The John Lewis Partnership needed to make urgent preparations for the arrival of a revamped five pound note and one pound coin. With other retailers ahead of the game in upgrading their operations, the partnership was late to recognise the scale of the task and its potential impact on Waitrose and John Lewis stores. It now faced a race against time to be ready.
Our first task was to design a programme structure and set up governance meetings with key stakeholders across the partnership. A robust change plan was developed, with interim solutions implemented and SOPs provided for store partners to deal with customer queries in the appropriate manner. An upgrade programme was initiated and the changeover of vending partners fully managed on time and on budget.
The new currency formats were successfully introduced across the John Lewis Partnership with minimal operational impact or disruption to customer service.