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My Staff Training Philosophies

One of the fun things about closing up the shop is finding hidden treasures as I empty filing cabinets. This is one of those treasures. I don’t know when I wrote it, but I do remember writing it. I was on a flight home from a conference or workshop and one of the speakers asked us to write down our philosophy about our staff and why we should train them.

Here is what I wrote…

For those who can’t see the image or read my handwriting…

Philosophies

Staff Training –

-Staff is only as good as you allow them to be

-Staff rises/falls to your expectations

-Attitude of Management directs attitude of staff

-Communication is #1 key
–Communication of Expectations
–Communication of Information necessary to do job
–Communication two-way street

-Empowerment is key #2
–Empower to make decisions
–Empower to use Imagination/Creativity
–Empower to solve problems

-Motivation is key #3
–Motivation through financial rewards
–Motivation through personal satisfaction
–Motivation through recognition

-Need to put staff into position to succeed
–Play to their strengths
–Give them “tools” to do their job

-Have Confidence in…
–Your Knowledge
–Their Training
–Their Abilities

There you go. There’s your blueprint for a killer staff. Go make it happen.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I think I wrote this after a trip to Wizard Academy, but I’m not exactly sure. Based on where I found it, it was likely written between 2004-2009.

Preparing Your Staff for Life

One of my talented regulars on my staff just put in her two-week notice. She is leaving me for a new full-time job teaching art.

JUST A JOB (?)

As much as I love my job and my business and the difference we make in other peoples’ lives, I know where Retail Sales Clerk sits on the hierarchy of employment. Unless you’re in management or ownership, it is a job, not a career.

When my employee told me what she would be doing next, I gave her a standing ovation. I could not be happier for her. It is a huge step up for her in many ways. Sure, I will miss her and I’ll have to find a way to replace her. But in the long run this is a great opportunity for her and a chance for me to bring in some new blood with new energy and ideas, too.

The only real question I had was more internal… Had I helped to prepare her for this next step?

Had I helped her hone and practice skills that would be helpful working with others? Had I helped her hone and practice skills for teaching? (Education is one of our Core Values). Had I helped her hone and practice skills for dealing with conflict? Had I helped her hone and practice skills for finding creative solutions to all kinds of problems?

I believe it is my responsibility as an employer to help my employees prepare not just for working specifically at my store but also for what may come next. Maybe it is a management job. Maybe it is a new career. Maybe it is a new role. Maybe it is to stay home and raise a family. Maybe it is simply to be better than they were last week, last month, or last year. Personal growth is not just an idea. It is part of the culture.

INVEST IN YOUR ASSETS

Some retailers look at their employees as their biggest expense. But when Customer Service is your one true advantage over your competitors, your employees are instead your biggest asset. Properly invested, that asset can give you incredible growth.

Training – whether it is done in group settings, one-on-one, by videos or online – is the most valuable and least utilized tool you have in your Retail Tool Kit.

Bob Negen of Whizbang Training is a big fan of videos. Short, simple, raw videos of your best teacher (you?) teaching one technique or skill at a time. No fancy production necessary. Just someone with a smartphone taping you being you.

I’m a big fan of the monthly Staff Meeting. I choose a grand theme and goal for each year and plan step-by-step trainings to reach that goal.

Maybe you do your best work one-on-one or your staff size is such that anything else wouldn’t make sense. That’s great. Just take the time and keep investing.

Remember, though, that you aren’t just preparing them for the job. You are preparing them for life. Take that approach and it changes the way you invest and the rewards you reap.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Here is one of the rewards you might not think about. When employees move on from my store, my reputation goes with them. If they lack the skills, it reflects poorly on me. But when they rock the house, it makes me look like a star, too, and raises the esteem people have of our business.

