This Interview surrounds retail & business service practices:
Part One:
What constitutes outstanding Customer Service?
First of all, employers have to be really good at selling their message—what they love doing and what they’re really good at. In most cases, employers are chasing a dream. When hiring people, we have to find like-minded individuals who can also help pursue that dream as well, so it's sometimes quite hard to find these people, but I think if employers can first push their own message and love what they do, then I think you’ll attract people that are aligned with that message.
What about an Induction Process?
I do think that when you find these people, you have to have an induction process that can then sort out the people who are passionate from the people who are semi-passionate. And I think that a lot of businesses don’t formalise an induction process to make it easy for themselves to sharpen the best people to work in the business. The other issue to think about is that retail, in some cases, isn’t the most desirable profession to work in, so some employers would find it hard to find the best of a bunch of people who could be semi-motivated. But, if you have a dream and a passion to start your own business and people are buying from you, it’s your responsibility to your business to find those right people, and if that means you’re burning the midnight oil until you do, well that’s the way it has to be. Hiring someone who is not aligned for your business model can be absolutely catastrophic to the business in its start-up stages.
Creating the experience, is it still important ?
We live in a very technology-driven world, which means we only have so many hours per day that can command our attention. Customers are the same; the smart phone has created mobile shopping centers in the palm of their hands. This is on top of receiving phone calls text, tweets, Facebook messages and calls from Mum and Dad, which easily distracts the customer from your message. This is the reason why we keep saying that we have to become really great at creating in-store experiences. It's an overused term for a reason, but customer service is all about being in the “Customer’s Service'”, and it's also repeated because we remember great people, not necessarily the store, but the people and the person who served us because we found synergy with them and the product. We must find the correct synergy between giving that great experience while employing great people who enjoy working with you. Now, that’s a great scenario for potential customers to walk into! But so many stores don’t pay attention to that because fiscal retail ratios take precedence over people, while forgetting success always lies with your people. If expenses are the be all and end all, chances are you’re not in an inspiring place to work. We can sometimes lose sight that it’s all about the service interaction of your front line people—whether you’re buying a pair of shoes from an independent retailer, or a dinner plate from a department store, you can buy that item from anywhere, but you’ve chosen to walk into a specific store to do it. So, it’s a core responsibility of employers and retail staff to not only serve customers, but to amaze them with your service. This comes down to personality, behaviour and the culture of your business or store, but I believe these are the two areas that have to merge for success. If I had an attribute I would hire on the basis of, it would be character and personality over experience and credentials. Being great on paper means nothing without the internal qualities used to expose the human element of the customer service experience.
How important is training your staff?
Training is very important. The reason that it’s important is, again, for two primary reasons: 1) It's to filter out the people early-on who are semi-passionate. In my opinion, you cannot afford to have people who are semi-passionate to a newly started or newly developed business. 2) I honestly believe that properly trained people who love the business and love what they do in the business, and who want to know how the business operates and what business is all about, will naturally excel. So, you not only have to have great product, but you need someone working with you who loves what they do. You know the type when we go shopping ourselves: their love for the product and people shines through as part of their character and you figure out sooner or later that you’re happy to spend your money with that particular person.
Sometimes we can train someone who presents well on paper, but doesn’t work out, or sometimes we can hire someone who doesn’t look great on paper and they’re sensational. To a great degree, all we have are first impressions and a resume that we hope wasn’t falsified. So, all we can do is use sound judgment and our internal guidance system (intuition) in the hope that we’re making the best decisions for our business. Hire on character and tweak with business inspiration and motivation, and I believe that you can establish a great culture.
I always ask potential employees what they know about my business, so if someone has come prepared, I think to myself: “Well done”, and I feel they actually care about my business. However, if someone doesn’t come prepared about my business and if they come without a great deal of knowledge about the industry too, I look at it and think: "They don’t really care about my business or the challenges of the industry, and if you don’t really care about my business our time might be better spent." Just like we’re put off by non-caring sales people in retail stores, we must hold the same values when employing people who are suited to our culture and business.
There isn’t a wrong or right way to hire people; there are new personality types and new ways to conduct interviews to get the information we need to make a decision. So, we focus on using our own intuition and knowledge of our teams, culture and customer. When you get it right, then celebrate, and when you get it wrong, make a quick decision to avoid a situation that goes on and on, because it makes it uncomfortable for you, the employee, your business and your customer.
How Important is it to recognise staff?
You have to recognise the importance of the people who are working for you now. A turnover can fluctuate, product ranges come and go, service scenarios also come and go, but people (the human condition) always remains constant. It costs nothing to recognise the goodness of people who are working under your command and to recognise that you probably are where you are because you’ve had great staff and people backing you over the years. If you can show that appreciation on a consistent basis, you'll have a great team, culture and customers surrounding your business.
Part 2
Dealing with Obstacles:
When you examine the successful people in life, most have a set of principles and values that make them different from everyone else. One of those principles and values is their ability to overcome obstacles. For some people, an obstacle or setback isn’t a huge deal. Some people view obstacles or setbacks as a cul-de-sac, meaning that there's no way out unless you turn back. But successful people end up viewing it as a roundabout. What do we do when we come up to a roundabout? We grab our steering wheel and manoeuvre our vehicle around the roundabout to get around the obstacle in your path. If we can consistently keep or have a roundabout mentality, instead of a cul-de-sac mentality in our thinking and our business, there’s always an answer to everything, a solution to every problem, and way out of every box. So, if you want to become successful, try to adopt a roundabout mentality and view the obstacle as only temporarily present, and something to learn from to take us exactly where we want to be.
