PIRCH Headquarters Featured on Design Leveraged
Walk into one of PIRCH’s ultra high-end kitchen and bath stores and the first thing that greets you is a long, stylish coffee bar. White porcelain cups are lined up perfectly in the front, each handle facing to the right. Designers might be sitting along the sides of the bar with clients, talking over the relative merits of Thermador vs. Wolf ranges. “Welcome to PIRCH,” says the Barista of Joy, peering at you over the espresso machine. “How may I help you today? Would you like a coffee?”
Now walk into the company’s new San Diego headquarters. The first thing that greets you is the same, marble-topped coffee bar. The cups are in front, handles still to the right. Employees might be sitting along the bar comparing the sales statistics of Thermador vs. Wolf ranges. “Welcome to PIRCH,” says the Barista of Joy. “How may I help you today? Would you like a coffee?”
It’s not Groundhog Day. Instead, meet the blending of the retail and office experiences. “We decided not to have a receptionist, but a whole new way of greeting somebody,” says Jeffery Sears, PIRCH’s CEO, who could be speaking of either location. “At our stores, people don’t want to be bombarded when they don’t know what they want yet; you have to welcome them in. At the office, we wanted to build in a true sense of welcome, of ‘belonging’ at the office.”
For decades, corporate offices were designed to reflect organizational hierarchy, with power reflected by a corner office or a count of ceiling tiles. But in recent years, as collaboration and interaction have grown in importance, smart companies are examining what works in other kinds of spaces, and have begun opening up their floor plans, tearing down office walls, much like retailers. They are swiping great ideas from hotels, hospitals, bars and retailers. After all, those enterprises specialize in comfort, interaction, camaraderie and engagement.
So while PIRCH, the retailer, uses design to boost sales, PIRCH, the headquarters, uses similar design thinking to increase productivity.
PIRCH didn’t have to look far to pull smart concepts from a retail environment – its own, naturally. The coffee bar is a prime example. At the stores (there are three now, in suburban Chicago and two in southern California; Dallas will open in the summer), PIRCH uses those warm beverages as a way to say, “Thank you for coming to visit us; here’s some nourishment,” Sears notes. At the office, the message is the same: We’re glad you’re here today.
Meeting rooms at the headquarters resemble private design rooms at the stores, including curtains that allow an adjustable level of privacy. Meanwhile, each PIRCH store has a gourmet chef who cooks – or helps customers cook – as a way to demonstrate the kitchen appliances. The headquarters, in turn, has a chef who prepares gourmet breakfasts and lunches.
“When you walk in here, you could believe that the headquarters birthed the vision of the store – but it’s actually the opposite. The stores birthed the vision of the headquarters,” Sears offers. (The office, which is home to 48 employees but has space for double that, has one advantage over the stores: a fitness center with a personal trainer ready to help improve the workout experience.)
Sears and business partner Jim Stuart joined together to start PIRCH in 2009, following a long, casual conversation between the two about “living joyfully,” Sears recalls. “We just sat down the first day and talked about life, how we would want to be treated.” Later, they looked at the kitchen, bath and backyard retail environment, finding it lacking at the high end. Home Depot had tried its Expo concept, but the experiment failed.
Sears and Stuart thought they knew why: the customer experience was all wrong – too big box, not enough welcome in the design or execution. They opened their first PIRCH store in San Diego in March 2010 in a warehouse area of the city, then refocused on building only in premium retail centers that feature brands like Lululemon, Fendi and Louis Vuitton. Sales have soared since, and are poised to top $100 million in 2014.
In fact, after adding the chef and trainer at the headquarters, Sears urged tentative employees to use those perks, in part by exercising himself at varying hours of the day. “There’s a return on investment I’ve already seen on an activity basis and productivity basis,” he says. “We don’t measure pounds lost but I’m seeing people get healthier, shed pounds. I know this is improving our quality.”
Indeed, during a study of employees’ habits before design work began, Viveca Bissonnette and Jeff Hollander of Hollander Associates focused as much on what mood team members were in as how they were doing the work. One result: the marketing department’s conference room is outfitted with a table with swing chairs like in a playground. “You can’t be in a bad mood in here,” Bissonnette says, her feet dangling like a happy child. That mood translates directly into the joyfulness PIRCH wants customers to feel in its stores and messaging.
Adds Sears, “in the stores, you have no idea what the person in front of you is going through, so your job is to be kind.” He could be talking about the office, too.
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