The Ideal Employee

I was digging through some old staff newsletters and came across this article. At one of our staff trainings I asked the staff to create what they called The Ideal Employee…


THE IDEAL EMPLOYEE
(reprinted from the August 2002 Team News)

Here is the composite of what you identified as the “Ideal Employee”…

Attitude—The Ideal Employee will have a positive attitude at all times, whether it is dealing with
customers or with other employees. He or she will use a friendly voice and have a helpful demeanor in all interactions with others.

Appearance—The Ideal Employee will dress appropriately in a conservative, business-casual outfit.  The Ideal Employee will not have his or her midriff exposed (or other body parts that should not be seen). The Ideal Employee will wear appropriate footwear—no sandals or open-toed shoes. The Ideal Employee will have his or her hair combed neatly and a general appearance of cleanliness. Finally, the Ideal Employee will always “wear” a smile.

Knowledge—The Ideal Employee will know and understand…

  • How to run a cash register
  • How to answer phones and take phone orders
  • Our policies of our many services such as gift wrapping, layaway, delivery and assembly.
  • How to measure packages for UPS shipping
  • The products that we sell
  • The hours of our operation and how to give directions to get here
  • Where to go or who to talk to for any information he or she doesn’t know
  • His or her schedule so that he or she will always be on time

Commitment—The Ideal Employee will be committed to helping the customer, or when unable, finding another person to help the customer. The Ideal Employee will be committed to assisting other employees with scheduling conflicts. The Ideal Employee will be committed to helping out in areas that are not his or her responsibility when no one else is available.  The Ideal Employee will be committed to making sure that all customers are being helped, and that all customers and other employees are treated with respect.  The Ideal Employee will be committed to protecting the store from theft.

That’s what my staff came up with 13 years ago. I’m curious what they will create this year.
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS Although this is a good blueprint for any retail staff, you should have your own staff create what they believe to be the Ideal Employee. You’ll get better buy-in from them that way.

Three Questions That Have All the Answers

(Note: I submitted this to Wizard Academy for a project where they asked business leaders what our two to three secrets are that have helped us succeed. My three secrets are these three questions…)

I have been told that I have an uncanny knack for taking difficult ideas & concepts and breaking them down so that they are easy to understand. Others call it a God-given talent. The true secret is in three simple questions.

I was twenty-three when I learned about the power of these three questions. I was working at YMCA Storer Camps teaching Team Building through Wilderness and Experiential Education programs when John Foster and Phil DeLong taught me all about, “What? So What? Now What?” as a way to process learning.

It looks like this…

WHAT? What happened? What did we do? What worked? What didn’t work? Where did we start? Where did we end?

These are questions that talk about the CONCRETE. These are the questions that help us identify the task we attempted, the action we took. When working with a group doing a team building exercise, the first step is to make sure we are all on the same page with what actually happened. So we ask the What? questions. We ask them to relive the experience and talk through what they did.

SO WHAT? So what did we learn? So what can we infer from our results? So what does that show us? So what will we do differently next time?

These are the questions that talk about the ABSTRACT. After we identify what we did, we have to learn from it. We have to extract the lessons. When working with a group on a team building exercise, if we don’t learn from what we did, then we are merely playing. The So What? questions draw out that lesson or idea. The So What? questions give the activity meaning.

(Note: if you don’t establish the What? first, you’ll have a hard time drawing out the So What? lessons. So What? questions can only be asked after the What? has been firmly established.)

NOW WHAT? Now what will we do with this new understanding? Now what do we do with what we’ve learned? Now what is the next step? Now what will we do when we get back to the office?

These are the questions that talk about the APPLICATION. Now what do we do with what we’ve learned? A good team builder not only helps a group learn the lesson from their activity, but also how to apply that lesson to other parts of their life. It is one thing to learn about proper communication while crossing a swamp with a string of tire swings. It is something else to learn how to apply straight-forward, no-mincing of words, chain-of-command communications to the office to keep everyone safe and swinging in harmony, too.

(Note: if you don’t establish the So What? lesson first, you’ll have a hard time drawing out the Now What? applications. Now What? questions can only be asked after the So What? lesson has been firmly understood.)


