November 7, 2023 • 13 mins
Are your part-time employees delivering the customer experience you want? They can be! In this episode, Jeannie Walters shares actionable strategies to help your part-time workforce understand the importance of a top-notch customer experience. From fostering a culture of customer feedback to implementing a Service Code, she guides you through the process of aligning your customer service with your overall customer experience mission.
Have you ever wondered what makes a customer feel valued and cared for? Hear how to integrate your customer experience standards into your hiring, onboarding, coaching, and performance reviews, ensuring that your team knows exactly what is expected of them.
Tune in to discover how you can transform your part-time workforce into customer experience superstars. Trust us, you don't want to miss this one!
Resources Mentioned:
What's a Service Code and How Do We Use It? [Experience Action Podcast] -- experienceactionpod.com/2092963/12581385
Experience Investigators Learning Center -- experienceinvestigators.com
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready Set Action.
One, two, three, four.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Hey everyone, it is Jeannie Walters.
This is Experience Action, andI'm here to answer your
questions all about customerexperience.
So, let's listen in.
Listener Question (00:44):
Hi, Jeannie.
Our restaurant franchiseemploys a lot of teenage workers
and they often don't deliverquite the customer experience
that we would like.
What would you recommend tohelp frontline employees
especially younger workers whomight not have as much
real-world experience reallyunderstand why the customer
(01:05):
experience is so important toour business and the critical
role that they play indelivering that great customer
experience?
Jeannie Walters (01:14):
Another great question here, and I bet many of
you have this type of situation.
Even if you aren't in therestaurant or hospitality space,
you might be dealing withpart-time workers, you might
have teenagers or people whohave multiple jobs.
They're essentially clocking inand clocking out, and so how
(01:35):
can you make sure that theyunderstand the importance of
customer experience and reallytheir role in it?
Order up.
Now, the caller here mentionsthat she notices that they just
don't have the right experience,right.
Maybe they've never been in aprofessional environment or, if
they're teenagers, maybe theyjust haven't had enough life
experience.
So what we need to do ascustomer experience leaders is
(01:59):
make sure that we're aligningthe expectations for customer
service with our customerexperience.
If you're dealing with apart-time staff, like many of
you might be, there are twothings I really recommend here.
One is to actually make surethat you do have some sort of
(02:20):
feedback program or strategy inplace so that you can
continually receive and alsoshare the feedback that you get
from customers.
Please keep in mind this shouldnot be something that can be
gamified.
No cheating, no cheating, nocheating.
And, what I mean by that is ifyou only have the one through
(02:40):
five card and people kind ofpick up on the fact that if they
get a lot of fives, maybe theyreally get recognized, maybe
they get a bonus, they mightstart asking for those fives.
And that's not why we're askingfor the feedback.
We're asking for two reasons.
One, so we can address anythingfor our customers.
(03:01):
If something went wrong or ifthey have a great idea, we want
to go ahead and implement that.
Let's do that.
That's a great idea.
And then, when you're incustomer-facing roles, you want
to really use the feedback as acoaching mechanism, not as a
punitive mechanism.
So if you start gettingfeedback that one of your
(03:22):
servers in your restaurant oftengets comments like "was slow to
take my order, was rude, Icouldn't find her for the check,
any of those things and you seethat pattern again and again,
then what you want to do is usethat for coaching and you want
to say this is the feedbackwe're getting.
What can we do about this?
(03:43):
What do you think is a good wayto address this?
Now, obviously, if it doesn'timprove, that is another
conversation that might lead to"ey, this isn't working.
But we don't want it to be usedas something like a public
shaming where we put up thescores for everybody and say,
(04:04):
hey, you know, Brian is at thebottom of the list again with
customer feedback.
We want to use this in apositive way, so that your
part-time workers really seethis as a benefit, as a way to
get better at their jobs and asa way to get recognized when
they do a good job.
So, one thing is to make yourculture one of customer feedback
(04:28):
.
