Staff training. What’s it worth to you?
- Time off
- Your health & sanity
- Making an impact
- Making money
- Creating positive change in your community
Owning a business and having staff help to run it isn’t as simple as your customers might think. To run a business, without having a ball and chain attached to your leg, it’s necessary to have stellar staff.
Finding stellar staff requires working on three key areas:
- Spend time focusing on attracting the right people for the right job.
- Spend time working ON your business making it an attractive place to work, grow, and contribute.
- Spend time on staff development, helping them understand their value and giving them skills to perform.
Beginning with the End – Staff Training & Development
(#3) Spending time on staff development makes your workplace attractive (#2) to both customers and to (#1) potential employees.
Investing time and training into staff increases retention and productivity. It’s worth it.
Helping staff to understand their value is key. Training them with customer service skills allows them to deliver on their value.
- 7 of 10 U.S. consumers say they’ve spent more money with a company that delivers great service.
- Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by more than 25%.
- It is 6 – 7 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.
- 70% of buying experience are based on the customer FEELS they are being treated. (Oh, this one is FUN to train!!)
Helping staff to understand their value is key. Training them with customer service skills allows them to deliver on their value.
Small Business Example to Copy
Here’s a practical example. One of my favorite stores is Arome because part of Janice’s training is for staff to greet people when they walk in. This makes me FEEL welcomed and wanted, not like I’m interrupting (return visitor or first-time visitor = SAME EFFECT).
Customers are the reason FOR work, not an interruption TO work.
Sure, when I walk in most oftentimes staff is filling an order, restocking, or on the phone. However, this doesn’t stop them from saying hello, greeting and acknowledging me, making me feel welcomed.
Customer Service vs. Dinner Party
Compare Customer Service to hosting. Imagine you’re invited to my home for a dinner party!
You arrive, walk in and see me, head down, madly preparing the hors d’oeuvres tray. I don’t look at you or say anything. I don’t acknowledge that you’ve arrived.
So, you look around, find the closet to hang up your coat, locate the bathroom, see that there’s some wine and glasses on the table, and spy some folks mingling in the living room.
Awkward!
Would you feel comfortable helping yourself to wine or food? Probably not unless I greeted you. A good host makes people FEEL welcomed and invited.
It’s the same when greeting customers. You want people to FEEL like you want them there! The only difference is that, at a business, your ‘hosting job’ is on steroids! Customers come in all day every day.
Consistently excellent customer service is very challenging. Service is selfless. When it’s done well it’s extraordinarily powerful and profitable. It’s worth it.
Key to Profitability – It’s Worth it
Without a strong customer-to-staff relationship, you cannot confidently leave others in charge.
The success of your business is determined by the experience your staff provides to your customers.
When you have the right people in the right roles providing exceptional customer service experiences the result is increased staff retention and regular customers that evangelize and advertise for you!
100% worth it!
Staff Training Support
Two tools to train and equip staff to consistently deliver amazing service AND immediately increase your profitibility, customer, and staff retention:
If you love the idea of a training program for your staff, the Power of People is for you. As a bonus, you’ll receive a Creating a Culture Deck upon completion so your team can continue your remarkable forward movement.
If you have an excellent training program already but would like a tool to give you a weekly win that promotes discussion and education, then the Creating a Culture Deck is your jam!
Take action today! There is no better time than the present.
It’s worth it. Yes indeed.