So we’ve talked about how great service requires a great script. But even if your script is superb, would you send your cast onstage before a live audience if they were not completely ready to perform at their best? Of course not. To get them ready to put on a great show, you would rehearse, and rehearse, and rehearse again . . . and again. In rehearsals, you discover the flaws in the script and figure out ways to make a good script even better. Sports teams do this, too, of course. They practice and practice and practice some more, and they keep on practicing until the final whistle of the season blows. As your mom always said, “Practice makes perfect.”
Why should business be any different? Think about the last time you had to give a presentation at work. Did you go in “cold,” or did you run through it at home the night before? In the hospitality industry, it’s common for everyone from cocktail server to concierge to go through on-site practice sessions before a restaurant or a hotel opens. Whatever business you’re in, you too can benefit from rehearsing. Rehearsals don’t cost anything except time, and they pay huge dividends once the curtain goes up.
One simple but excellent form of rehearsal is role-playing. Just assign some employees the role of clients or customers and have others perform their usual jobs. Direct the “customers” to put the employees through their paces by asking tough questions and making difficult demands. Think of scenarios that force the employees to use all their skills. Observe everything they do and say, then follow up with both private feedback and on-the-spot critiques by the whole team. If circumstances permit, you might even want to do what athletic coaches do: shoot videos of the rehearsal and screen them with the team.
Some people may feel uncomfortable performing role-modeling exercises in front of their co-workers and their boss. All the more reason to do it. Anyone who is too self-conscious, or is afraid to look bad to their colleagues, is not quite ready for prime time. Ask successful theater directors, and they will tell you that rehearsing is also the best cure for stage fright. Here’s another antidote: Make sure to give everyone positive feedback during rehearsals. Don’t just single out their mistakes; praise them when they get it right.
If those providing the service are not on-site or are scattered in far-flung locations, not to worry: you can actually role-play using computer simulations. At Disney World, for instance, the safari drivers at Animal Kingdom used to rehearse their spiels while actually driving the safari vehicles out on the savanna. But we soon discovered that using real vehicles in that way was both time-consuming and costly. So now the drivers use computer simulation, much as pilots do. It’s not only safer and less expensive, it has the added bonus of allowing them to rehearse at any time.
In addition to teaching employees how to do their jobs under ordinary conditions, rehearsal can prepare them for difficult and unusual situations. That’s why I highly recommend bringing all your employees together to list the customer service issues they’ve encountered most frequently. When that’s done, make a list of all the difficulties the employees can imagine. Then, as a group, decide how each situation should be handled. You’ll never think of everything, but you should be able to anticipate most potential challenges. When you’ve completed this process, you can use the results to create new rehearsal scenarios. By walking through the most effective responses, you’ll be able to solve service problems quickly and keep them from metastasizing. Plus, once rehearsal has made ordinary performance second nature, employees have more mental capacity available for problem solving, so that if a truly novel situation arises, they’ll be able to come up with a better solution faster.
Remember, it’s not a question of if something will go wrong, it’s just a matter of when. As Shakespeare said, “The readiness is all.” Rehearsals are a great way to make sure everyone is ready to roll when the curtain goes up. It sure makes better sense than practicing on your customers!