Posts filed under 'Employee Training'
![MCj04417280000[1].jpg](http://www.apexgiftbasketpros.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/MCj04417280000%5B1%5D.jpg)
With the holiday season approaching, you may be considering whether you need extra help. If you’re thinking about hiring soon, first take some time to figure out exactly what you need. Here are some tips for tackling this process.
Spend several days with your staff and just observe. When do your procedures break down? When does customer service begin to deteriorate? If your designers have trouble getting back to their work after they answer a phone call, maybe you need someone to answer the phone and take orders. If finished basket designs are sitting in the design room for too long, maybe you need extra help in your shipping department. If the shipping department is backed up, watch what they’re doing. Maybe your shippers need some help preparing shipping boxes for packing and replenishing supplies. If your staff asks the same questions repeatedly, maybe you need to clarify certain procedures. Once you correctly identify the problem, you can more accurately come up with a solution.
Once you’ve identified where you need extra help, think about the skills needed to carry out those tasks. While we traditionally use interview questions to find out about an interviewee’s skills and experiences, many applicants know the “right answers”, but don’t really know how to do what they say they can do.
How about trying some role playing? Watch how the person puts together the pieces of the puzzle. If you need someone to answer the phone and take orders, watch and listen to them answer a phone call. Let the person you’re interviewing pretend that he/she works in a clothing store (or sporting goods store, food store or any business he/she is familiar with). Have one of your other employees be the “customer” and call in to place an order. How does the interviewee answer the phone? How does he/she begin the conversation? Are suggestions offered? Are good questions asked? Does he/she ask all of the pertinent information needed for getting an order right. If the interviewee handles the call well, it is likely he/she will be able to learn your products and procedures and apply his/her “telephone skills” to your business.
You can use role playing to discern skills needed for any task that needs to be done. Ask the person who is applying for a job in your shipping department to pack a fragile item. Have a “would be” designer create a basket using your products. Have a potential customer service person handle a “customer” who comes into your store with a complaint.
What are some techniques you use to hire the right people for your business?
August 9th, 2009
![MCj02346410000[1].jpg](http://www.apexgiftbasketpros.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/MCj02346410000%5B1%5D.jpg)
Maybe you’ve found the perfect person to hire! She has experience in a similar business and demonstrates all the skills that are required for the job. But how can you be sure that she’ll succeed in your business?
Even a person with experience needs to know your expectations and learn your procedures. When you hire someone new, take some time to teach them what they need to know to be successful. Be clear about your vision and mission for your business as well as the values you hold about handling customers and working cooperatively with other employees. Make sure that you’re very clear about your “rules”: what time they are expected to get to work, how long breaks and lunch should be, whether they can accept personal phone calls, etc. Then, be concise about how you want things done. If you have certain expectations for cleaning the work room, make sure they know it. If you have want specific information from all new customers, give them a list of questions to cover when they’re helping a customer.
Once a new employee knows what you expect, give her lots of feedback during her first weeks at work. Correct mistakes, but also point out when things have been done exactly as you want. Ask her questions: take advantage of her experience. And most importantly, model the behaviors you want. If you expect your customers to be treated with dignity and respect, then treat your employees in the same way.
Helping your employees be “the best they can be” will work well for them, for your customers and for your business!
July 26th, 2009
In the July/August issue of Specialty Foods Magazine, author Ari Weinzweig offers “Even More Low-Cost Service Tips for High-Stress Times”. This is the third installment of this three part series. If you missed the beginning of this series, read Part 1 and Part 2 for some great ideas.
I especially like two of the tips that Weinzweig suggests in the final portion of this series.
- “Just Say Yes”. When a customer calls you with a problem, he/she is often angry, disappointed or frustrated. Before dealing with the problem, it’s important to deal with the feelings. After listening to the customer make his/her points, you can simply say “yes, that sounds like a problem, let’s work something out”. This type of response can diffuse the negitive feelings. It offers the opportunity for the customer to feel “right” and gives you a chance to start to solve the problem rather than being the recipient of all those negitive vibes. After all, if you’ve been agreeable, why would the customer need to stay angry? Now, you can offer some suggestions to resolve the issue.
