Chick-fil-A draws from the same pool of individuals to hire employees as Taco Bell, McDonald’s and other fast food restaurants. Yet their customer service skills and intentional effort to respond with “Please,” “Thank You” and “My pleasure,” has been one of the core principals of their success. While other fast food providers have a consistent process for preparing food, Chick-fil-A is very focused on the customer experience.
So what makes the difference? One simple word: training! If you haven’t viewed their training video, entitled “Every Life Has a Story,” Google it and be prepared to be challenged on how we should train our team to treat customers. While there are many benefits of training your team, here are two of the most powerful:
1. Training Changes Behavior.
The only difference perceived by customers in today’s retail market is their experience while interacting with the members of your team. Great companies focus on creating a climate customers enjoy and one that is driven by what the customer wants. For far too long, we have expected our customers to acclimate to us. In the automotive business, we have our thoughts concerning everything from how long the sales process should take to how long the F&I process should take. It really doesn’t matter what any of us think. What matters is what the customer thinks!
Training turns the vision of a company into logical steps to follow, providing a more consistent customer experience. While the food is more expensive than their competitors’, drive up to a Chick-fil-A during meal times and you will always see a long line both inside and out. When customers enjoy the experience, they will spend more money. Higher profit levels are easily achieved when a well-trained team provides a great experience. Training not only changes the behavior of your team, it also changes the behavior of your customers!
2. Training Lifts Everyone and Everything.
Every team member will grow because of consistent training. A growing employee will grow the company! Well-trained employees communicate better, provide higher levels of customer service and produce more profits than those less trained. They are more confident in their abilities, feel more valued and focus more on helping customers, not selling them.
A recent survey revealed that 35% of millennials consider training provided by their employer as a desired key benefit and those that feel there is no investment in their professional growth are 12 times more likely to leave.
With well-vested employees, a more consistent process and a laser focus on the customer experience, you will see consistent increases on every side. On the other hand, without a consistent training plan, employees will be left to their own ideas of how to treat customers and will always be looking for a better opportunity.
And don’t worry about investing in an employee and having them leave. It costs much less than not investing in them and having them stay. We are all in the same business: the people business. We just have different products to sell. Sell them well and sell them with well-trained employees that love what they do every day!
I look forward to seeing you on my next post! Visit www.go-reahard.com to learn more about how we can help you help more customers. Also feel free to contact me. Exchanging ideas with agents and F&I professionals is my passion!
