Category: Training

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Improve Service Department Profits for Free

I had the pleasure of visiting several great retailers during a recent visit to Salt Lake City and I was pleased with how many owners and managers spoke about their service departments and their technicians as a key to the business’ success and their collective future.

Never sell your tools. Your tools and your skill can always make you money. – A wise mechanic

A good friend of mine once told me the statement above. As a lifelong mechanic, this makes perfect sense. It is the same principle on which any skilled profession works: baristas, dentists, auto body techs, photographers, you name it. Tools + Skill = Income.

This post is all about one critical skill in particular for excellent service departments: SERVICE WRITING

Service writing is a critical skill Continue reading “Improve Service Department Profits for Free”

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10 things to help your newest team-members start strong!

I spent a lot of time recently talking with retailers about the challenges around hiring and keeping great staff. Finding great people with the experience you want (and at the price you want to pay) is incredibly challenging. The only answer is to build a great system for new team-members and training them with the skills you want.

On-boarding is the name for the process of welcoming a new team-member into your organization and countless retailers are going through the process right now.

Human resource people sometimes say that on-boarding revolves around the four C’s: Compliance, Clarification, Culture and Connection. A quick definition of each: ‘Compliance’ is all the legal stuff around the job to be performed. ‘Clarification’ is defining roles and responsibilities. Clarification is important because it helps guide the new team-member and set the tone for their day-to-day work. ‘Culture’ is also critical because it helps anyone new to the business shape their communication and actions in their new workplace. Finally, ‘Connection’ relates to helping the new team-member form relationships and networks inside and outside the workplace.

Within this framework, here are 10 easy things you can do to improve the experience of on-boarding:

  1. Start before the interview. First impressions matter, so communicate your business’ vision, mission and values early and look for a great fit. Never hire just anyone, a poor fit is worse than an empty chair.
  2. Send a welcome packet before the first day. A day or two before the first day, send a detailed email covering all the useful information they will need. What time should they arrive? Will you be taking them to lunch the first day? What time should they plan on being home? Are there any policies they need to know (dress code, mobile phone use, etc)?
  3. Give them a welcome gift. Simple things like a nice shirt branded with the company logo or a coffee mug go a long way to making someone feel like they made a good decision with their new role.
  4. Make formal introductions to everyone, one by one. It is always easier to meet people one at a time and taking your time to lead them around shows you really care about making them feel at home in their new environment.
  5. Assign a peer buddy. Being a new hire is challenging and overwhelming. Having a peer buddy is crucial so the new team-member can ask anything. This has the added benefit of being an important role for the peer buddy, so the veteran you choose to as the peer buddy gets a ‘boost’ from being selected for this important task.
  6. Show clearly where everything is located. This sounds obvious, but is often overlooked! Bathroom, fridge, coffee, work station, checklists, tools and equipment to perform the job all need to be shown clearly. Highlight how computer systems are structured, where crucial files and notes are kept. Try to think of everything you take for granted and demonstrate it clearly.
  7. Set some expectations and stick to them. What should the new team-member plan to accomplish in the first two weeks? First month? First three months? Setting goals and challenges early is a great way to set the tone for long term engagement.
  8. Set a personal meeting for the end of the first day. Beyond the first day, set another for the end of the first week and again for the end of the first month. Use these meetings to share honest, candid feedback about their comfort level, progress towards the goals and expectations in #7. Bring up any concerns (not as faults of the team-member, ask how you can help) and reward positive accomplishments. If they’ve taken a big step, reward publicly!
  9. Entrust your new team-member with something important. Make it ever-so-slightly challenging for their level of experience and their role. For example, a super ‘green’ teenager? Make them responsible for the daily cleaning checklist (both improving the list and executing it). Newly hired sales manager? Make them the new leader of the morning meeting as the owner or GM takes a back seat.
  10. Take feedback on the on-boarding process. Building a great system for on-boarding is a journey, not a destination. Take feedback every time you hire and use it to improve for your next great team-member!

Of course, there is lots more to it, but this gets you started in the right direction. Take my course on Hiring, Training and Retaining a Great Team to get more theories, tools and useful guides to build a stronger team than you thought possible. Don’t forget, every course we sell comes with a FREE one hour webinar to ensure your needs are met. Using this list with your new staff for spring will make your business that much more successful this season.