Have you ever considered what it takes to serve one million customers daily?

When founder Grahame Wood opened the first Wawa store in 1964, he envisioned a new kind of convenience store that simplified customers’ daily lives with fast, friendly service, fresh products, and value prices. Today, one million customers each day have come to expect this brand promise when they frequent our stores and interact with our associates. A central theme for our associates this year is “doing it just a little bit better” – a slogan first introduced in 1981 after customers repeatedly told Wawa associates that their people, stores, and product were always a step above the competition.

To make sure we deliver on the expectations of our customers one million times per day, we have stringent quality control measures every step of the way, from selecting the right vendors, to supplying the highest quality products, to hiring the best associates. You’ve heard me say before that at Wawa we consider ourselves a tight-nit flock.  But it’s important to note that we don’t fly alone.  While our 16,000 associates are the most visible champions of our values and brand promise, we hold our network of suppliers and strategic partners to the same high standards. Whether the product is under the Wawa exclusive brand label or under our vendor partners’ name, we share the goal of delighting our customers and making their lives easier.  After all, it’s a team effort and they too play a critical role in simplifying the lives of both our customers and our associates.  

Last week we conducted our spring review of some of our direct store delivery partners and Wawa’s own internal support departments – we call this our Key Partner Review Process which we conduct twice a year. Our external vendor partners and internal support departments each received a report card evaluating their performance. Their reviewers: the General Managers responsible for daily operations at each of Wawa’s 570 stores. Through the evaluation, our General Managers provide valuable feedback to our partners and help better align our collective efforts to serve and delight our customers. It’s our way of ensuring we maintain meaningful, long-term relationships with our internal and external partners to simplify our associates' lives, strengthen our core offer and deliver on our brand promise time and time again.

Success in business today is predicated on effective relationships with numerous stakeholders – all of which are aligned and focused on our ultimate customer. Through the years, our key partners have helped us develop and improve on a multitude of new products, processes, and concepts that have given us the ability to serve our customers a little bit better through the years. So, the results are in and I’m proud to say that our partners are the best of the best, proof of which lies in the 90% or better satisfaction rating each of the participating vendors and departments received from our General Managers last week. Special kudos to our top external and internal partners at Tastykake and Wawa’s Facility Department - Fuel Equipment Repair Team respectively, who each earned 99% satisfaction ratings.  But the “keys” to the store go to our most improved vendor partner - Canada Dry.  Our valued partners at Canada Dry went the extra mile for their customers – our store teams – and they achieved an increase of 17.3 percentage points in overall satisfaction ratings since the last survey.  This level of improvement enhances our store teams’ ability to satisfy their customers, strengthens our partnership and will lead to many great achievements in the future. 

It takes a lot to serve one million customers each day, but through measures like our Key Partner Review, we can ensure that we have the best products, service, and people to consistently deliver our brand promise each and every time.  And through partnerships like the ones we’ve built over the years, we have faith that we will continue to fly higher and faster together.

‘Til next time…
 

To be a leader in convenience, you’ve got to be willing to try new things.  That’s why change and innovation are among Wawa’s founding principles, and why we’ve continued to experiment and advance for more than four decades.

Sometimes the product of change is a new idea that takes our business to the next level. Just take a look at our Touch Screen ordering at the food service area which increases accuracy and improves speed of service, our surcharge-free ATM’s that epitomize “value,” and the addition of gasoline, which creates a true one-stop shopping experience. For Wawa it was our commitment to innovation that produced these concepts and redefined our customer experience.

Not every experiment breeds a formula for success.  But it’s these instances that lead to valuable lessons learned and often create future innovation.  For example, customers in the1960s might not have been ready for our initial attempts to offer items like meatloaf and fish and chips, but our customers of today have embraced similar recipes from current Wawa Kitchens, and items like Wawa Dinner Bowls have helped reinvent meals from Wawa.  Carrying Lottery tickets taught us another lesson - that speed of service is paramount.   Customer’s told us “don’t do anything to slow us down,” and we listened.   That’s why we took out money orders as well.