Just make it an ongoing thing.
Now you might be thinking we'renot going to send surveys, we
don't want to print those cards,any of that.
That's fine.
You still get feedback.
As a manager in a restaurant,for example, you could walk
around and simply check in.
You can observe.
You could even sit in thecorner in time how long is it
(04:49):
taking people to get theirorders?
All of these things are simplypieces of input so that we can
make better decisions, we canget to those insights we need in
order to take action anddeliver on the kind of customer
experience that we want.
So, number one make yourculture one of customer feedback
(05:11):
.
Make it just part of who youare and how you operate.
That way, people will startseeing the connection between
their behaviors and the feedbackthat they get.
The second thing here is to makesure that you're not assuming,
that you're not saying thingslike "Isn't this common sense?
When things are happening againand again.
(05:32):
We know that not everybody hasthe same life experience we do.
We all grow up differently.
We maybe had differentexpectations at our kitchen
table.
Some of us ate dinner everynight.
We had manners.
We were taught certain things.
Some people had to grab and gobecause of their schedules.
They didn't really learn tablemanners.
(05:54):
So we have to take it onourselves to teach what we might
consider to be common sense.
One of the ways that I like todo this is with a Service Code,
which I've talked about on thispodcast before, so we'll be sure
to link to that episode, butessentially bringing your
employees into that discussionabout what should our customers
(06:18):
expect from our service.
So instead of saying, well, weshould just put the customer
first, they might not know whatthat means.
So let's get clear about that.
When we say put the customerfirst and maybe you're standing
at the host's stand and you geta phone call to make a
reservation and somebody walksin the door, which customer
(06:41):
should you put first?
It's those types of things wewant to get really clear on.
What are our expectations ofthat employee, based on our
customer experience missionstatement, what are we really
trying to deliver for ourcustomers?
So, to create a Service Code,there are a couple questions to
(07:01):
ask.
One is ask what interactionscustomers have with employees.
So, if we're working in arestaurant environment, we want
to get clear on kind of what isthat customer journey?
Where are we interacting,whether it's the host or the
server or the cook?
How are we defining what thoseinteractions look like?
(07:23):
Get clear on that.
Simplify standards.
So really look at this as aninventory of who interacts with
the customer, as a prompt toconsider what's most important.
Second, you want to look to yourCX Mission, to direct behaviors
.
For example, if your mission isall about friendliness, it's
(07:45):
critical to think about how thatcan be turned into behaviors.
So define what doesfriendliness really mean.
Leverage the time together, ifyou can, with your staff, with
your employees, and brainstorm alist of emotions you want
customers to feel.
So really get into this.
(08:05):
What do we want them to feel?
We want them to feel valued.
We want them to feel cared for.
We want them to feel likethey're at home.
Get into what you really wantthose emotions to be and then
decide on three to fivebehaviors that are universal in
the service you want to deliver.
So this is really where we getinto things like how can a
(08:29):
customer expect to be greetedwhen they walk into our
restaurant?
How can they expect to make areservation if they call?
What are the expectations thatthey have for every point of the
journey?
Now, once you've completed aService Code, it's time to use
it.
(08:49):
You can use this for hiring,onboarding, coaching and
reviewing performance.
It's an ongoing way to reallyget clear about what those
expectations are, so that we'renot making assumptions, we're
not making judgments, we're notsaying this is common sense.
We're getting clear and we'resetting the right expectations
with our employees so that wecan deliver on the right
(09:11):
expectations for our customers.
So, for example, a Service Codemight include things like we
greet every single customer witha smile, we show up and ask
politely if they have any foodallergies or anything that we
need to be aware of.
When we are asked questionslike where is the restroom, we
(09:35):
walk the patron over to thehallway, whatever it is.
The other thing I'd say is thatif your workers have never been
in a finer dining establishment, they might not really
understand these expectations.
