Panera Bread

The workers were nice and made sure the food came out on time

I was disappointed that Panera no longer offers my favorite sandwich, Asiago Roast Beef, and my husband did not care for the blood orange lemonade he tried for the first time today. Most of the empty tables were littered with crumbs...this is a pet peeve of mine. However, our Southwest Chile Lime Ranch salads and Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt sandwiches were fairly good.

I love them my food is always delish! Never have to wait long! Just a wonderful treat!

I spend quite a bit of time in Panera’s throughout northeast Ohio every week. This experience this morning was a little different than usual. Trying to be a gentleman I let the lady walking in behind me through the door and of course let her go ahead to order. That’s where we met Kelly, or I should say that where we did NOT meet Kelly. The lady and I stood there for 2-3 minutes in silence while Kelly completely ignored us as she assembled a large bagel order. There was nobody else around to help us out and she had her back to us the whole time. Even after she turned and it seemed she could see us no acknowledgement.
The lady in front of me was too nice to do so but I spoke up and said (quite loudly in case she just did not hear us come in) “Excuse me, we would like to place an order” Kelly’s response was “yeah, I’m working on an order” That’s it..., not hello, welcome to panera, good morning, I’ll be right with you.
Luckily she must have gotten the gist and then called a coworker over to assist the increasing line of 4-5 customers. I was very tempted to just walk out then but hoped the worst was behind us.

First impressions are VERY important, whether it’s the first time for a customer at all or just the first time you are seeing them that day. Being up front on the counter requires you to be cordial and friendly regardless (within reason) of how the customers might speak to you or treat you. I will likely be back, but I sincerely hope some coaching is done in PTT by the managers and owners. A simple change in the way we were responded to could have changed the entire outcome of my experience this morning.