Costa Coffee at a Glance:

• Industry: Food service
• Size: 15,000+ employees
• Reach: 4,000+ retail stores in 30 global markets

Key Takeaways

• With over 100 Costa teams using Valence’s team tools, Costa decided to offer on-demand AI coaching with Nadia, targeting managers navigating changes in their teams.
• Costa saw 70% engagement in an initial pilot of Nadia among customer support managers before rolling it out to store managers.
• One store went from underperforming to the highest customer loyalty score, outperforming last year’s holidays sales by 38%. 
• A second store manager increased her team’s net promoter score by 20% during the holidays, when NPS typically dips.

Turnaround Tale

Twelve months ago, Sharon Ann Hattie was a high-performing manager with a big vision for her new team at a local branch of Costa Coffee, a global coffee roaster boasting more than 4,000 shops worldwide. Having managed one of the company’s flagship locations for thirteen years, she knew what success looked like and knew her team was capable of it. But in the short term, they were struggling with upselling and food sales, and change wasn’t coming naturally.

It was then that Sharon turned to Nadia, Valence’s AI leadership coach which had been put at her disposal as part of a Costa Coffee pilot program. If good leadership is knowing when to solicit advice, then one of Sharon’s first, best decisions was bringing Nadia on as an advisor. 

For starters, Sharon worked with Nadia to zero in on the leadership qualities likely to have the greatest impact on her team’s culture and goals. Together they created a four-week plan that kicked off with Sharon getting a journal and going on a listening tour—talking to the team, taking notes on everything from body language to workplace behaviors, and trying to understand what made her team tick. Based on what she learned, Sharon made changes to the schedule, assigning shifts based on team members’ compatibility and harnessing the natural momentum that came with it. Pretty soon the team was working together and pushing each other to set record goals at the end of the year. 

The result? The team delivered 50% higher sales than their typical benchmark and 38% higher sales than last year’s holiday season. Not only did the store notch record sales, they set record hourlies, and record guests within those hours. The average transaction grew by 43 pence and the food capture rate by 7%. Even better, they had the highest customer loyalty score of the year, with the team distinguishing themselves on friendliness, expertise, and speed of service. 

It was truly incredible, Sharon said, that something as simple as aligning deep listening with numbers and goals could result in such a remarkable turnaround. And she credits Nadia with helping her become the leader her team needed. Not only did Nadia help set a positive tone for the day, but as Sharon says, the weekly check-ins were invaluable and “our four-week plan has grown long-term into the next year. So 2025 looks exciting for myself, my team, and my peers.” 

The Costa Coffee x Nadia Origin Story 

Costa Coffee first piloted Nadia in 2023, rolling it out to 350 support center managers. And what began as an experiment in personalized, on-demand coaching became proof positive that investing in employee development can pay dividends across the life cycle of transactions and teams. Looking back, “I was slightly nervous about how people would respond to an AI coach because it was quite new for people in the business,” says Beck Craig, Costa’s Head of Global Learning and Development. However, nearly 70% engaged with Nadia really quickly, which was “unprecedented from a learning engagement point of view.”

So what did people like about Nadia? It turns out people liked the balance of tough questions and solutions. Plus, people viewed an AI coach as less judgmental than a human and felt safer opening up to it. And unlike an in-person coach, they could access Nadia whenever they needed support, within the flow of their work. 

Given Nadia’s success with support managers, Costa Coffee’s next move was to roll it out to store managers—which is how Sharon first met Nadia. But Sharon wasn’t the only success story. Fellow frontline manager, Gemma, also raved about her experience with Nadia, whom she credits with helping her manage her stress, especially during peak holiday periods.

“I could talk about Nadia for the rest of my life. She's so adaptable,” says Gemma. “She takes everything you're feeding into her and then relates it to the information she has gathered about you in order to give you the most tailored, effective coaching that she can. Effective coaching shouldn't just be telling me how to do something, it should be me working with Nadia to come to my own conclusions.”

Even better, Gemma reports that her customers are happier, too, because the team is happier. “Normally at this time of year, our net promoter score dips. People are impatient at Christmas. But we're actually 20% ahead of where we were last year, and 5% or 6% ahead of the benchmark right now.”

Costa’s Advice on Harnessing Nadia for Frontline Managers 

Stories like Sharon’s and Gemma’s highlight that frontline managers are some of the busiest members of Costa’s workforce, yet also the hungriest for professional development and among those who stand to benefit the most from personalized AI coaching. For others wondering how to put tools like Nadia in the hands of their own teams, Costa’s Head of Learning and Development, Becky Craig, and Costa’s Leadership and Management Capability Lead, Paul Phelan, offer some advice:

Becky suggests tying Nadia to a particular moment of change when frontline managers might naturally need additional support—when you can give Nadia context and say, “You might be going through a bit of a change in the next three months. Here’s a tool that might help you.” 

Paul recommends encouraging managers to come curious, to test and learn, but then giving your early adopters time to engage with the tool on their own terms. Check in regularly to hear how they’re using it, and be ready to share success stories that spark curiosity in others. As with anything new, he says, it’s important to have patience: “Allow that time because it will come back and pay you dividends.” 

They know because they’ve seen it. 

“I don't think there's many days I go through a conversation without someone talking about Nadia.
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I've just come out of a strategy meeting and already people have said we are doing more with Nadia next year. We're starting to really connect the dots across the whole business around how powerful this can be.”

‍- Paul Phelan, Leadership and Management Capability Lead