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Building a Better Team
- In the first of a series of articles, David Lipton discusses
how to train staff to become customer service specialists
By David Lipton
It was once said that any business is only as good as the people
in it. That sentiment is especially true in today's competitive
Canadian marketplace, where U.S.companies with premier customer
service techniques continue to infiltrate every sector of the economy,
including the foodservice industry. But while it's also true that
Canadian companies must learn to match U.S. customer focused training
procedures and effectively teach and maintain staff to provide top
notch service, outstanding customer service is difficult to duplicate,
making it one element that still distinguishes a successful business
from the crowd.
It's also been proven that businesses that treat both customers
and employees well are more successful, with numerous studies confirming
that staff treats customers the way management treats them. In other
words, happy employees equal good customer service and increased
revenue. Joel Ward, a business teacher for Sheridan College in Oakville,
Ont., agrees. "Businesses should do everything to satisfy their
customers and employees.Operators have to ask themselves what type
of company they are trying to build - a money machine or a legacy
company," he says. "Building a legacy company collaborates
what best meets the needs of everyone involved: the company, employees
and customers."
As chairman of Burlington, Ont. - based SIR Corp., Grey Sisson
heads some of the most customer focused restaurant chains in Canada.
According to Sisson, customers expect outgoing and enthusiastic
service. "Effective customer service is an important part of
the total experience," he says. "It's the service, food,
quality and value that help make up the whole package. It's important
for customers to be recognized, acknowledged and attended to in
a pleasant and friendly manner in order for them to feel the complete
dining experience. Nothing upsets customers more than a server who
lacks personality."
But what happens when companies hire enthusiastic staff, train
them to be outstanding customer relations people, then fail to follow
up the training with some type of monitoring program? Many companies
spend millions of dollars on training and nothing changes, especially
as studies indicate that 60 percent of the information discussed
during a training sessions is forgotten before employees leave the
class, and an additional 30 percent is forgotten within the first
week. Without reinforcement and monitoring for compliance, employees
quickly revert to their habitual ways of completing their job tasks.
The assumption is made that the information was great, but there
is no mechanism in place for employees to integrate the knowledge
into their daily routine. In reality, however, developing a new
behaviour takes three to four weeks of continuous reinforcement
and focus.
One way companies can help their employees focus on becoming customer
service specialists is through mystery shopping programs. Unlike
consultants, who offer advice on running a business, mystery shoppers
evaluate a company based on the business' own standards and criteria
in order to tell the owners whether or not it is operating in the
manner they desire. They are also effective in uncovering whether
or not the policies and procedures developed by an organization
are in place and are being followed correctly. A variety of methods
can be used to evaluate an operation, including site inspections,
telephone calls, visits to websites and e-mail communication evaluations.
According to a recent Statistics Canada study entitled Creating
the capacity for Survival and Growth, four out of five new companies
in Canada fold within the first 10 years. Those that do survive
stress high quality products, customer focus and solid business
fundamentals as key to their success. In addition, superior customer
service and flexibility in responding to customer needs, as well
as marketing strategies focusing on satisfying existing customers,
are just as important as price. These winning companies also cite
skilled and motivated employees as equally important to the success
of the business as skilled and motivated management. As a result,
more than half of the successful firms that participated in the
study invested in upgrading employee skills.
Canadian companies should view this sort of information as a wake
up call to improve their methods of hiring, training and maintaining
employee enthusiasm. After all, it will be the winning companies
- the ones which continue to offer a competitive price, good products
and high quality customer service - that will outlast their competitors
for years to come.
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