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How many companies regularly ask themselves “Are my employees happy to work here?” The answer is, very few. Yet employee satisfaction automatically impacts the way our customers’ experience is managed. Smiling, “good vibes,” “standing in the customer’s shoes,” empathy… All this can make customer experience rate a 10 or a 1, and our employees are 100% involved. And I can assure you that smiles can’t be faked.
How can we be sure that employees create an experiential moment every time they speak to a customer, serve her a latte or show her a pair of pants? How can a truly memorable customer experience be delivered?
The first line of approach is the company’s mission statement. The mission statement must make itself felt in all actions taken by any department, and must have a presence in every office and at every level. It needs to be alive! But how many companies out there don’t even have a mission statement? And how many of those that do have one haven’t updated it for years, or have never even read it?
At Starbucks, our mission statement is: To inspire and nurture the human spirit: one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. These are the principles guiding our day to day work.
And the mission statement covers several points, which, in order of importance for the company, are:
• Our coffee
• Our partners: We call ourselves “partners” because what we do is
not just our job - it is our passion. We accept diversity to create an environment in which each of us can be him or herself. We always treat each other respectfully and considerately. We are all responsible for keeping this ideal alive. We all have the same job title and treat one another equally, without regard to hierarchies. We are all equal, and that makes us respect one another.
• Our customers: When we are fully committed to our customers, we connect with them, we laugh together and we cheer up their day even if just for an instant. Our work starts out from the commitment to supply a perfectly made beverage; but it is a lot more than that. In reality, our work is to nurture human relationships.
• Our stores
• Our community
• Our shareholders
So, ahead of our shareholders and in the second slot of our mission statement, we have our employees. This is because we are a company that believes that “we are not in the coffee business serving people; we are in the people business serving coffee.”
These are the ways by which we enable our partners to create the Starbucks Experience every day in each one of our stores:
• Giving them the freedom to manage their own business: Talk to your customer; get to know her name and her drink; anticipate what she wants, make her feel good, look after her, and enjoy working in a team.
• Letting employees be themselves, be genuine: We are aware that customer service is conveyed not just by words but also by attitude.
How to do it:
» Enjoy your customer and invite him to come back.
» Exceed expectations. Create details - both large and small - so that your customer feels valued.
» Anticipate his needs. Use empathy and remember your own experiences as a customer.
• Letting them get involved: Make sure the values are reflected in
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everything the employee does, nurturing the spirit and energy of the store. Be positive; set an example.
• Accepting feedback: We want to hear what they think. Their ideas, views and concerns are always well received.
• Establishing recognition schemes: Always saying thank you.
» MUG prizes » Bravo prizes
» “Starbucks Spirit” Store Prize
» Green apron cards: These are cards every employee has. We give them to one another at any time just to express thanks for something you liked about the other person - she helped you out, you liked the way she worked, or you simply want to say “Thank you for being there.”
It is vital to give your employees the tools to give and receive thanks for good work.
The five steps towards the perfect employee are:
• Hiring staff: Look past his CV to see his attitude, potential and willingness to create customer experiences and put himself in the customer’s place. How will he treat customers? Will he sell our goods just because he needs to, or because he really feels the spirit?
• Train them every day to deliver experiences: Don’t just teach them set phrases and scripted conversation. Employees need to understand the crucial importance of their role for the company, and must be free to find new ways to raise the value of the experience delivered to the customer. Employees should always imagine themselves in the customer’s place so that they can personalize the offering of goods and generate experiences every day.
• Give incentives and rewards: The stimuli towards creating experiences should include incentives and rewards. Incentives should be more than merely financial. The reward should be sensitive to social and cultural motivations and each employee’s lifestyle.
• Measuring performance in relation to delivered experience:
Employees should always get feedback on their performance in terms of experience management. What are their interactions with
customers like? How do they help build customer relationships that encourage repeat purchases? This aspect of performance is measurable using tools like online questionnaires and mystery shoppers.
One of the main challenges being taken on by companies today is to find ways to make employees’ jobs interesting, motivating and stimulating. If an employee thinks her job is boring, she is less likely to deliver a good buying experience to customers.
The key here is that employees are the company’s first customers, its “internal customers.” If employees themselves are not the company’s leading advocates, if they do not feel proud of belonging to the company and would never recommend its goods or services, then the company has a real problem on its hands.
That is why we need to find out what our employees want, what they are looking for, and what their tastes, attitudes and interests are. Look at each employee as a whole human being, and realize that he or she is the most important part of the company.
We need to involve our employees with our brand. Host workshops where employees can discuss the brand and its features. If they can convey the values of the brand, they will be able to satisfy their individual needs.
We also need to let them suggest alternative ways in which they can “live” the brand, both throughout their working day and in their personal lives.
Companies are imprinted with either one of the two basic customer service attitudes - a positive attitude or a negative attitude. Where a negative attitude takes hold, the customer does not identify the individual employee as the cause of his bad experience; he blames the entire organization. For example, if he has a bad experience with a shop assistant in a given store, he thinks “the staff is terrible at this store and I won’t be coming back.” This judgment directly and negatively links to the brand and everyone working for it. This is why it is vital that a positive service attitude is adopted by each and every one of a firm’s employees.
Other considerations relevant to creating customer experiences
• Outward appearance: As we all know, most people attach a great deal of importance to personal appearance.
The appearance of a company’s employees - the way they dress, their
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represent a person’s “first experience” of the company. It is the first step in any interaction and often there is only one chance.
• Names: The name of the person helping us in a store is very important.
We all like to know who we’re talking to, call them by name and be called by our own name in return. This makes the interaction closer and more human.
• Environment: The environment is vital in creating an experience.
Environment has been a powerful force at Starbucks, which has turned its coffeehouses into a “third place” between a person’s home and work, an oasis where she can sit down for a quiet moment, drink a coffee, and listen to good music in a perfect atmosphere.
Environment forms part of the company’s success in creating customer experiences.
• Words: Tone of voice and words can create a sense of welcoming or, rather, cool or hurt the relationship with a customer.
Just saying “Hi” with a smile, or even without a smile, critically changes the customer’s experience.
Saying “have a nice day” as the customer leaves can cheer up his whole day.
Words are far more powerful than we think. Companies are not doing enough to encourage employees to use words to generate experiences in their customers.
What skills do we need to train our employees in to create experiences?
Skill 1. Diagnosing
Real care must be taken with what is widely known as non-verbal behavior, because this is the first impression the customer gets. The employee needs to be able to read between the lines to guess what the customer needs, since every customer is different.
Skill 2. Listening
Listening is not the same as just hearing. How often have you felt
“not listened to,” when you were trying to explain a situation and felt
that the person on the other side would just nod and come back with a scripted response, ignoring what has actually happened.
Listening to tailor the solution to the customer’s need Skill 3. Asking
Asking is the most straightforward way to get information from the person in front of you. It is a means to display interest in and em-pathy with the person you are speaking to. But you need to be careful about how you frame your question and the wording you use.
Skill 4. Feeling
The ability to feel conveys empathy. Feeling means putting oneself in the customer’s place; feeling what the other person feels about a specific situation or issue so that we can provide the best solution.
Final thoughts
Creating an experience that nurtures customer loyalty is a magic blend of three ingredients: products, stores and, especially, people.
At Starbucks, customers come to us for coffee, stay with us for the friendly atmosphere and come back for our human connection. That is the experience that the customer wants: every day, every time.