Hire good people and work like heck to keep them on the payroll. Knock Your Socks Off Service starts here or it doesn’t start at all.
If you are really serious about serving customers better than your competition, you have to start with people who are willing and able to make that happen. Hiring well means being downright picky about who works under your flag. When it comes to creating and maintaining a positive relationship with customers, hiring nobody is sometimes better than settling for the first warm body that volunteers to show up for eight hours. You can’t end up with loyal customers if you don’t start with quality people—the kind of people who get as big a kick out of delivering great service as customers do receiving it. Period.
But this is a two-act play. Once found and brought on board, quality people must be kept on board. That means orienting them carefully so they come to understand just exactly what you mean by high-quality service. It also means training them fully in the knowledge and skills necessary for success, giving them challenging assignments, and keeping them interested in the work of the organization. And sometimes it means paying them better than (and/or differently than) the competition is willing to.
It also means growing them, rewarding and recognizing their accomplishments—sometimes individually, sometimes as a team. It means celebrating their efforts when they go “one step beyond” for their customers.
If you seriously intend to distinguish yourself from the competition through smooth, seamless Knock Your Socks Off Service, you won’t accomplish that by hiring from the labor pool from hell or by maintaining a payroll that turns over faster than dishwashers in a Las Vegas hotel.