+ calls per week • 140, 000 new products a year • 30, 000 price changes processed on a average day • Replenishment systems process 4, 000 new supplier orders every day

Focus of IT Outstanding availability Simple processes Service in the home Ease of access to JL Improving customer service Service after the sale Accurate & timely data Easy and secure payment

Measuring IT Customer Service Anonymous letters (customer complaints? ) Staff Survey – ‘computer systems support me well in my job? ’ Systems performance and reporting it clearly

Computer systems support me well in my job? – year 1 Highest branch score +7 Average branch score +2 Lowest branch score -5

Narrowing the IT Service Gap Promote IT In branches Closer relations with local IT Launching new systems innovatively

Measuring IT Customer Service Anonymous letters (customer complaints? ) Staff Survey – ‘computer systems support me well in my job? ’ Systems performance and reporting it clearly

SERVICE AVAILABILITY (Week Beginning) 2 nd Nov 9 th Nov 16 th Nov 23 rd Nov 30 th Nov 7 th Dec 14 th Dec 21 st Dec 28 th Dec 4 th Jan 11 th Jan 18 th Jan 25 th Jan Key Customer Facing System (CSS & POS) Key Customer Facing System (Telephony). Key Distribution Systems (DLX & DCMCS) Key Buying Systems (Assortment Replenishment & WSSI). Key Financial System (Peoplesoft) Key Personnel System (Partnerlink) Victoria IT Service (SAN & Network Infrastructure). Date Description Cause Resolution of Incident Resolution of Problem Service Area Affected Down Time 28. 12. 08 To 31. 09 Several Hour + periods of outages or poor performance throughout TP 12 Recently updated database Users bounced off server Ongoing investigations Partnerlink users Multiple Hour + 28. 01. 09 PCs hanging and difficulty logging onto the network Caused by SMS issuing server reboot commands Server reboots Ongoing investigations with Microsoft Head office and some branch servers 30 Mins 19. 01. 09 WMS lost connectivity Server taken offline Server brought back online Server taken offline to resolve perfomance issues WMS 5 Mins

Operational Metrics Critical Path Length Incident Logs 8: 00 VAT 7: 00 change 6: 00 5: 00 4: 00 3: 00 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan 2007 2008 Online Availability Operating Deadlines 100. 00 99. 50 99. 00 98. 50 98. 00 98. 50 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Operating Deadlines Average YTD 98. 00 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Online Availability Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Average YTD

Computer systems support me well in my job?

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