Article

Retail Customer Experience Executive Summit: It's up to you to create good employees

Panelists discuss how to attract and develop valuable employees.

August 10, 2011

Employees are only as good as their leaders, said Chick-fil-A Franchisee Scott Reed. The owner of a Georgia location spoke on a panel about employee training Wednesday at Retail Customer Experience Executive Summit in Minnesota.

"Leaders create vision, culture and atmosphere and have great energy," Reed said. "Leaders see the culture they're trying to create, so find that person and free him up to spend tons of time to pour into others. Leaders attract other leaders, and you'll soon have leaders in all your stores."

It's also important to build up employees so they feel respected and will want to do a good job. Reed does this by simply saying "please" and "thank you for a job well done." He also comes up with creative incentives and reward plans. For example, he has a box of CDs and DVDs on customer service and leadership and gives employees $10 each time they take one home and listen to it.

It's also very important to Reed that his store managers are happy.

"Does the leader of your unit have an incredible job?" he asked the audience. "Is it a job you would you love to have? It should be. I love my job, and I want it to be a business where I'd want my daughter to work."

The only way to create such a positive work environment is to find leaders who are also in the business of developing people, not just running day-to-day operations.

The panelists also discussed how customer feedback and proper training leads to consumer-focused employees.

Customer feedback

It's no shock that the most successful retailers listen to customer feedback; however there are good and bad ways to collect the data.

AT&T has perfected the survey system and now sends them via text messaging instead of by phone or email, said Kristi Behr, a customer experience director for AT&T.

"Customer feedback is priceless, and our volume of customer feedback has skyrocketed," she said.

The texting system also alerts store and district managers about any negative customer experiences.

Chick-fil-A has an online customer feedback section and encourages good and bad comments.

"We want to know exactly where weaknesses are," Reed said. "Our strategy is that we 'want them to come often, pay full price and tell more people.' So we gotta know what's gonna help us in the future."

Community relations

Reed, who has owned his store for more than 20 years, is a specialist when it comes to getting the community fired up about his brand. That, in turn, goes back to his first point about making your environment an ideal place to work.

He and his employees intentionally look for ways to go the extra mile and to create emotional connections.

For example, the store recently hosted a "Daddy/Daughter date night" that even came with a list of questions for the families to talk about. This event created loyal fans out of first-time customers. It got them talking to their friends about Chick-fil-A in a positive way, which is just another way to cultivate a positive perception and attract skilled employees.

"You have to do things to connect people to the brand," Reed said. "If a chicken place can bring dads and daughters closer, we are doing a good thing."

Training

Two years ago, Macy's designed a training program around results from a customer service survey it sent to consumers via email, said Gina Giorano, vice president of customer feedback at Macy's.  More than 130,000 employees, including upper management and even the CEO, have gone through it.

"We are trying to work through some issues and learn how to get best practices out into the stores," Giorano said.  "We are about one-on-one communication from our customers to our employees."

Behr said AT&T employees go through a four-week training program before they are allowed on the floor. They, of course, learn about the products but also learn how to provide a positive customer experience.

Some of AT&T's in-house communication revealed that the evaluation techniques it required managers to conduct with employees was too formal and time consuming. Instead of having to fill out entire forms as they used to do, managers can now pull up forms on iPads and jot down quick thoughts and coach employees right on the floor.

"I want managers to do observations all day long, but they just can't; so this is a better way," Behr said.

Click hereto watch an interview with Behr.

For more info on employee hiring and retention, click here.