USING IT EVERY SINGLE DAY

Even though I spend more time running a retail toy store and teaching classes to fellow retailers than I do team building, I find that I am using What? So What? Now What? most every single day.

I use it training my staff… What did we do for this training activity? We asked questions, had to listen to the response, and then repeat the response back to the other team member. What were some of the problems? Trying to remember what was said. Why was that a problem? Because we weren’t used to repeating back, only responding. What was in your way? Not listening properly. How did repeating back what they said help? It forced us to listen better and helped us be more accurate. Why would this be important? The better we listen and be accurate with what a customer says, the better we can solve their problem.

I use it interviewing for new employees… Tell me about a time when you received Great Customer Service (concrete). So what made that so special? (abstract). How would you apply that to you working here? (application).

It is especially effective when I teach classes and do workshops. Just a few weeks ago I did a one-hour class on Inventory Management for pet store owners. This class involves a lot more math and fewer jokes than other workshops and classes I teach. The feedback and vibe from the audience during this class is the lowest of any class I offer. The only real way I can evaluate how things are going is from the questions the participants ask during Q&A. If they are asking What? questions then I failed miserably. They didn’t understand the math I want them to do. If they are asking So What? questions then I still failed miserably. They understood the math but don’t get why they need it. But if they are asking Now What? questions then I know I got the point across and they just want to apply it to their own situation. At last week’s class, all the questions were of Application.

I even use this with advertising. If I want to make a factual point (concrete) then I have to explain why it is an important point (abstract) and what to do with that point (application). More importantly, if I make an abstract point, I better back it up with concrete facts if I want people to apply it.

It took me a while to wrap my head around this model of questioning, but once I did, it made facilitating and leading others much easier. Whenever a discussion bogs down, I simply drop back a level of questioning and make sure we have established the previous level before moving on. This gets everyone back onto the same page. This is my simple little secret for making difficult ideas understandable.

  • What did we do?
  • So what did we learn?
  • Now what will we do with that knowledge?

Learn to use it in your life. It will make a difference.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS It even works with children. I use it with my boys all the time. They get a lot of Aha! moments through these questions.

Always Have a Second Pair of Eyes

I came across this sign while delivering some baby furniture the other day.

Three lessons…

  • Never let your high school drop out make your signs. 
  • Always have an educated person proof read your signs before you put them up. 
  • Don’t trust spell-check.

Enjoy your weekend smile.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Had the flavor been Spinach Souffle, I might have thought they had done that sign on purpose. A little humor can go a long way. But humor is like nitro glycerin. It can blow up in your face if handled poorly.

Teaching Your Staff to Listen

“I’ll have a poppy seed salad, half-size, with a baguette and drink for here, please.”

“Okay. What salad would you like?”

“Poppy seed. Half-sized.”

“Okay, what side? You can have chips, baguette or an apple.”

“Baguette.”

“Would you like a drink?”

“Yes.”

“Will this be to go?”

You can imagine this exchange. Maybe you have had this exchange. This is word for word the exchange one of my employees shared with me from a recent lunch break.

Listening is a far underrated skill that needs to be on your list of traits.

Fortunately, there are ways to train listening skills. Here are two exercises you can do with your staff to help them work on their listening skills.

REPEATING THE QUESTION

Pair up your staff and have one ask the other person random questions. Before the other person can answer, he or she must first repeat the question back to the one asking. Have them each ask four questions of each other.

Your staff will get two benefits from this. First, you get them trained in the process of repeating and paraphrasing the question back to the customer. This technique forces them to listen and also clarifies what the customer really wants or needs. They will be better able to solve the customer’s problems.

Second, they will get to know more about each other, so it becomes a team building exercise as well.

WHY I LIKE WORKING HERE

Have the staff pair up again. Have each person tell the other their favorite reasons for working here. Let them know that they will have to tell the group what the other person told them.

