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Consort
Frozen Foods
“ The rate of orders through tele sales is much higher than through our online platforms, even though customers have email, app and text options available to them. They still call and talk to their person. We also do end-ofperiod reviews to ask customers what we can do better. A truly strong customer service offering is more powerful than 20 marketing campaigns; people will simply keep using you because they enjoy the experience.”
“ We have customers who’ ve been with us for over 35 years, and we want to celebrate that,” adds Paul.“ We give long-service recognition at five, ten, fifteen years and beyond. Our drivers also play a critical role. They have more face-to-face contact with customers than anyone else, and we’ re very proud of the service they deliver. Everyone at the front is backed up by the teams behind them in the stores, finance and administration. It’ s a collective effort.”
Positive workplace culture
With a caring, people-centric culture, the group firmly believes in working locally and being a part of the community, demonstrated notably by its involvement in the government-supported scheme Knowledge Transfer Partnership( KTP). Collaborating with the University of Brighton over the past four years, the project was about observing the business differently and using real data to explore possible growth and innovation through technology and new ideas.“ It’ s a genuine win-win,” explains Dean.“ It allows the university to work with a real business and apply data to real challenges, while we get a dedicated resource that brings fresh thinking, supports our development and promotes entrepreneurship.” Consort has also invested in a dedicated Innovation Centre where suppliers, customers and foodchainmagazine. com 101