Treat Employees Like Dogs To Boost Loyalty
Consider for a moment that in 2005, 35.6 percent of U.S. households owned almost 32 million dogs, or an average of 1.7 dogs per household. As early as 1994, Knight Ridder Tribune News Services was predicting that the U.S. pet care industry was headed for rapid expansion. Today it is estimated we Americans spend approximately $ 27 billion per year on nutrition, health and the general well being of our pets.
Could furry hugs and slobbery kisses really be worth $25 billion a year? If you look at the expanding array of products flooding the market, it's truly astounding the lengths Americans will go to to shower Fido with love, care and comfort. Whether it's a $7,500 climate controlled dog house, a $1,595 Jog-a-Dog treadmill, a doggie size water bed or gourmet pasta dog food, at appears that many of our pets are living a better quality of life than a substantial portion of the U.S. population. Is the loyalty, companionship, protection, love, support and fun we receive from our pets worth the investment? Based upon our spending habits, it appears so.
Granted the "treat employees like dogs" concept may seem rather simplistic in our complex, high tech world. Yet the idea of nurturing, praising, training, having fun with and caring for our pets is surprisingly the same process required to develop loyalty, commitment and excellence from our employees.
Essential to earning the trust, respect and business of today's value conscious, media saturated customer is the level of trust, respect and consideration bank managers give to their employees. It's not your bank's products and services that distinguish you from the "guys down the street." New products and services are easily copied and seldom give more than a brief competitive advantage. True distinction is much more predicated on the level of service received by your customers than any other single factor. And a primary factor in determining how well your customers are treated, is how well your employees are treated.
Sharon Harwood, manager of Disney University states, "Disney knew you couldn't have a supervisor in the back room yelling at you and then walk through the door and greet a guest with a big smile as if nothing were wrong." At the heart of the matter is the quality of the relationship between a manager and his or her employees.
The truth is that any built up resentment, anger, frustration, lack of trust and/or confusion between managers and employees gets communicated to and received by a customer in a variety of ways. It is essential that senior managers and line supervisors spend more time (outside of salary and performance reviews) with employees cleaning up resentments and frustrations, asking opinions and seeking creative ideas to enhance product and service delivery. Few actions display respect and value more to an employee than earnestly listening to their ideas and opinions or resolving past resentments.
The truth is that employees are looking for so much more that just a paycheck. They want to derive a deep sense of satisfaction from knowing that what they do on a daily basis makes a difference. They want to know they're cared for through actions, not just words. They want to work with supervisors and managers who are committed to helping them succeed. They want to be nurtured, praised and trained while working in a fun environment with enjoyable people. In short, treated like dogs!
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© 2006 Ray Adler, All rights reserved. You are free to use this material in whole or in part in print, on a web site or in an email newsletter, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me at ray@btitraining.com where the material will appear.
The attribution should read: "By Ray Adler of Bank Training International, Inc.. Please visit Ray's Web site at http://www.btitraining.com/tips.html for additional articles and resources."
Related Tags: banking, bank, training, customer, customer loyalty, loyalty, employee, customer experience
Ray Adler, founder of Bank Training International, Inc., works with banks across the nation to upgrade their sales cultures while retaining their community bank values and commitment to personalized customer service. For information on bank sales cultures and differentiation visit http://www.btitraining.com/tips.html
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