MC (09:51):
I've never been to a fancy dinner before.
Jeannie Walters (09:53):
So it's up to you to explain why walking
somebody over makes them feelmore cared for and why they're
going to remember that as amoment that they felt valued at
their favorite restaurant.
We really want to walk through: what is the customer journey, (10:05):
undefined
where do we show up, how do weinteract with the customers and
what is the absolute, universalway that we conduct business
with customers?
What is that experience like?
You can even get into timinghere about customers should not
(10:25):
wait more than eight minutesbefore a server approaches them
about their order.
If a customer needs to waitmore than 10 minutes for their
check after asking, we'll checkin with them and provide them
with an update.
Now, I'm just saying these offthe top of my head, but you can
see that you can get specificabout timing.
(10:47):
You can even say things likemistakes are corrected promptly
and employees are empowered toprovide a replacement item.
You are empowered to removesomething from the bill.
You could say things like thetie goes to the customer.
When in doubt, the customer isbelieved and served.
Now, obviously, there will becertain cases that fall outside
(11:10):
of this Service Code, but takethose as a case-by-case instead
of a universal way of doingbusiness.
Get clear with your staff, withyour employees, with your
part-time workers, about whatare the expectations and why,
and then follow that up bycoaching, using the Service Code
and customer feedback.
(11:31):
Help them connect the dotsabout why this is so important
and then really recognize andcelebrate when they do the right
thing.
Let's get more real aboutdefining what service looks like
.
That will make everything elseeasier.
Well, now I'm hungry.
We've been talking aboutrestaurants, so now I think I'm
(11:53):
going to head off to my favoriterestaurant.
That sounds pretty good.
And just a reminder, we havelots of resources, articles,
videos for you at our learningcenter at
experienceinvestigators.
com, and we always love hearingfrom you.
Don't be shy.
Leave me a voicemail ataskjeannie.
vip that's Jeannie with two n'sDot VIP.
(12:16):
That's our new link forvoicemail for this podcast.
We cannot wait to hear from youagain.
I can't wait to answer anotherquestion and until then, keep
delivering great experiences foryour customers, keep setting
those expectations, get clearabout your success and keep
asking these questions.
They're great.
I can't wait to talk to younext week.
(12:38):
Thanks! To learn more about ourstrategic approach to
experience.
Check out free resources atexperienceinvestigators.
com, where you can sign up forour newsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on
(12:59):
LinkedIn.
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready Set Action.
One, two, three, four.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Hey everyone, it is Jeannie Walters.
This is Experience Action, andI'm here to answer your
questions all about customerexperience.
So, let's listen in.
Listener Question (00:44):
Hi, Jeannie.
Our restaurant franchiseemploys a lot of teenage workers
and they often don't deliverquite the customer experience
that we would like.
What would you recommend tohelp frontline employees
especially younger workers whomight not have as much
real-world experience reallyunderstand why the customer
(01:05):
experience is so important toour business and the critical
role that they play indelivering that great customer
experience?
Jeannie Walters (01:14):
Another great question here, and I bet many of
you have this type of situation.
Even if you aren't in therestaurant or hospitality space,
you might be dealing withpart-time workers, you might
have teenagers or people whohave multiple jobs.
They're essentially clocking inand clocking out, and so how
(01:35):
can you make sure that theyunderstand the importance of
customer experience and reallytheir role in it?
Order up.
Now, the caller here mentionsthat she notices that they just
don't have the right experience,right.
Maybe they've never been in aprofessional environment or, if
they're teenagers, maybe theyjust haven't had enough life
experience.
So what we need to do ascustomer experience leaders is
(01:59):
make sure that we're aligningthe expectations for customer
service with our customerexperience.
If you're dealing with apart-time staff, like many of
you might be, there are twothings I really recommend here.
One is to actually make surethat you do have some sort of
(02:20):
feedback program or strategy inplace so that you can
continually receive and alsoshare the feedback that you get
from customers.