This also has two benefits. First, they have to listen to be able to repeat. Second, when you are all done, everyone will have heard everyone else telling them why they like working at your store. Talk about a major morale boost!

After doing both of these exercises, talk about the importance of listening, repeating back, and clarifying. Challenge them to practice the repeating back all day every day with every customer until it becomes habit.

Not only will their listening skills improve, so will their morale and your sales.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I had an advertising sale rep who used this repeating back technique almost to the point of annoyance. Here is the deal, though. He never made a mistake. He never got it wrong. He always did exactly what I wanted. I appreciated it so much and was crushed when he retired (early because he had done so well as a salesman with that technique).

A Simple Tip to Change Your Customer’s Lasting Impression

I figured this time it would be different. This time I was handing the cashier $33 for a $32.53 bill. This time I was only going to get change back. This time they wouldn’t place those bills in my hand first, then dump the change on top of those bills so that it could slide off the bills and onto the floor, the counter, or the road beneath the door I couldn’t open in the drive-thru lane.

I was wrong.

He placed a receipt in my waiting hand, dumped the change onto the receipt, then watched with apathetic disdain as the two pennies slid off the receipt, rolled back across the counter and fell somewhere below his feet. With a half-hearted apology, he bumbled around under the counter until he found the two pennies. I was ready to leave, already pissed off that no one ever taught him this simple trick.

Place the coins in the hand first, followed by the bills, followed by the receipt.

First, if you’re counting back change – something you should learn to do – then you will always do it this way.

Second, it is far easier to grab bills while holding coins than to grab coins while holding bills. Try it.

Third, this is usually one of the last impressions a customer has of your store. If that impression is your half-hearted apology, or worse, her having to scramble on the floor to get her money back, then you aren’t sending her out on a positive note. She will have that bad taste in her mouth next time she decides where to shop and she won’t even know exactly why she chose not to go to your store.

It isn’t all that hard to train. It isn’t all that hard to do. It seems like a small thing, but because of where it happens in the grand arc of her experience, it takes on a larger significance.

I didn’t want to wait around for two pennies. But I did, getting more frustrated with every passing second. I didn’t even want the receipt in the first place. I used to try to teach these cashiers the right way to do it, but decided that wasn’t my job. Nowadays I just shake my head and make note of which businesses could use a training program (hint: every fast food drive thru, almost every chain store on the planet, and way too many indie retailers).

It is simple to give the change first. Plus, it makes a difference in the lasting impression she has of your store. Why more stores don’t teach this technique is beyond my understanding. Wouldn’t you think big chains like Subway would know this?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS This is a non-negotiable for my staff. During training they are told that if they are ever caught giving back the bills first, they can seek employment elsewhere. There is no excuse for not doing something this easy the right way each and every time.

PPS Although I teach them and encourage them to count back the change, I am not as tough on that particular skill, so long as they hand over the change first. They instead say something to the effect of, “Your change is $1.58. Here is the 58 cents. Here is the dollar.”

Avoiding the Discount Mentality

Everyone wants a discount. Everyone wants a deal. Everyone wants a coupon. Or so you might be led to believe.

One of my employees went to a fast food restaurant and said, “I’d like a three-piece strips, a biscuit, and a small drink.”

The employee answered, “The drink isn’t included with that.”

She responded, “That’s okay, I want a three-piece strips, a biscuit, and a small drink.”

He replied, “But the drink isn’t included.”

She said, “I don’t care if it is included or not, I want a three-piece strips, a biscuit, and a small drink.”

He replied, “But the drink isn’t included. You’ll have to pay extra for the drink.”

This went on for several more exchanges until the clerk finally got her what she wanted. He had no concept of how to take care of a customer if it didn’t fit into his special value meal buttons.

Unfortunately, his actions aren’t far from his experiences. There are many customers out there who would have not gotten the drink because it wasn’t part of the bargain. They would have ended with the strips and biscuit or chosen something else that included a drink.

That is the Discount Mentality that has taken over much of America. And it is reinforced and fueled by retailers all across the country who only offer customers the bundles, deals and specials. 

