Home » Hiring » Page 7

Category: Hiring

I Have a Money Tree

I have a Money Tree sitting on my desk. It promises me that if I give it sunlight, water it, and praise it, I will get money as if it grew on trees.

I don’t know.

I have twelve other “Money Trees” in the store. They are named Ruth, Erica, Lakisha, Kristina, Kathy, Elaine, Amy, Jesse, Richard, Nate, Ken, and Missy.

I do know that if I give them Autonomy (sunlight – the trust that they can do their jobs without my constant hands-on supervision), Mastery (water – the training to improve and grow), and Purpose (praise – the reason we’re here –  to make you smile), then they will get money in far greater quantities than any desk-sized tree.

You really should read Daniel H. Pink’s book Drive. It made is making a world of difference for me.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS That is not an affiliate link for that book. I don’t make money by promoting other people’s books. If I make a recommendation, it is because I believe in the product. Pure and simple.

PPS I do like my Money Tree, though. It reminds me to go out and get some sunlight every now and then.

PPPS You buy plants that want to grow. Hire people who want to grow, too.

Don’t Disturb the Bus Driver! (A Lesson from a High School Field Trip)

I went on a field trip with my son put on by his band teacher.

We saw the Detroit Symphony Orchestra do a Bugs Bunny show – they played the music while the cartoons played on the screen. (Kill the wabbit!!). Took me back to the Saturday mornings of my childhood.

We went to lunch at a fun restaurant in the ever-growing Midtown Detroit area where the city is beginning to rise from the ashes. The place was huge! The place was packed! (not even counting our group) The food was great!

We went to Hitsville, USA, the Motown Museum. I got to sing My Girl in the exact same studio where it was first recorded!

We went to the Detroit Institute of Art. I saw art from all the biggies – Van Goh, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Ruben, Picasso, Degas, Monet and more. Fascinating stuff!

We topped it off with a Detroit Red Wings game! Now that’s a field trip!

Among the many rules handed down to the students and chaperones, the one rule emphasized quite regularly was, “Don’t disturb the bus driver!”

The bus driver was not our tour guide. He was not our ticket dispenser. He was not our party planner. He was not there to answer questions or give advice. His job was to drive the bus, and drive it well. Period. End of story.

I know that I am guilty in my store of expecting all the staff to do all the jobs. But not all the jobs require the same skills. My office manager needs to be highly organized, neat, good at math, able to problem solve, with good follow-up and follow-through skills. Friendly? Yeah, that’s helpful, but not required. Able to sell? Only in a pinch.

I could try to find someone who had those latter skills, but I might have to compromise on the skills I really want. Never do that. Never compromise on the perfect skills for the job.

First. you’ll get both jobs done better. Second, a better job means the customers will be delighted more. With all deference to the Hokey Pokey, that’s what it’s all about.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The best thing to do is to take each job in your business and write up a list of the most desirable skills for that job. Prioritize those skills, too. That way you know what you’re looking for when you plan to hire someone to do the job. When you find someone who fits the values of your team and has those skills, move whatever mountain you need to hire him or her.

You are in the Job of Persuasion

Your job is simple – to persuade.

Persuade the best people to work for you.
Persuade those people to do more for you than they thought possible.
Persuade your vendors to give you good terms for the best products.
Persuade your customers to visit you in droves.
Persuade them to part with their hard-earned dollars.
Persuade them to bring their friends back.
Persuade your banker to give you a loan.
Persuade your local media to give you a plug.
Persuade your city council to pass laws and ordinances in your favor.

My friend, and one of the most amazingly persuasive writers I know, Jeff Sexton, posted this video that he got from another friend, Tim Miles (who you all know coined the term Shareworthy and is the smartest man I’ve ever met when it comes to Customer Service.)

This will be 11 minutes and 50 seconds you will start and stop often to take notes and watch over and over again. You’ll probably be using this at your next sales staff meeting (I am).

A couple million of your friends, colleagues and competitors have already seen it. You should, too.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS See if you can tell me which of the 6 techniques I attempted to use to persuade you to watch the above video. Yes, this applies to Sales & Customer Service. It also applies to Marketing & Advertising. It also applies to Hiring & Training. It also applies to Word of Mouth. You’re always persuading. You might as well get good at it.

Asking the Right Questions

The first few years I interviewed people for positions on the team I asked a bunch of questions. Most of them were the wrong questions.

I asked a lot of “What if…” questions. You know, “What would you do if a customer comes up to you with a complaint about…?”

