You know the one. The one you look forward to visiting. The staff are happy to see you, you feel comfortable there. You know what to expect and you know you will get what you need – and more.
You tell all your friends about this business. Your friends smile and nod. They know this business, too. You don’t see this business advertise, but it’s always busy. Without feeling rushed or overworked. The staff cheerfully make everyone feel special.
You know this business is successful and you watch how it grows.
One day you get a chance to talk to the owner and you ask her how she does it. She tells you about how important her staff are and how much she cares about her customers.
You dig a little deeper because you know it has to be more complicated than that. You ask what she does to make her business different. She tells you about how important it is to her that her staff love working there, how she works with them carefully so that they care as much as she does. She talks about her customers as individuals. She talks about how she listens to her customers so she can make sure they get exactly what they want.
You hear about training staff to do things the way you want them done because that’s what you are supposed to do in business. You hear that she does customers surveys because that’s what you are supposed to do in business.
She says she cares about people, but you are told how to manage people. Caring about people and managing people are two completely different mind sets. They lead to completely different strategies and tactics and completely different results.
And when you don’t get the same results as she did, you conclude that her industry is different, that she’s just lucky in finding good staff and that she couldn’t possibly be doing as well as you thought. It’s easier to believe that, but don’t.
Be like your favourite business.
photo by annie-spratt
