How Training Failures Cause Cast Aways

I had a most unfortunate and frustrating experience recently. I bought a new pair of sunglasses because I lost mine. I had searched for the lost pair for a week but to no avail. I picked up a new pair at the local mall sunglass shop.

Of course as soon as I got home I found the old pair. Perfect. Since I didn't need two pairs, I headed back to the mall the next day to return the new one. That's when things went south.

There was a single cashier on duty. When I arrived, there were only two other people in the store. The cashier began processing my return. She began having difficulty with the system as she processed the transaction. This is where things started going Antarctica south. It became very clear this poor cashier had been tossed alone on an island like Tom Hanks in Cast Away.

From here forward in the story, I'm going to highlight some customer service, training, and leadership suggestions and issues I hope you take away and use in your organization.

Since she couldn't expediently figure handle my case, she told me "hang on while I check these other people out." Um ok. Apparently FIFO isn't a corporate value for these folks. Customer service tweak #1: ASK the customer if they mind waiting while you check out another customer.

After she checked them out, the store got surprisingly busy. She tried the refund again to no avail. She said "I'll just give you a store credit instead of a refund. That's easier." Customer service tweak #2: do what's right for the customer - not just what's easy for you.

She called her manager (remember - this poor cashier is going solo in the store on a weekend). Her manager tried to walk her through the transaction but it didn't work. The manager then punted with "I don't know. Call Frank." Apparently Frank is another cashier for the store. Leadership tweak #1: this manager failed their associate by essentially saying "hey, good luck fixing that." I'm sure the cashier doesn't trust that manager's leadership very much. Take care of your people folks. The manager should have called Frank and came back to the cashier with an answer rather than absolving himself of the problem.

The cashier called Frank in between waiting on four other customers (at this point I was "live tweeting" my experience on twitter. Come follow me there and you can watch events like this one unfold as they happen). Frank successfully walked her through the process of giving me the refund. Training tweak #1: if one associate has been taught something, all of them should be well trained on it.

By this point, the poor cashier was harried. She was trying to handle about 15 different customers all by her lonesome. She had no assistance short of the phone and clearly her manager was of no use to her. Leadership tweak #2: even in an era of lean operating costs, don't skimp on management presence or support just to cut costs. It'll cost you in associate performance and eventually customer churn and associate turnover.

Sure, I got my refund (as well as fodder for this blog post). But I have a lower opinion of this organization's leadership. They tossed a clearly-unprepared associate into the fray (which at times got very frantic) without fully training her. Training tweak #2: before making members of your team fly solo, ensure you've provided them all the right tools to do their job and do it to the highest standards.

Think about your team. Do you have any associates out there "flying solo?" Are they properly trained? Are you as a manager ready to fully support and take care of them? Have you given them the tools they need to succeed? If you've answered "no" to any of these, you have your work cut out for you this week. Get crackin'! Take care of your people because they take care of your customers.

Heads up if you live in Columbus, OH: I'll be speaking on these (and other) leadership topics on April 7th at the Columbus Young Professionals breakfast. If you'd like to attend, CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS. I hope to see you there.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC