Be like Panera Bread | Hacker News Reader

Be like Panera Bread

victusspiritus.com

13 pointsmessel12 comments

This does not match my experience with Panera Bread at all. It's been entirely acceptable, but not in any way amazing.

This post sounds less like an examination of Panera Bread's key strengths and more like ad copy.

Corporate is very unresponsive to feedback, and I'm starting to see runs in the fabric.

My 'old' Panera in north San Diego county was amazing. You almost felt justified paying their higher prices because the atmosphere was welcoming, the 'vibe' was friendly, and it was a Starbucks-like 'third place' better than Starbucks.

My 'new' Panera hasn't seen me but twice since I moved to San Gabriel Valley. The manager that's usually there is short and you feel like you're an interruption to...whatever it is they would rather be doing. I stopped going after getting the exact same treatment the second time. I e-mailed their corporate offices with specific compliments / criticisms, and never heard a word. I want to be their customer, because they have a few sandwiches I like. But now I just go to the local Italian deli and get food that's as good with a much better price tag.

And, just in case it was the fault of one GM: I've been back to my old Panera, and they're suffering many of the same problems. It feels like the problem that Gateway and Dell have both faced: initial high-quality, high-value, high-attention environments can easily degrade over time.

That definitely sounds like the specific management style versus business framework/methodology. I suspect there's a distribution of quality of stores for Panera and I may have been fortunate enough to live close to a store with an excellent management team.

What advice would you give to Panera leadership to maintain quality service and vibe? This type of problem is present as you pointed out throughout industries. Initial enthusiasm becomes replaced by the glum habit of doing just enough. I have written a fair share of posts on inspiration, and leadershi, it's a big topic. The concept we're referencing has to do with dedication/willpower and sustained effort. Seth Godin shares some related ideas in "the Dip". He gave me a signed copy Thursday, but if you like I'll mail it to you.

Yeah, Panera Bread is great. I often find Starbucks, or your preferred coffee shop, to have a more fast paced environment, with people shuffling in and out constantly, which makes it difficult for me to concentrate and get work done. Panera's atmosphere is really calm and slower paced, not to say they don't get any business because they do get lots. Also, as one of the very first places to offer free and unlimited wifi, in my area at least, Panera holds a special place in my heart.

I think the lesson is: the front end is the most important part.

Think about running a restaurant. You have to order ingredients in a timely manner. You have to get supplies and consumables such as utensils. You have to deal with the lease. You have to pass health inspections. And so on.

And does this customer writing his review mention any of this? No.

It's really easy to get caught up in back end stuff. What web server are you running? What language is your app in? Memcached? MySQL? CouchDB? Functional programming? Etc.

Certainly, you have to have a decent back end so that you can have a front end in place. But your clients review the quality of the front end, regardless of what's behind it.

And does this customer writing his review mention any of this? No.

But you can bet that he will write something when you are closed because you failed the health inspection.

If you don't have a good backend, nobody will ever have the opportunity to see your frontend.

I've been to three Panera Bread locations. All of them had friendly staff, nice food and and easy going environment. We even have had project meetings at Panera. Panera++.

I've had the same experience, always a comfortable atmosphere and good food.

Panera as a whole is great but their food is way too salty for my taste. That usually implies that the food itself is of lesser quality.

Translation: don't sell commodities. If people can find what you're selling elsewhere with the same level of quality, then you can only compete on price and location. That's a tough business. It's easier to differentiate yourself from your competition by doing something they can't do, or by using style, design, and aesthetic coughapplecough to set your products apart.

In software your competition is working on providing a huge featureset just like you are. What can you do on a level that is not just a laundry list of features that can set your software (or site) apart? Look to the meta-features, the implicit features of every product: performance, robustness, security, usability, fit-and-finish, etc.

Hear, hear. I'm glad to see someone else on HN who doesn't buy into the belief that software is a commodity (unless you make it so!)

I think more HNers would succeed with their businesses if they took what you're saying to heart.

I am a new Panera customer and I think I would come back more frequent.

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