Don’t be that store.

There are also a large swath of shoppers who are more like my employee, who know exactly what they want and how they want it. They are willing to pay extra for the drink, because to get it any other way is to not get what they want.

While the rest of the world caters to the Discount Mentality…

  • You need to find and hire employees who don’t think that way. 
  • You need to train your team to first give the customer exactly what she wants (and then worry about any specials or deals). 
  • You need to create a store where falling in love with the product is more important than fitting a budget or a price. 

You do that and you’ll have plenty of customers willingly paying extra for the drink. They’re thirsty for a store that gives them exactly what they want and how they want it.

Be that store.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For those of you who have read Dr. Ross Honeywill’s book One Hundred Thirteen Million Markets of One, you’ll know that I am talking about selling to NEO’s. I’ll show you how to get customers to fall in love with your products in the next post.

Super Heroes aren’t Born, They are Made

I saw the new Avengers: Age of Ultron movie last night. Loved it!! I love the super hero movies in general. But some people are complaining that it is becoming over-the-top.

Avengers: Age of Ultron copyright Marvel Comics, source IMDB.com

It seems like every few years they reboot the franchise for our beloved super heroes. We’ve had two different Spider-men and five Spider-man movies since 2002, yet another reboot is scheduled for 2017. Fantastic 4 is getting a re-do this summer. And lord knows, Batman has gone through so many do-overs that you would need a stadium to host a party of everyone who has ever played the role.

Do we really need all those genesis stories?

I say yes! The genesis story is most often my favorite of the super hero movies because it reminds me of one simple truth…

Super Heroes are not born, they are made.

Oh sure, they may be born with super powers. But powers alone don’t make you a hero. You have to learn to harness those powers and use them for a purpose. They have to be trained to grow into that hero role.

Every retailer wishes they had a super hero team working the store. You just have to put in the effort to develop that team.

  • First, you have to find those people with the super powers you want. (The Interview)
  • Then you have to train them to use those powers for the purpose of growing your store. (The Training)
  • Finally you have to get them to use those powers in conjunction with the other super heroes on your team. (The Continual Education and Team Building)

No small task for sure. But not impossible, either. You just have to put on your Nick Fury eye-patch and start assembling your team.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, this is a different metaphor than the usual one I use for building your team. But the steps in creating a team of super heroes are exactly the same as the steps for creating a Work of Art. It all starts with having the right raw materials (super powers).

Is It Just a Block?

Last night I showed my staff the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium featuring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Jason Bateman.

I own a toy store, so the movie hits close to the heart.

For those not familiar with the movie, there are three other characters of note in the movie… a young boy named Eric, the store itself, and a magical block of wood called the Congreve Cube.

Paraphrasing from the movie… a block of wood has a million possibilities, but first someone has to believe in it.

There are things you originally believed when you first got into retail. There are feelings you had of excitement and joy and wonder. When you build a truly magical store, your customers get that same feeling of excitement and joy and wonder when they visit.

But sometimes you lose that feeling.

You get buried in paperwork and staffing issues and ordering and receiving and paying bills. You spend hours staring at computer screens or sitting in your office or rushing from one fire to the next. The magic may still exist for the customers, but you packed your magic into a box years ago. Next will be your staff to pack it in. And then your customers in this downward spiral.

Yet your business still sits there like a block of wood with millions of possibilities unexplored. It just needs someone to believe in it again.

I gave each of my staff their own Congreve Cube last night with the promise that I will not be a this-is-how-we’ve-always-done-it guy. I told them the block of wood represents a million possibilities that our store can still become. I challenged them to explore those possibilities and turn them into realities.

It only took a couple of seconds before ideas started flying. We’ll be running with those ideas today.

Go ahead and watch the movie. You don’t have to be a toy store to be magical and full of wonder. You just have to believe.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The first idea was Play More. I think that fits with almost every type of retail. Don’t you?