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Great People Create a Great Customer Experience
You may have noticed that a few of my recent blog entries (and a couple of my 1to1 Weekly “Reporter’s Notebook” articles) focus on the close connection between employee engagement and customer satisfaction. Among many the presentations I attended recently there was one common thread: You can’t train for attitude, you have to hire it.
What caught my attention most was how similar the comments are. Check out these excerpts:
“You can’t train people to do this,” said Jason Ward, director of customer commitment for JetBlue Airways. “You have to hire people like this.”
(Watch for the full story in the Dec 18 issue of 1to1 Weekly.)
“You can’t train for this,” Build-a-Bear Workshop’s Chief Marketing Bear Teresa Kroll said (in "'Yes' Is a Profitable Approach"). “You have to hire the right talent.”
According to Bryan Johnston, vice president of global marketing for Burton Snowboards, the company looks for people who are mavens and influencers: people who love to share their expertise and experience with the product and sport – and who can listen well and be empathetic to customers.
(Watch for the full story in the Dec 18 issue of 1to1 Weekly.)
Winston Wright, who heads marketing for Nokia’s Experience Centers ("There's No 'I' in Team"), looks for people who are passionate about Nokia’s products and delivering a stellar customer experience.
“We look for people who fit our ten core values,” said Jane Judd, senior manager of customer loyalty for Zappos.com.
(Watch for the full story in the Dec 4 issue of 1to1 Weekly.)
Mrs. Fields Cookies founder Debbie Fields Rose ("Recipe for Success") asked [prospective employees] to sing Happy Birthday to her. The idea was that if they would belt out the song at her request, they would be more likely to be responsive to customers’ requests.
Steinway Street, the main shopping thoroughfare in my neighborhood, is packed with stores staffed by people who act like they’re doing you a big favor by paying attention to you at all. But there are a few stores where the staff is exceptionally pleasant and helpful – a notable difference from the other shops. The managers of these stores are all drawing from the same talent pool. Yet some manage to uncover and hire real stars (I define “stars” here as customer-focused employees), people who, like the employees of the companies above, seem to enjoy delivering a great customer experience.
What do you look for in your team?
I am certainly seeing a trend where companies hire for attitude and train for the other skills. I'm also seeing a trend in what types of skills are being evaluated in quality programs. In the past, evaluation forms looked for objective skills such as verification. Now, centers realize that to enhance the customer experience, they need to hire, evaluate and coach to attitude skills such as empathy, ownership and enthusiasum. I actually do believe that over time you can train these skills but it takes time, consistent coaching and repetition for agents to instill these behaviors. In most cases, it is much more cost effective to hire for the attitude and train for the other skills.
We employ trainers who have to have a warm outgoing friendly personality who are prepared to give of themselves; I would say this is more important than technical knowledge. The technical knowledge you can supply with time.
Over the years we have had trainers who have been experts in their fields but have lacked in interpersonal skills to some degree or other and since they are the only ones who can provide the training they have to be used, however you always know that it will lead to someone being managed in an incorrect way.
It’s strange but what seems obvious to one person isn’t to another, you can try and teach people that when in this situation this is how you should react, but you can’t cover every eventuallity, people with good interpersonal skills just know what to do, these are the ones you need for customer service/training.
When interviewing potential trainers I ask them, "have they ever taught anyone close to them anything?" such as their spouse to drive, and how did it go, usually if they can do this without blowing a fuse they are on the next step to being a trainer which is basically a customer facing person.