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"You Hire for Experience and Skill and Fire for Personality and Attitude"
Are the right people taking care of your customers? Or are they "Mis- Employed?"
We know that experience and skill are important to both the company and the customer. And while skill and experience are valuable, equally so is your employee's ability to ask questions and listen to your customer's needs and to help them find a solution. Your customers want to feel that you care about them! That starts with the right attitude.
So, are the right people taking care of your customers? How many people have you hired primarily because of their previous experience in the product or service you provide? Many believe that with an established base of skill and experience an employee will know how to do the job, thereby saving time and money otherwise needed for training. Right? Wrong! It's important that your staff cares about helping other people. Look, for instance, at Nordstrom's. They don't seek people with previous experience. They've created an interview process that specifically addresses this very attitude- they want people who care about other people. Once they have identified this trait, they're confident they can train new employees to do the technical aspects of the job. You should hire for attitude not experience!
It's vitally important that you communicate to your staff your customer service expectations. This is one area you need to be very clear. Employees need to understand what is acceptable and what is not. For example: if the phone needs to be answered in three rings or you require people to smile and introduce themselves, then these become absolutes! Don't be afraid to clearly define the attitude you expect them to present to your customers. And then, don't be afraid to hold them accountable. Communicating to someone what you expect and coaching them to deliver your expectations are two different things.
Your service expectations need to be part of your culture and modeled at every level of management. How you treat your employees is a clear indication of how you treat your customers. And how your employees will treat your customers! Dealing with competition everyday, it's increasingly important for you to solidify and enhance relationships with your customers and employees.
One of the best ways to know how employees relate to customers is to observe their interactions, discreetly of course. Just because you've hired and trained an employee doesn't mean they will remember; much less use the skills that you have taught them. This is why they need re-enforcement from their manager on regular bases.
Pay attention to how they handle customers. Do they greet them in a friendly and warm manner? Do they give the right first impression? Do they ask probing questions to determine their needs? Do they explain clearly the benefits of your products and/or services? Do they use non-technical terms so that your customer understands? Do they sincerely thank your customer for their business?
If your employees aren't demonstrating these skills with every customer contact; they are costing you money! Your management team needs to be their coach. There is room for improvement in all of us. So don't forget to walk your talk.
"Having your customers consistently rate your service "good" isn't good enough if they're rating your chief competitor "excellent".
Dave has more than 35 years experience in building, buying and selling businesses. His business accomplishments have been in owning 10 different businesses. He truly understands the need to share the American dream. Business isn't an academic exercise for Dave. He has been on both sides of the counter and this has allowed him the unique advantage of being able to observe and study business success from many vantage points.
Dave Meholovitch may be contacted at http://www.secrets-of-owning-a-business.com or dave@whowantstobetheboss.com
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