An Accountability Hack From a Legend Company

Do you remember the Coca-Cola dome, where we saw Lionel Richie live in 2009? What a legendary performance it was. And what about Michael Bublé with his spectacular performance in 2015? I was blown away, together with thousands of fans, when he sang with no mike and no instruments. Just him and his voice on stage. Brilliant. But no more concerts in the Dome. Now the dome is the home of cars and cars and cars. WeBuyCars have gone BIG!?

It is spectacular to witness and experience the dome with all the different types of vehicles. #WeBuyCars took the buying and selling of second-hand cars to the next level.? Not only have they focused on excellent client service (we were welcomed at reception and someone immediately assisted us), but they also seem to focus firmly on the whole customer experience. For instance, every buyer and sales rep has a tablet from which they can retrieve and collect data in an instance.?

We recently experienced the WeBuyCars customer journey as we had to upgrade our car, and with the ease of online purchasing, WeBuyCars was our first choice. As we took delivery of the vehicle that came from their Durban branch, I got to speak to the sales manager. I was curious about all the tech they use, especially wondering if they bought all their staff tablets and that it must have cost a fortune.

I secretly thought that if each salesperson received a company tablet, they must lose these tablets left, right and centre. From personal experience with our daughter, I know this to be true. I think the watch we bought her and gave to her so that she could be home on time from friends in the estate lasted about a week before she lost it.

The manager confirmed my suspicion and explained that a tablet was lost daily initially. A policy was then implemented whereby every salesperson had to sign an acknowledgement of debt. With this new practice of skin in the game, the lost tablets were reduced to almost zero.

It was the same accountability philosophy I followed with Ava. We made a deal with her that I would replace her lost watch. But the deal was if she lost the watch again, she would replace it with a new one out of her pocket money savings. And to ensure total buy-in, she was allowed to choose - within a budget, of course! We shook on it, and up to now, the watch is still firmly attached to her arm.

The big lesson here: when people have skin in the game, when they have control over an outcome and share in the benefit/penalty of the outcome, accountability increases, and ultimately company profits should increase too.?

Please share your story on accountability and what you have found works or does not work.