Creating A Service Culture That Keeps on Giving - Part 2

Want to make a connection with your customers that will last? Make it personal and emotional. Show genuine emotions affirming their value as a person and you will have them for life. Merely valuing them as a customer falls short because it's a care that comes with expected returns from them. Please care for and respect everyone whether or not they become customers, and you will complete your mission.

As we discussed last time, hiring the right giving personality is essential to building a successful team. Don't waste money and time on people who don't care about others unless they get something from them. Of course, that starts at the top...keep giving until it costs you something...then give more.

The second step in building a successful team is ensuring they have high-quality training. The last experience you want to give this personality is a failure in helping others. Without the right training, these folks feel trapped between letting their team down by leaving and failing at serving customers.

How To Train

People learn in three different ways. Proper training is the cheapest way to achieve your financial goals. If you as the leader genuinely care about people and profits, ensure you set them up for success.

Training Type Basics

1. Seeing (reading)

2. Hearing (presentations and videos)

3. Doing with feedback (experiential)

In other words, Tell, Show, and Watch your team perform tasks. You will frustrate many if you skip the first two steps.

Accountability and Key Points That Increase Retention

1. Participants know there will be a review to confirm the learning points.

2. Live experiential training with immediate feedback is essential to confirm and affirm.

3. Role-playing and simulations produce the highest success.

4. The best trainers have real-world contextual experience.

5. Connecting learning points to emotions increases retention by 300%.

Going Beyond the 5 Senses

Hotels, restaurants and excursions traveling through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, the Caribbean and Napa Valley all displayed the same levels of service relative to the personalities they hired and trained. The money we paid for the service was NOT the key factor in the level of service received. Rather, the personality of the person and the training they received to put that energy to use made the biggest difference.

Our stays on the isolated Turks and Caicos Islands proved the point that personalities and training matter. The service levels from restaurants to hotels were all technically "ok". Like a gas station, we received the minimum, with zero memorable moments except for one excursion.

Very few offered genuine smiles and customized service levels that told us we were valued. Most told us that they did not care much beyond collecting the mandatory tips. Only one experience produced something memorable.

There was nothing like horseback riding along and in the ocean, but I enjoyed the personalized care and conversations we had with the tour guides more. They were trained to keep us all safe while riding 2,000-pound animals, fitting each ability level with the right horse was personalized, essential, and appreciated.

The stories they told throughout the experience and the attention to detail along the way pushed this experience to the top of our list. Connecting our 5-senses to an emotional memory (6th sense) went well beyond matching us to the right horse. What made it memorable was connecting our affection (emotion) for the horses to the experience.

This only increased as they told us the story behind each horse, how they got their name, and how they arrived on the Island. This bond was sealed by asking us to feed them a carrot after the trip. The employees genuinely cared about us and seemed to enjoy their work as much as we enjoyed the experience...the difference maker indeed.

Personalizing service levels with the right personalities tells customers they matter and are respected and valued. Show me someone who does not remember being valued and respected and I will show you someone that is no longer living.

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Other related articles:

Creating Service Cultures that Keep on Giving -Part 1

Creating the Right Team

Leading People The Right Way

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