Questions that are based on speculation will only get you answers the interviewee thinks you want to hear.

Those are of no value to you. About all they can tell you is whether that person has done any research on your company’s policies and values. They rarely show how the interviewee will actually react when facing that situation.

The right questions to ask are questions about their previous actions. Our actions speak louder than our words about who we are and what we believe.

Use this phrase, “Tell me about a time when…”

Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond your job expectations to help a customer.

If they can’t tell you a time, then they probably never did. What they tell you also gives you insight into what they think is above and beyond. It tells you how they perceive their role and whether they even believe they can do what is right versus what is policy. You might also learn that they are mavericks who do their own thing regardless of what policy might be.

Tell me about a time when you had to help a friend in need.

You learn a lot about loyalty, helpfulness and what friend means.

Tell me about a time when you had to stay later than you were scheduled. (getting the job done versus just putting in the hours)

Tell me about a time when you were short-staffed and everyone had to do extra. (how they view hard work and stressful situations)

Tell me about a time when you received the worst customer service while out shopping. (their view of what bad customer service looks like)

Tell me about a time when you received the best customer service while out shopping. (their view of what good customer service looks like)

Tell me about a time when you had to solve a problem and no one was there to help you. (their approach to problem solving)

Tell me about a time when someone at work did something especially nice for you. (how they relate to other workers)

Tell me about the worst thing you ever had to do on the job. (how they get along with co-workers and bosses)

Actions speak louder than words. Decide which actions you want your employees to take, then ask them to tell you how they’ve taken those actions before. This one little tip changed the quality of my new hires overnight.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Some of your interviewees will hem and haw at answering these kinds of questions. They were prepared to tell you what they thought you wanted to hear. Take that as a sign. Others will tell you things that will astound you. If they get on a good story, keep it going. The longer they tell a story, the more passion you’ll see and the more it will reveal.

Making a List, Checking it Twice

No, I’m not Santa (although some people in Jackson might disagree).

The list I am making is the list of traits my seasonal staff needs to have. Things like…

  • A willingness to learn
  • Knowledge of toys
  • Knowledge of play and play value
  • Ability to do math
  • Ability to work on a computer
  • A strong, confident voice
  • Friendliness
  • Problem Solver
  • Can giftwrap a package
  • Loves to help others
  • Has legible handwriting
  • Works well with others
  • Energy to stand on your feet all day

Wouldn’t you love it if your seasonal staff had all those traits?

Which ones are deal killers (if they don’t have it, you can’t hire them)? Which ones do you think you could teach? Which ones do you know you could never teach?

Make a list like this for every position in your business. Then take that list and make a second list. Separate the first list into two columns – the stuff you cannot teach, the stuff you can teach.

Now go hire someone with the stuff you cannot teach, and train them on everything else.

As for the deal killers – those are the first things you need to identify in your interview process. That’s how you get a seasonal staff up to your level of customer service in short order.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Friendliness, Problem Solver, Loves to Help Others, A Willingness to Learn – those are my deal killers. You don’t have those traits, you don’t work for me.

Head Cheerleader

Who is the head cheerleader for your business?

Who is the one that puts the smile on everyone’s face and the determination in their hearts? Who picks people up when they are down, finds the silver lining in the cloud, points out the positives?

Who raises the energy level up when it starts to lag? Who gets everyone on board when something new happens? Who makes sure the projects get done right and on time and with a good attitude?

Right now you’re expecting me to say this is your job.

It isn’t.

You need an influencer on your staff. You need a high-energy, positive-attitude, get-it-done person on your staff. You need a head cheerleader on your staff. Someone that isn’t you. You probably already have this person on the team.

Can you identify that person right now? She is the most important person on your team, regardless of her position. She has your back. She makes things go. She infects everyone with her approach.

Seth Godin calls her the linchpin.

You can call her anything you want. Just be sure to appreciate what she does for your business and make sure you do what you have to do to keep her. And if you don’t have one, go out a find one. She is worth far more than you’ll ever pay her.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, you can have more than one on your staff. In fact, try to have a full team of cheerleader/linchpins if you can. Makes your job a lot easier.

How do you find them? You identify the traits you want them to have, write an ad that spells out who they are, set up an interview process that identifies those traits, and put in place a program that rewards them and keeps them happy. Sounds simple and intuitive, but you would be surprised how many retailers (including big chains) have no such system in place.

