Who's In Charge Of Your Business, Employees Or You?

Employees dealing with your customers are an important part of your business success

When referring to “employees,” I'm speaking of the people who deal with your customers; they could be the cashier, a retail assistant, a sales representative, the people that deal with problems, the manager, or even someone helping a customer find something.

You must have excellent employees when it comes to dealing with customers. When was the last time you went shopping and were met by a friendly sales rep? Didn't they make you feel better about the store you were in?

Now think about a rude or maybe just a cold or unfriendly retail assistant. How did that make you feel? You probably felt that you wanted to cut your shopping short, or you were just uncomfortable shopping. I know that if I'm uncomfortable shopping, then I'll leave; I don't need to spend my time or money shopping where customer service is unfriendly.

With so much competition in today's market place you can't afford to have rude or unfriendly employees! Doing so will destroy your sales and you and your business will suffer. Once you lose customers, it's tough to get them back. This is an important point to acknowledge – that you are at the mercy of your employees. They have your business in the palm of their hands.

Tips To Improve Your Employee's Performance:

• Start by treating your employees as partners and not someone that takes orders from you. In reality, they are partners. Even though you are running the show, it's them that are performing, so they really are partners.
• Rather than always giving orders, try listening to their concerns. Ask them for their opinions on how to improve the way things are done. You don't have to do whatever they tell you, but consider it.

It's like a manufacturing plant: upper management may come up with a process and have employees follow it, but if the process is completely wrong and messes up the entire manufacturing process, then the problem is that upper management made the decision without knowing how the assembly processes works.

In order to know how a process works, you need to get your hands dirty, study your assembly line, and then look for improvements. The same is true for your business; make sure you understand each employee's job.

• Simply by letting your employees know that their jobs are important and that they are an important part of your business success may cause a positive shift in your employees' attitude.

• Tell your employees how to treat the customers, i.e., with a cheerful, positive attitude. Make the customer feel welcome, do your best to help them find what they are looking for. Don't wait for them to ask to be helped, see if they need anything first. This is a topic all on its own but you get the idea.

• Give incentives to your employees who show improvement. Employee incentives are a great way to keep employees motivated and ensure that they perform better and enjoy their work more.

Tips To Ensuring Your Employees Are Doing A Good Job:

• Watch their interactions with customers, take notes, and when you have enough data, talk about what they're doing well and also where there's room for improvement

• Have a friend come into your business and test the employee for customer service. Be sure you are not around during the time of your friend's visit

• Set up a security system and watch how customers interact with your sales rep. Look for facial expressions or abrupt actions from your customer. Note that you shouldn't use a hidden camera; make it known that your customers are on camera. And make sure you are abiding by the law when it comes to surveillance.

Your employees are a part of your business. Make it your job to build good relationships.  After all, you are spending most of your time around these people.

That's the Way I See It!
Acey Gaspard

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