- “Be Careful Where You Say I’m Going on a Break“. If I’m waiting for a someone to take care of me, there’s nothing more annoying than a sales clerk who sees me standing there, then announces “it’s time for my break”. It’s not that it’s wrong for your employee to take a break when there are customers around, but there’s a better way to deal with this situation. Approach the customer and acknowledge that he/she is waiting. Then tell the customer that you will find someone to help them immediately. This way, the customer feels “noticed” instead of annoyed. Once your employee brings someone else over to the customer and says, “this is Anna; she’ll help you right now”, your employee can quietly leave for a break without ruffling feathers.
These simple, straightforward customer service tips will impress your customers and make them feel that they’ve come to the right place! What other low-cost customer service tips do you use in your business?
July 21st, 2009
Author Ari Weinzweig offers low cost tips for giving great customer service in the June issue of Specialty Food Magazine. As Mr. Weinzweig points out, “great service is about getting the big and small things right—and in this economy, keeping customers happy has even greater significance”.
Read the full article to learn how you can help your staff give your customers the service they want and deserve. One of my favorite tips that he offers is to “be welcoming on the phone”. Too often, we answer the phone while we’re working on other projects. Possibly, we’re working on something that has been frustrating. Or maybe, we just finished dealing with a difficult situation. What we might not realize is that the caller can “hear” our distraction and moods.
Weinzweig suggests that we answer the phone as we would open the door to welcome a customer. “No one would say to a customer walking in the front door: Hurry up and get in here!” Nor should we answer the phone with that tone, but rather should welcome the caller into our business. Instead of just declaring our business name when answering the phone, we can say our name, and ask how we can of service. Instead of just transfering callers to someone they’ve asked to speak with, we can assure them that we’ll check back to make sure they’re not hanging “on hold”.
Sometimes, it’s the little things that leave the best impression on our customers. What other phone techniques have you tried to welcome your customers to your business?
June 30th, 2009
I just reread an article about skills that employees need to be successful in any work environment. This list is great! It outlines all of the qualities and traits that you, as an employer, might want in all your employees. Here’s what is included on the list. Read the full article for more details of each item.
- Carefulness
- Cooperation
- Creativity
- Discipline
- Drive
- Good Attitude
- Good Will
- Influence
- Optimism
- Order
- Safe Work Behaviors
- Savvy
- Sociability
- Stability
- Vigor
Our employees are one of our most critical resources for the success of our businesses. It’s important to let them know what we value. When our employees are clear about our expectations, they can help our business thrive.
June 22nd, 2009
It’s often difficult to stay upbeat when we’re worrying about the financial stability of our businesses. We can become obsessed with cutting costs and forget about all the creative things we’ve done in the past to build our businesses. But in order to be creative and flexible and open to new ideas, we have to feel creative and flexible and open to new ideas! While we may think that putting in 10 hour days is what is needed to get our businesses in shape, it is often that unrelenting focus on problems and how to “fix everything” that is our worst enemy.
Read “Learn to Glow” from Incentive Magazine to learn how to make the shift from problems to possibilities. According to the author, people who “glow” are able to motivate themselves (and their employees) to be energized and embrace innovation (a necessary ingredient to success in difficult times). “People who Glow have mastered three distinct areas of their life:
•They have built deeply trusting and cooperative relationships with others (a co-operative mindset).
•They have extended their networks beyond the obvious to encompass the unusual (jumping across worlds).
•They are on an inner quest that ignites their own energy and that of others (igniting latent energy).”
Read the full article for more ideas on how to turn on your “glow”. Look for new ways to ignite your own energy: exercise, meditation, or hobbies. Don’t deprive yourself of these important activities that help us be the best we can be. When we take care of ourselves, we are better positioned to take care of others and deal with difficult situations in new creative ways.
June 19th, 2009
Have you ever created a great gift basket design that isn’t selling as well as you expected? This is a good time to sit down with your staff and start asking questions!
Get your staff together (with some coffee and snacks) and take a serious look at the design. Come to the meeting with some facts and figures.
- Look at the overall design. Consider the colors and shape of the basket. Does it look elegant? fun? sophisticated? feminine? masculine? Is packed full with product or include just a few gourmet items? Did you use enhancements? Is there a theme? Does the send “send the message” that you had intended? (For example, if you designed a basket full of spa products, you probably want to send a message of “luxury”, “pampering”. Does the container, product, and enhancements that you used convey that message?)