Broken Communication, Broken Trust

One of my employees bought a new house. She got bombarded with the typical mail a new home owner gets. Tons of offers for phone and Internet and cable services. She received close to a dozen offers from one particular company for her cable and Internet.

She finally decided to talk to an agent. You all know how that worked out.

The great offers in the mailings were nowhere to be found in the offers made by the agent. In fact, he seemed to have no clue about them and wasn’t about to go find out.

Words like slimy, snake oil, scam artist, and bait-and-switch come to mind. Definitely a huge lack of trust.

But what if he just didn’t know? What if no one in marketing had told him about the great deals they were mailing out to potential customers? What if no one had trained him well enough to know where and when to check for special deals? What if no one had followed up to make sure he was aware of the current programs?

What if you told your customers about a great deal or announced a fun event on Facebook and forgot to tell your part-time high school kid who only works nine hours a week? Forgot to inform the weekend manager who had been on vacation?  Forgot to train your seasonal staff to read the promotions book at the beginning of each shift?

Can you see how trust can be so easily broken?

My general optimism would like to believe that what my employee experienced with the cable company was nothing more than a communication problem between marketing and sales. Whether that is true or not, at least it is a lesson we all can learn.

If you’re planning an event or a promotion. Make sure everyone is in on it and knows ALL the details. The trust you’ve already worked so hard to earn depends on it.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Your entire reputation can hinge on the actions of one employee to one customer. Bad will spreads much more easily than good will. That’s a lot of pressure to make the right decisions in the hiring and training process. If you haven’t yet read Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff into a Work of Art, now might be a good time before you start hiring for the holidays.

Peeing Before the Race

Jeff Foxworthy cracks a wonderful joke about a financial planner who advises that you take half your earnings and shove them under a mattress and the other half down to the track and bet it on the dog “who does his business just before the start of the race.”

You laugh because you know there is some truth in that last statement. The dog who does his business is going to be better suited to run a fast race.

Your race is about to start. Have you done your business?

Have you looked around the store to see what is old and out-of-date, broken and need of fixing? Get it fixed now.

Have you identified the must-have items for your store? Order more of them now.

Have you crunched your numbers to see how much you need to buy between now and Thanksgiving? Get out the calculator and a pencil today and do a little math.

Have you sat down with each staff member to show them what it will take for them to get to the next level? Set aside some time in your calendar starting Monday.

Have you updated your website? Have you planned out your events? Have you ordered giftwrap and bows and bags? Have you crafted your message? Have you plotted out your staffing needs?

The race will start whether you are ready or not.

Your chance of winning goes up when you do your business before the race.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS September is a great time for doing your business. The kids are back in school. There is a collective sigh in September between the Back-to-School season and the Holiday Rush. Make a list of everything you do this September. Write it all down. When you can look at what you did this month, you’ll quickly see whether what you are doing is leading you to a better November/December or not. Plus, you’ll have a good reminder for what to do next year.

Toy Store or Summer Camp?

Over the past several months my staff has been looking at all the parallels between our store and summer camp.

Summer camps are built around a theme (i..e. space and science camp) and a set of core values (i.e. YMCA camps). Our store is built around the theme of toys and baby products with core values of Fun, Helpful, Educational, and Nostalgic.

Summer camps have core activities that are the whole reason you are there (canoeing, horseback riding, writing, etc). We have products that are the whole reason you are here.

Summer camps have Rituals, time-honored traditions that are unique and special. They have rituals that only those who attend will know, making the campers feel like insiders. We have rituals, too, such as the birthday bell, Saturday flag raising ceremonies, story times, game nights, etc. that make our customers feel like insiders.

Summer camps have special events and activities like playing Capture the Flag, doing a swamp stomp, or star gazing on a moonless night. We have special events like play days and author book signings.

Summer camps have all kinds of kids in the cabin that require skilled counselors to work with them. There is the homesick kid, the bully, the know-it-all and the natural leader. We have all kinds of different customers who require skilled employees to work with them in different ways, too. Just knowing and acknowledging those differences makes the cabin and the store a whole lot better.

Summer camps know a few other things we should copy. When is the best time to get a kid signed up for next year’s camp? On the last day of this year’s camp, when the memories and emotions are at their strongest. When is the best time to create a happy customer? At the moment of checkout by praising her purchasing decisions, helping her complete the sale by making sure she has everything she needs, and giving her some tips for how to use her new items.