Please keep in mind this shouldnot be something that can be
gamified.
No cheating, no cheating, nocheating.
And, what I mean by that is ifyou only have the one through
(02:40):
five card and people kind ofpick up on the fact that if they
get a lot of fives, maybe theyreally get recognized, maybe
they get a bonus, they mightstart asking for those fives.
And that's not why we're askingfor the feedback.
We're asking for two reasons.
One, so we can address anythingfor our customers.
(03:01):
If something went wrong or ifthey have a great idea, we want
to go ahead and implement that.
Let's do that.
That's a great idea.
And then, when you're incustomer-facing roles, you want
to really use the feedback as acoaching mechanism, not as a
punitive mechanism.
So if you start gettingfeedback that one of your
(03:22):
servers in your restaurant oftengets comments like "was slow to
take my order, was rude, Icouldn't find her for the check,
any of those things and you seethat pattern again and again,
then what you want to do is usethat for coaching and you want
to say this is the feedbackwe're getting.
What can we do about this?
(03:43):
What do you think is a good wayto address this?
Now, obviously, if it doesn'timprove, that is another
conversation that might lead to"ey, this isn't working.
But we don't want it to be usedas something like a public
shaming where we put up thescores for everybody and say,
(04:04):
hey, you know, Brian is at thebottom of the list again with
customer feedback.
We want to use this in apositive way, so that your
part-time workers really seethis as a benefit, as a way to
get better at their jobs and asa way to get recognized when
they do a good job.
So, one thing is to make yourculture one of customer feedback
(04:28):
.
Just make it an ongoing thing.
Now you might be thinking we'renot going to send surveys, we
don't want to print those cards,any of that.
That's fine.
You still get feedback.
As a manager in a restaurant,for example, you could walk
around and simply check in.
You can observe.
You could even sit in thecorner in time how long is it
(04:49):
taking people to get theirorders?
All of these things are simplypieces of input so that we can
make better decisions, we canget to those insights we need in
order to take action anddeliver on the kind of customer
experience that we want.
So, number one make yourculture one of customer feedback
(05:11):
.
Make it just part of who youare and how you operate.
That way, people will startseeing the connection between
their behaviors and the feedbackthat they get.
The second thing here is to makesure that you're not assuming,
that you're not saying thingslike "Isn't this common sense?
When things are happening againand again.
(05:32):
We know that not everybody hasthe same life experience we do.
We all grow up differently.
We maybe had differentexpectations at our kitchen
table.
Some of us ate dinner everynight.
We had manners.
We were taught certain things.
Some people had to grab and gobecause of their schedules.
They didn't really learn tablemanners.
(05:54):
So we have to take it onourselves to teach what we might
consider to be common sense.
One of the ways that I like todo this is with a Service Code,
which I've talked about on thispodcast before, so we'll be sure
to link to that episode, butessentially bringing your
employees into that discussionabout what should our customers
(06:18):
expect from our service.
So instead of saying, well, weshould just put the customer
first, they might not know whatthat means.
So let's get clear about that.
When we say put the customerfirst and maybe you're standing
at the host's stand and you geta phone call to make a
reservation and somebody walksin the door, which customer
(06:41):
should you put first?
It's those types of things wewant to get really clear on.
What are our expectations ofthat employee, based on our
customer experience missionstatement, what are we really
trying to deliver for ourcustomers?
So, to create a Service Code,there are a couple questions to
(07:01):
ask.
One is ask what interactionscustomers have with employees.
So, if we're working in arestaurant environment, we want
to get clear on kind of what isthat customer journey?
Where are we interacting,whether it's the host or the
server or the cook?
How are we defining what thoseinteractions look like?
(07:23):
Get clear on that.
Simplify standards.
So really look at this as aninventory of who interacts with
the customer, as a prompt toconsider what's most important.
Second, you want to look to yourCX Mission, to direct behaviors
.