- Look at the individual products. Are these your most popular items? What is the combination of cookies vs. snacks vs. chocolates, etc? What are the price points of each item? Are the individual boxes/packages large or small; simple in design or upscale? (For example, if you created a basket for a corporate setting, does it include products that can be shared by staff instead of all “single serve” items?)
- Look at the customers who have purchased this design: male? female? corporate? For what type of occasion was the basket purchased? Is the basket being purchased by the customers you thought would buy it?
Once you’ve answered some of these questions, you can brainstorm ideas for changes to the design that might better match the goal you had in mind when you originally created the basket.
How can you use these questions to create baskets that are sure to sell? What other questions should you be asking?
June 14th, 2009
Unfortunately, we all face situations in our businesses where a customer is dissatisfied or disappointed with the products or services received. While we strive to do our best, these circumstances require that we use our best communication skills to rectify the problem.
In an article in Incentive Magazine, author Kerry Patterson has six suggestions for resolving conflicts with customers or co-workers. Each suggestion offers a fresh look at how we can use our communication skills to effectively find solutions to what might otherwise seem like an insurmountable problem.
- Never let email replace talking face to face. While it may be convenient, email can cut you off from hearing the real concerns that a customer may have.
- Listen for hesitance. While a customer may be angry, he/she may not want to appear rude or may be cautious about giving their real opinions. Often times, what a customer is not saying is more important than what is actually said.
- Choose tentative language. While it’s important to express your position, try to couch your words in a tone that invites conversation. It’s important to be firm about your position, but avoid sounding harsh or defensive.
- Seek different views. Once you’ve expressed your ideas about resolving a problem, ask the other person for his/her thoughts.
- Play devil’s advocate. Although you might have a great resolution in mind, your solutions might not match the customer’s needs. Point out how your solutions might be better with feedback and suggestions from another point of view.
- Allow time. The unhappy customer might need some time to consider how your suggestions will help to correct the problem. This gives your customer to clarify what he/she really wants.
Read the full article to get the most of the author’s ideas. As Patterson says: “Your goal should be to come to a shared understanding, not to win”. Try out some of these ideas and discover how you can keep your customers satisfied.
June 7th, 2009
As we try to regain our share of the market and keep our customers coming back, we often turn to strategies for advertising and marketing. And many of these approaches cost money which we might not have in our budgets during these tough economic times.
In the May issue of Specialty Food Magazine, author Ari Weinzweig offers some “no cost” ideas for attracting and keeping customers. Here’s some ideas that you can easily implement.
- Make Your Customers Feel Welcome. Whether you have a “brick and mortar” store, or you do most of your business by phone, it’s critical that we make our customers “feel good” as soon as they contact us. If you have a store, this can be easily accomplished by greeting each customer with a smile and a big “hello”. Make sure that your employees don’t assume that someone else is taking care of the customer. Every employee should stop what they’re doing for a moment to say hello and inquire as to whether the customer needs some help. Likewise, your employees need to be attentive when they answer the phone. I’ve had many experiences when I’ve called a business and the person answering the phone sounds harried or bored or generally, less than enthusiastic. Frankly, that type of greeting makes me cranky (not a good attitude for a customer)! Ask your employees to stop what they’re doing when they answer the phone and act as if the person is right in front of them. In other words, smile and say hello with warmth…and mean it!
- Actively Engage the Customer. Whether the customer is in your store or on the phone, your employees should spend as much time with them as possible (instead of trying to finish up the sale quickly). Taking some time to “chat”, and using good questioning techniques coupled with good listening, an employee can learn a lot. While the customer might be purchasing a gift for her mother, she might remark while chatting that her husband’s birthday is around the corner or a friend just had a baby. These could be two more opportunities to sell a gourmet basket.
- Make Time for Employee “Tune-ups”. While we might do an excellent job with orientation and training with our new employees, we sometimes forget that our long-term employees could also use a refresher course in customer service. In addition to traditional training opportunities such as workshops, have your older employees help train the new recruits. Ask them to tell the “newbies” how they treat new customers: what they do to keep the customers happy and coming back. This might be just the reminder they need to “perk up” when they are greeting and waiting on your customers.
Read the full article and take advantage of these “no cost” ways that you can increase customer loyalty and satisfaction AND see the results in your bottom line. Please share your ideas on “no cost” ways to make your business grow.
May 16th, 2009
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