Customer focus in the UK – interview with Patrick Dunne, Director of Property, Procurement and Cost Transformation at Sainsbury’s

Patrick Dunne is Sainsbury’s Director of Property, Procurement and Cost Transformation. He agreed to take part in our series of global interviews in order to convey learnings from the experiences and lessons Sainsbury’s has already learnt in the current crisis.

Business mobilisation

From an operational perspective, Dunne feels Sainsbury’s has faced a challenge of unprecedented proportions.

“We have mobilised and adapted our business quicker than ever before to respond to what is a rapidly changing and unprecedented situation. Our customers and colleagues are at the heart of absolutely every decision we make and the current crisis has shown the business at its best”.

Substantial investment has been made to safeguard customers and colleagues and he feels that this change has been achieved in a very short period of time.

“Sainsbury’s has had to react to the considerable impact COVID-19 has had on the way we operate. We have made substantial investment and changes throughout our business, and particularly across our estate, to support our customers and colleagues. None of these efforts would have been possible without the amazing support from our teams and those throughout our supply chain. It has been a truly phenomenal effort from all.”

Initially, part of the challenge Sainsbury’s needed to meet was to handle increased demand for food and other essential products.

“We are very proud of the way we have all worked together to meet the increased demand for food and other essential items, whilst also protecting the health and safety of our customers and colleagues. It has required commitment and dedication from all our partners.”

Resilience, innovation and teamwork

Dunne feels that this unprecedented crisis is bringing out the best in the Sainsbury’s team and reflects well on the underlying public spirit of colleagues. Sainsbury’s have had to make significant changes to adapt to different shopping behaviours.

“We are in unprecedented times. However, this period will also be renowned for resilience, innovation and teamwork. The pandemic is an enormous challenge, but it’s also showcasing the best of business and public spirit. We have pulled together and we will continue to do so. This health crisis has truly shown that if we work together and look after each other we really are at our best.

The safety of our customers and colleagues is our highest priority. We have made lots of changes to the way we work and the way customers shop in our stores and we will continue to adapt in order to do the right thing and adhere to government advice.”

Limits are placed upon the numbers of customers permitted in-store, new queue systems, signage and 17,500 safety screens have been fitted to the whole Sainsbury’s estate in less than two weeks.

“We are limiting the number of people allowed in our stores at any one time, we have introduced queuing systems and safety screens in all stores to help keep everyone a safe distance apart. We have rolled out signage across our stores to remind customers to remain two metres from other people and to only send one adult per household to our shops. We have ensured masks and gloves are available to colleagues who want to use them and we’re regularly sanitising our estate.

I’m particularly proud of the efforts of the Sainsbury’s team and our suppliers to roll out 17,500 safety screens to all our store checkouts, kiosks and service desks right across our estate. In less than two weeks we worked night and day to design, source and install the screens in record time to ensure the protection of our customers and colleagues. We worked with multiple suppliers; we used our extensive network to mobilise the designs, source the materials and utilised over 100 install teams across the country”.

Demand for online delivery

Sainsbury’s have made prioritising more vulnerable customer groups for online delivery effective through combining its own data with further information provided by Government.

Given the unprecedented level of demand for online delivery from all customers, this was clearly an essential initiative. Overall, Dunne reveals that the retailer is aiming to expand capacity to 600,000 online and click and collect slots, each week, a massive expansion. Interestingly, added, more flexible capacity has been delivered through a new ‘Chop Chop’ fast delivery trial, supplied in some cases by ‘dark’ convenience stores.

‘Chop Chop’ a new fast delivery trial

“Sainsbury’s has prioritised severely elderly and vulnerable customers for online grocery delivery since the start of the crisis. Initially we used our own data to identify customers that most needed help and following further government information we have been able to match additional customers to our database to offer priority delivery slots. We’re really proud of this approach and our teams who are working extremely hard to feed the nation.

We have seen unprecedented demand for home grocery deliveries and we’ve been expanding capacity wherever we can and at pace to serve as many customers as possible.

We are working to increase capacity to 600,000 slots per week across home delivery and click and collect. We have also launched some innovative new initiatives, including trialling our fast delivery service Chop Chop to deliver groceries to customers from ‘dark’ convenience stores, offering shoppers another way to access essential grocery and household items. Dark stores aren’t open to customers but are used as a warehouse facility”.

Urban areas without a substantial residential population remain quiet under lockdown conditions. In some cases Sainsbury’s has closed some of its Local convenience stores in order to busier sites.

“The team is also constantly assessing the estate to ensure we can provide the best possible service for customers. We look at each store on a case by case basis and we have temporarily closed a number of convenience stores in normally busy urban areas that have seen significantly fewer customers as people work from home. Colleagues have been redeployed to neighbouring stores”.

Sainsbury’s are a firm believer in the relevance of scan, pay, go technology in the current climate and have seen a very positive customer response. Dunne expects habits formed now by customers using this type of mobile based technology will endure going forward.

“Customers are also being encouraged to use our SmartShop app when shopping in our stores and we’ve seen a real spike in use. To support this we’ve enabled SmartShop technology to be used at main checkouts for the first time. This technology will become increasingly important as customer shopping habits continue to change as a result of the pandemic.”