Late last year, the newspapers had some fun with a quirky story about pizza chain, Pizza Express. When they learned the 327-restaurant group was using former classical actor Karl James to train its staff on losing their British reserve to strike up chit-chat, and even to act coquettishly with their customers, headlines ranged from 'Staff to get lesson in flirting' to 'Would you like cheesy-lines with your order?'
"The media went slightly overboard with this one," laughs Julie MacDonald, the HR director of the chain, who at the time of interview, is taking a well-earned breather between rushing around overseeing the finishing touches to Pizza Express's about-to-reopen Richmond restaurant. "I would say we are trying to understand how our staff can engage better with customers," she corrects. "But... yes, there's some truth to it! We want to make coming to eat here the best experience possible - be that being confident about how to describe our menu, but also knowing when to leave customers alone."
It is no coincidence this new staff training is being invested in now, and has been chosen to be show-cased for the first time at the Richmond restaurant.
The reopening is the culmination of a business plan initiated in 2007 - after Pizza Express was acquired by private equity company Cinven - to re-invent the chain and give the pizzeria a much-needed boost in the face of new rivals, such as fellow Italian chain, Zizzi. For six months, this normally busy southwest London Pizza Express has been shut while builders have completely gutted it, dramatically transforming it from a quiet, conservatively decorated suburban diner into a futuristic, bright, funky, minimalist eating experience, complete with ergonomically designed dining 'pods' and a range of designer seating booths. It is the brainchild of interior designer Ab Rogers, who was behind Heston Blumenthal's Little Chef revamp. This Richmond restaurant is dubbed the 'Living Lab' - a fresh template for using eating space which, if it proves successful, will be rolled out over the next three years throughout its outlets, starting with a further four of its sites in July this year.
"The re-engineering of the Pizza Express brand is beginning with the refit of the restaurants [which now include 'live' kitchens located prominently in the middle of the floor space], but the change in feel can't be brought alive without our people," says MacDonald. "We are introducing a totally new way of helping diners relax - customers who want to mimic their home environment can plug iPods into acoustically self-contained dining pods that don't disturb neighbouring people who want a quieter experience - so we need a much more focused customer service strategy."
MacDonald says "the rule-book has been completely thrown out", and she admits it hasn't been an easy process for staff to adapt to. "We have redesigned our recruitment process around whether all new people who join are great at making conversation," she says. "It is also about how they listen, and engage with customers - personality over qualifications if you like. Crucially, all of our existing staff have had to go through the process too, and not all of them have passed."
Although no existing member of staff has lost their job under the review ('failing' staff are given extra training until they are brought up to the new standard), several of the pre-refit Richmond staff didn't make it back and have been transferred to other stores which are yet to undergo their refit. "To be fair, we'd never acknowledge how important the conversation skills of our staff were," says MacDonald, explaining the policy. "Now we do. We have developed a 'service journey' and a '10 rules of dialogue' toolkit, including how to tone up, or down, certain things."
If it all seems a bit mechanical, MacDonald is at pains to insist it is not. "It is not a hard and fast rule-book. It is overwhelmingly about creating friendships with customers, suggesting, for instance that chili oil might work better with a particular order than normal oil. It's actually about empowering staff to say what they like without fear of reprimand."
There are possibly few in the company with a better appreciation of what this change for staff entails than MacDonald. The HRD has clocked up 17 years with Pizza Express and is a true riser to the top, first working there as a waitress in 1994. Within a year, she was training front-of-house staff, before going on to train managers - and she was promoted to recruitment manager in 2000. "I'm an operator at heart," she says. "I've had my fair share of stress being a waitress, dealing with difficult and sometimes abusive customers. It is a tough job, and I know what it's like to do. But it means I know what 'great' looks like, and how to ensure that standards don't slip."
More than 2,000 people applied to work for the flagship Richmond branch, of whom 100 went through to final assessment; only 45 of these made the grade. It is a testament to how thorough MacDonald must be to ensure only the best make it, she says. "Lots of businesses fail to put enough effort into their customer-facing staff; we now believe this is where all our effort is needed," she says. "Mystery shoppers are showing us that these staff are now doing really well."
MacDonald admits she went into the process not quite knowing how it would go ["we had lost our way a bit; I think we had lost pride in the product"], but an unexpected surprise came from those who made it through the tough recruitment process. "I did wonder if our more customer-centric selection method would create a hiring bias towards those of an older age group. Older employees are often associated with having better people skills and customer empathy," she says. "But I was surprised and heartened to find it did not. People across all age-groups and backgrounds have met our requirements and I think it proves an important point - that conversation skills are not linked to age and neither are they linked to education."
This HRD is clearly one passionate Pizza Express advocate. But she knows it can't be faked, so once her Richmond team had been selected, there was one treat left for them: a two-day trip to Italy, to see how original Italian pizzas are actually made. "We want to inspire our people, so what better way than that?", she asks. "We sent staff on treasure hunts, saw them taste different pizzas, had them experience the difference between certain ingredients and we filmed the whole thing, so other new-joiners can experience this too."
One observation even such an experienced hand such as MacDonald says she noticed was how there was much more 'theatre' in real Italian restaurants. "This learning has been brought back; we are now saying it's OK for waitresses to shout over the top of customers if they need to catch the attention of the chef in the middle of the room throwing dough around. And just having the pizzas made in front of people adds a little bit of spectacle to the eating experience."
It has now been a couple of months since the Richmond restaurant opened. And in the sleepy, conservative river town, locals seem to have embraced their new eatery. The large, white domes that float above red leather dining booths enable them to adjust their own personal sound and lighting levels - and they seem to have been a hit. Reviews of the restaurant have been glowing: 'There's a buzz here I've not felt before, let alone in a pizza restaurant,' writes restaurant review blog, LondonJazz. Music to MacDonald's ears was its assessment that 'the staff are indeed more attentive and charming; everyone's having a fucking good time when they come out.'
Of course, it's the menu, not just the people, that has seen a revamp. Offers include 'skinny grape bread from chef Liliana Tamberi', and a new tapas-style lunchtime menu, featuring pizzettine (bite-sized pizza tasters) and pitta pizza bites (a stuffed pitta offering), ideal for the mums-on-the-go, or young professionals grabbing a quick bite. But, understandably, MacDonald feels it's all about the experience customers are receiving from her people: "Reaction has been great, staff have stuck with it. It has been a great success."
Anecdotally, MacDonald believes staff enjoy being at the restaurant just as much as customers enjoy eating there. Staff attrition is currently about 20% for managers and 50% for front-of-house servers, but she promises she will be looking hawkishly at her next lot of figures. "One thing we have certainly benefited from is being able to do all this change without needing to talk about pay rises," she admits. "The subject never came up!"
"There is no doubting our level of service has gone up," she says, summing up the change of direction Pizza Express is taking. "I really hate it when people that serve you are transactional," she says, slightly wandering off into her own train of thought. "We want people to come in and feel a vibe with us; we want regulars to get to know staff and vice versa. When I got married last year, apart from my family, everyone else at my wedding was a colleague from Pizza Express! That's how I regard our staff."
With employees' 'flirtation' training ongoing, who knows, staff that strike up friendships with customers could end up having their own weddings to thank Pizza Express for. In the meantime, the business is looking at expanding by 20-30 new restaurants a year for the next few years - enough to keep MacDonald around at least for a while more yet.