The most important lesson we’ve learned is that sometimes the greatest innovations are born of things you’re already doing. We’ve learned our customers like our brand — and we’ve listened when they’ve told us to “do what you do so well.”  That’s what inspired Wawa to launch a whole new level of food service brands — the Shorti, Junior, Classic hoagies, more hot foods, soups, sides and a hot breakfast.

This leads us to our latest lesson.  Recently, we made a decision to discontinue two new concepts:  Drive-In service at two Virginia stores (effective April 30), which allows customers to order through a remote device without having to enter the store; and texting, a way to pre-order food through text messages or online. In both cases, customers showed us that they cherish their connection with our associates, and they’re happy with our core offer.  Even though we intended to give them a more convenient way to order and purchase products, it’s clear our customers prefer their personalized in-store experiences, and truly value the ability to shop, browse and interact with associates.

After all, it’s people that make Wawa go round. And we’re proud of that. We’re proud to be such an important part of our customers’ daily routine. And that’s what we’ll continue to do.

That doesn’t mean we’re shrugging off our commitment to constantly explore new ways to heighten the customer experience and make the core of convenience even stronger. We’ll never let go of our child-like enthusiasm which helps keep us and young and fresh.  It drives us to take risks and try new things, ultimately keeping our business focused on change, innovation and relevance to our customers.  Times change, and we’ll continue change with them — our customers deserve that.

‘Til Next Time…

CEO’s often look for inspiration outside their industry and business.  And as the head goose of a growing flock, I am always looking for new and better ways to fly.  After traveling the world throughout my four decades in business, there is one brand that I believe stands apart as a model in customer service and convenience--Southwest Airlines.  In my opinion it’s the only way to fly. 

On most of my flights, you can find me catching up on my reading – including Southwest’s Spirit magazine.  Imagine my surprise when they asked to interview me for a piece in the magazine about, of all things, my thoughts on Wawa's brand. It’s running in the current issue on flights now.  (A special thanks to the editors of Spirit Magazine for graciously allowing us to post the article.)  Most of the interview centers on my favorite subject-- culture.  To me there is nothing more important than the foundation of that culture -- our people and our values.  Just like at Southwest, our people and our values are the wind beneath our wings.  They keep us flying higher and faster than the rest.

The interview got me thinking about the many reasons I go out of my way to fly Southwest, and why I truly admire their brand. 

First, the people are terrific.  They exceed expectations, and you can see how much they enjoy their jobs.  They always rise to the occasion and take pride in what they call “breaking the rules,” -- going above and beyond to make their customers happy.

Second, their brand is clear, concise and relevant.  Their fare for flying is “fair”.  No surcharges, no additional fees for beverages, luggage, aisle seating… just one price!  They keep it simple!

Third, I love their sense of humor.  If the plane arrives early they will state “remember, if we are late on your next flight, we got you here early today!”  They entertain on flights and make routine announcements “fun and informative.”

Fourth, they are efficient!  They turn the plane around at the airport gate like clockwork. 

Fifth, they continue to simplify lives.  Recently they simplified the boarding process by giving passengers a number within A, B or C to ensure speed and service.

Finally, they too have a special culture.  They are passionate about their brand and their people.  It’s a passion that’s contagious.  In fact, a group of Wawa associates went to down to Southwest’s Headquarters to learn best practices in culture. 

Being a leader in convenience means drawing best practices from the best companies in the world.  Wawa can learn a lot from Southwest.  In fact, some of our newest people programs and departments were built on their model.  One is Internal Care – a specific department we created to deal with life events our associates experience. Another is our Associates in Need Fund, which invites our Associates to make contributions through payroll deductions to assist other Associates during times of crisis. 

Southwest has spirit!  They understand who they are and who they are not.  They are fun, efficient and have a wonderful sense of humor.  At Wawa, we strive to instill these same concepts of simplicity, fun, and teamwork into everything we do to simplify your lives.  Like geese that rely on one another for air support while flying, Wawa Associates pride themselves on flying in formation, working as a team, and on honking from behind to encourage those up front to keep going.  For us, this is the only way to fly.

Til next time…