Is Money Everything?
We have to find a balance between being wealthy, helping others and being fulfilled. People rarely get past the first one. People who only chase riches (and let’s just say for this example that they get those riches) can end up extremely underwhelmed and unfulfilled. We all understand and realise the obvious economic benefits of having more money—we can do more things. But, if we're not seriously making somebody else’s life better (fulfillment), we're wasting our time, and we have to encapsulate that in business. That very message gets lost at times in the day-to-day detail of running a business. We tend to forget that the people we have working for us have dreams, aspirations and passions in their own lives. We have to immerse ourselves in the process of getting involved in the lives of the people we have working for us, because motivated people who know you care often go over and above the call of duty. If we want that employee to be loyal to the business, we must understand the concept that relating to people is not just about relating to your customers; it’s about relating to your staff first, so then your staff can emulate that response with your customers. Sometimes we get stuck in the fiscal/budget cycle, which means we focus on the dollars, which means we talk about budget, which means we need to sell, which means we need to serve—we forget the human element of what we’re doing. We’re alienating the very people whom we are asking to represent us on the floor. We sometimes forget it’s actually a person, like us, working for us, who has their own beliefs, passions and behaviours. When we can tap inside the internal workings of our staff, staff will usually be loyal and will repay the kindness well beyond a remuneration conversation.
A Word on Giving Back:
If you’re resilient enough, you might have a situation where you've privately or publicly earned a dollar amount that you would like to donate. Or possibly, you’re in a situation where you can buy things or have a certain lifestyle that others may want for themselves. In that case, I believe it's your responsibility to send the elevator back down to help other people who are aspiring to become better and who want to create more abundance in their lives.
A Word on Self Motivation:
This sounds crazy, but I go for a walk at 5.00am every morning. Every time I feel down or every time I have a scenario where I feel negative towards something or someone, I take these thoughts with me on my morning walk. During my walk, I counteract each one of these thoughts with the thought that I am also very grateful for for all the things I have in my life. It doesn’t have to be material things; it could be something as simple as breathing, or it could be recognising we have ten fingers and ten toes when not everyone in the world has them. It's also an appreciation of the fact that we live in a part of the world where we can actually go for a pleasant walk with similar people who are also appreciating what they have with a sense of gratitude. So, I look at my woes and I think: "Now Barry, lets get back to grassroots here. You feel down because of someone or something; remember what you really have". Realise also where you're going and make certain you realise the larger picture as well as the happiness in today. It also comes back to the relationships in our lives: think of the beautiful relationship with a mother, a father, your wife or husband, a niece or nephew, a brother or uncle. Think of all the people who love and recognise how beautiful you really are. These are scenarios that already exist, but to which we don't pay attention, because we’re worried about our worries. It’s human instinct for some of us to want something more, but we have to recognise that when we’re going for more, we’re going to have obstacles achieving what we believe is right for us. That’s what the 11 Master Secrets is designed to extract. Find who you are and go for it.
Can Your Thoughts Really Change Your Reality?
There’s a gentleman of whom I have become very fond, called Earle Nightingale, and in the 1950s, Earle advanced and pioneered the personal development industry that we have today. He recorded a copy of what he called 'The Strangest Secret In The World'. I’ve listened to it over and over again, and I absolutely embody what he said, which is: "When everything is said and done and after the dust settles, a man becomes what he thinks about most." Always, without exception, if he thinks negative thoughts, he will attract and create negative thoughts, scenarios and predicaments into his life. He will also attract negative people with negative pre-dispositions who are in negative situations themselves and believe that’s all life has to offer. But if we can realise and choose to believe that there is a very positive side to life that can also bring understanding to our lives in a way that shows gratitude and love, and at the same time, strive to live our personal truth, we’ll also attract amazing situations that can help us on our journey. In recognising that we must strive for personal truth, we must also know there will be a few bumps on the road. How do we cope with the bumps? We use our roundabout mentality to get us back on track.
Now, I'm not advocating wishful thinking in preference to analysing our challenges. What I'm saying is when someone tells you something you don’t agree with, you should always contemplate it as an optimist. Optimistic people find solutions, and from this stand point, we can more easily find solutions to turn this apparent disadvantage around to work in our favour. Some people might say, "That’s just rubbish", when we know it’s not rubbish at all. It’s knowing that we all have the ability to think negatively and let our thoughts trail away in that direction, but positive people choose to ignore it and that's what ends up making them successful people who are fulfilled. Once on this road, we end up attracting more success. However, successful people who end up last-minute successes are usually negatively vibrational at heart and cannot keep that kind of vibration at a high flying altitude. When we catch ourselves in this type of situation, we’re thinking more about the obligation than the opportunity we have in front of us. I’m a great believer that however you want your life to look, feel like, or be like, you have the opportunistic responsibility to make it real. To do something better, something different. To do something amazing with your life. To help someone elevate. For example, if someone comes to me with a problem and says: “Barry, I have this situation/ problem; what can I do about it?" It's an opportunity to assist. I would offer them what I believe is the best course of action. However, what they do is up to them.
Remember, we have to get into the mindset to recognise and dismiss negativity, because it does not serve us at all. We grow whatever we give power to. If we give power to negative thoughts, they’ll grow; if we give power to positive thoughts, they’ll grow. So, we just have to be discerning about what we plant in the ground. We can plant poison ivy or corn; they’ll both grow as the soil is fertile.