For example, if your mission isall about friendliness, it's
(07:45):
critical to think about how thatcan be turned into behaviors.
So define what doesfriendliness really mean.
Leverage the time together, ifyou can, with your staff, with
your employees, and brainstorm alist of emotions you want
customers to feel.
So really get into this.
(08:05):
What do we want them to feel?
We want them to feel valued.
We want them to feel cared for.
We want them to feel likethey're at home.
Get into what you really wantthose emotions to be and then
decide on three to fivebehaviors that are universal in
the service you want to deliver.
So this is really where we getinto things like how can a
(08:29):
customer expect to be greetedwhen they walk into our
restaurant?
How can they expect to make areservation if they call?
What are the expectations thatthey have for every point of the
journey?
Now, once you've completed aService Code, it's time to use
it.
(08:49):
You can use this for hiring,onboarding, coaching and
reviewing performance.
It's an ongoing way to reallyget clear about what those
expectations are, so that we'renot making assumptions, we're
not making judgments, we're notsaying this is common sense.
We're getting clear and we'resetting the right expectations
with our employees so that wecan deliver on the right
(09:11):
expectations for our customers.
So, for example, a Service Codemight include things like we
greet every single customer witha smile, we show up and ask
politely if they have any foodallergies or anything that we
need to be aware of.
When we are asked questionslike where is the restroom, we
(09:35):
walk the patron over to thehallway, whatever it is.
The other thing I'd say is thatif your workers have never been
in a finer dining establishment, they might not really
understand these expectations.
MC (09:51):
I've never been to a fancy dinner before.
Jeannie Walters (09:53):
So it's up to you to explain why walking
somebody over makes them feelmore cared for and why they're
going to remember that as amoment that they felt valued at
their favorite restaurant.
We really want to walk through: what is the customer journey, (10:05):
undefined
where do we show up, how do weinteract with the customers and
what is the absolute, universalway that we conduct business
with customers?
What is that experience like?
You can even get into timinghere about customers should not
(10:25):
wait more than eight minutesbefore a server approaches them
about their order.
If a customer needs to waitmore than 10 minutes for their
check after asking, we'll checkin with them and provide them
with an update.
Now, I'm just saying these offthe top of my head, but you can
see that you can get specificabout timing.
(10:47):
You can even say things likemistakes are corrected promptly
and employees are empowered toprovide a replacement item.
You are empowered to removesomething from the bill.
You could say things like thetie goes to the customer.
When in doubt, the customer isbelieved and served.
Now, obviously, there will becertain cases that fall outside
(11:10):
of this Service Code, but takethose as a case-by-case instead
of a universal way of doingbusiness.
Get clear with your staff, withyour employees, with your
part-time workers, about whatare the expectations and why,
and then follow that up bycoaching, using the Service Code
and customer feedback.
(11:31):
Help them connect the dotsabout why this is so important
and then really recognize andcelebrate when they do the right
thing.
Let's get more real aboutdefining what service looks like
.
That will make everything elseeasier.
Well, now I'm hungry.
We've been talking aboutrestaurants, so now I think I'm
(11:53):
going to head off to my favoriterestaurant.
That sounds pretty good.
And just a reminder, we havelots of resources, articles,
videos for you at our learningcenter at
experienceinvestigators.
com, and we always love hearingfrom you.
Don't be shy.
Leave me a voicemail ataskjeannie.
vip that's Jeannie with two n'sDot VIP.
(12:16):
That's our new link forvoicemail for this podcast.
We cannot wait to hear from youagain.
I can't wait to answer anotherquestion and until then, keep
delivering great experiences foryour customers, keep setting
those expectations, get clearabout your success and keep
asking these questions.
They're great.
I can't wait to talk to younext week.
(12:38):
Thanks! To learn more about ourstrategic approach to
experience.
Check out free resources atexperienceinvestigators.
com, where you can sign up forour newsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on
(12:59):
LinkedIn.
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