Summer camp is a powerful metaphor for how you should run your retail store. Watch how summer camps do everything from hiring and training their staff to planning their activities to marketing their programs to making sure the memories last. The best camps do things you should be doing, too.

Anyone who has been to summer camp has memories etched forever in their minds. Do what the summer camps do and you can etch similar memories in the minds of your customers.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS There are other industries from which we can learn to be better retailers. Look at amusement parks. You can ride their coattails (pun fully intended) to lots of great lessons and ideas.

A Full Day of Customer Service Training

In a couple of weeks I’m going to Manistee, MI, a beautiful small town on Lake Michigan with an active Main Street DDA program and some lovely shops.

They’ve hired me to spend a few days working with them on Customer Service. When I get to town, I’m going to visit a few stores and ask them about their hopes and dreams, ask them about their challenges, ask them how they define Customer Service.

The following day I’m going to present them all of this…

CORE VALUES
This session will be a workshop where each participant will be led through a process of uncovering the 3-4 Core Values that drive both them and their business.  We will use three different techniques for helping each participant create his or her own Character Diamond.  Depending on time, we will have each person share his/her diamond with the entire class.  We will at least have a few people share so that others can learn from the examples.

Purpose: To create a framework around which every element of Shareworthy Customer Service (SCS) is derived. (thanks, Tim Miles, for the word Shareworthy).

WORD OF MOUTH
This session will illustrate the different ways in which a business can generate Word of Mouth – including Over-the-Top Design, Over-the-Top Service, and Over-the-Top Generosity, Secrets and Surprise.  Participants will be given a number of examples of each, then asked to come up with one form of Generosity/Design and one method of Sharing Secrets that they can easily incorporate into their business.

Purpose: To show what it takes to get customers to actually Share their experiences.

PUTTING CUSTOMERS FIRST
This session will explore a variety of interactions a customer has with a typical (retail) business and talk through the various levels of Customer Service from Weak to WOW

Purpose: To show what it really means to put the customer first, how to delight her, and how to make the experience memorable and share-worthy

TEACHING YOUR STAFF
This session will teach the participants how to plan a training program for teaching their staff everything they are learning today.  The seminar will show them the basics for planning meetings and trainings that the staff will look forward to attending, how to make the information stick, how to prep the staff for meetings/trainings, and how to follow-up after the meeting/training is over.

Purpose: It is one thing to learn it yourself.  It is completely different to be able to teach it to others.  Since most participants will have a staff, this session is to show them how to create staff meetings and trainings that will help them teach this to their frontline workers.

CREATE A TRAINING WORKSHOP
This session will be a hands-on workshop where the participants will split into teams and be given different elements of Customer Service around which they will plan a meeting/training (based on the method learned in the previous session)

Purpose: To put into practice what they have learned both on creating a staff training session and on SCS.  To create camaraderie and bonding.  To have fun.

HIRING AND TRAINING A MASTERPIECE
This session will show the participants how the steps a potter uses to create a work of art can be applied to the hiring and training process, turning your staff into a masterpiece.  The session will include creating a non-teachable traits list for a variety of positions in your company, including some interview questions to help draw out those traits.

Purpose: To illustrate the point that all the training in the world won’t help if you don’t have the right people in place.  To show how to consistently find the right people.  To give the participants a blueprint they can follow for hiring and training.

SHARING YOUR PLANS
After creating their trainings, each group will share their plan with the rest.  After presentations, the plans will be copied/shared for everyone to use with their own teams.

Purpose: To help each participant have a developed plan for teaching SCS to their staff.  To make sure we have taught our points well.  To give a review of everything discussed throughout the day.

Results:  At the end of the day each participant will have…

  • Created a Character Diamond
  • Learned how to generate Word of Mouth
  • Thought up at least two ways to generate Word of Mouth with their business
  • Learned a new definition and way of looking at Customer Service
  • Learned a method for planning Staff Meetings/Trainings That Everyone Wants to Attend
  • Created a training session for one particular element of SCS
  • Received a complete portfolio of training sessions for all elements of SCS
  • Learned a method for consistently hiring and training the right people to implement higher levels of SCS

Yeah, it is going to be a fun, packed day of learning. And when we’re done, Manistee will never be the same.

Would your town be interested in a program like this?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you’re anywhere near the west side of northern, lower peninsula Michigan and want to attend, contact Travis Alden. If they have space available, he might just let you in.

Travis Alden
Director, Manistee Main Street
Downtown Development Authority
231-398-3262
www.manisteedowntown.com