Footwear Insight

44 • Footwear Insight ~ November/December 2022 footwearinsight.com As you can imagine, I tend to get fired up when I am around organizations that allow this type of blasé service to occur—mostly because I know it is 100% preventable. By Jim Knight I 've never been a big fan of mediocrity. Not in society and certainly not in any portion of my life. Yet, I see it everywhere. No matter where I go—in retail, auto repair, healthcare and even hospitality—I constantly experience blah interactions with businesses. So many companies are just delivering what I believe is boring, middle-of- the-road customer service. So much so, that it actually shocks me when I experience a memory-searing, positive moment with a brand. Beside the fact that I have taught guest ser vice classes to literally thousands of people around the world, as a regular consumer, it pains me when I see something that could have easily been delivered in a spectacular fashion, with something as simple as a smile and an acknowledgement. Yet, for some reason, it seems that these memorable moments happen today more as an exception than the norm. It would be so easy for an organization to differentiate themselves from their competitors from a service standpoint because so many others are not even trying. We could blame our service woes on the global environment, point to the lack of qualified talent or even complain about the work ethic of today's workforce, but the reality is, we allow it to happen…regardless of the excuse we use. As you can imagine, I tend to get fired up when I am around organizations that allow this type of blasé service to occur—mostly because I know it is 100% preventable. I also could talk about forgettable (or even poor) service all day long and even provide some pointers on how to address it with the consumers, but I'm convinced that it would only be the by-product that we would be addressing. If you really want to do battle against the mundane, we've got to go deeper into the internal company culture and start earlier in the Employee Life Cycle process. To truly make a difference in your company's service approach, you've got to revolutionize your Recruiting, Onboarding and Training practices. So, here are 6 high-level philosophies I would consider, for any business to enhance your long-term service value proposition…and not surprisingly, it's all about building a better team to create authentic employee engagement: 1. Develop a crystal clear, brand- specific recruiting strategy Cu s t om i z i ng you r re c r u it i ng approach is essential to getting the best start. It is near impossible to train poorly-selected employees. You cannot train a person to smile or have a great personality. And we need these traits in people who are in the "service" business. Instead, you should look to build an "army of giants" around you, who embody these characteristics. To effectively do this, you need to match your incoming talent to the organization. is pairing includes all three C's: Competence, Character and Culture Fit. If you hire people that are missing one or two of these critical C's, then you will have inevitable problems. Everything from your recruiting ads to well- developed hiring profiles to a rigorous interview process should be geared to truly reflect, attract and match the candidates you want to embody your organizational culture. 2. Ensure leaders are singing off the same song sheets. Making sure that your managers are communicating the same message to all potential candidates solves a lot of issues later on. Start with the Mission Statement & Values. Have them represented in full force during every interview and refer to them during discussions with potential hires. If you want to ensure leadership is on the same page, conduct multiple interviews with each candidate, with separate managers, utilizing different Interview Guides. If your leaders don't know or agree on the things that are important up front, then you won't ever get people on the same page. 3. Be the chocolate — create employment differentiation. Customers rate companies on a REX scale: Reality versus Expectations. To earn a positive rating, we have to exceed expectations. And since consumers have so many choices (and such short memories), we have to earn positive ratings every time, Rock Stars Create Unique Experiences

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