There’s an epidemic of poorly trained employees and bad hires chasing customers away. My experience at a local shoe store is a prime example.
Here’s what happened. I walked into a shoe store to see what could be done with a six-month-old pair of boots that were falling apart at the seams. On the plus side, this store warranties their shoes for one year. That is, if you make it through the shaming that takes place when you attempt to have the product repaired.
The clerk who assisted me said the damage occurred because my daughter is a tough walker, who wore her boots on city streets that have salt. The last time I checked (and I’m sure Nancy Sinatra would agree), boots are made for walking, and if they are being sold in a city store, you should be able to walk in them on a city street. I left shaking my head, vowing never to buy another pair of their shoes.
The experience didn’t have to happen this way. The clerk could have apologised for the inconvenience and then asked if I was interested in hearing what we could do to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. It’s worth mentioning that the store was empty on one of the biggest shopping days of the year. I no longer wonder why I was the only customer inside.
Your front-line people are your most critical hires. In many organisations, they are the only person your customers and prospects interact with. If customers have a negative experience like I did, they’ll take their business elsewhere. And on the way out the door, they’ll be sure to tell everyone they know about their experience.
What’s perplexing to me is how little thought and effort organisations are making in their hiring process. Here’s an example of this. A growing number of companies are now asking applicants to take one-sided, automated phone interviews, as the first step in the hiring process. This trend is not reserved solely for front-line employees. People applying for jobs as a digital marketing specialist, sales director, and financial controller have been asked to take them in recent months.
The organisations using such interviews say they are more efficient and candidate-friendly in a tight job market.
Really? It’s bad enough that candidates are finding it difficult to break through applicant tracking systems to have a conversation with a hiring manager. Now, they’re expected to have a call with no one! This is nuts!
Many applicants, though, say they’re still acclimatising to them. Here’s my advice to job seekers who encounter this. Hang up the phone, as this is an employer you DO NOT want to work for.
If you’re seriously thinking of introducing this idea in your organisation, give me a call. I can’t promise anyone will be on the other end of the line. However, you’ll get to experience first-hand what your applicants will encounter, when calling into your interview lines.
Your challenge: shop your place of business. Then write to me and let me know what you discover.
P.S. Can you believe while writing this, I received a call from the clerk who waited on me at that shoe store? She told me my daughter’s boots couldn’t be fixed. She implied this was because my daughter lost the tiny metal piece that came off the zipper, as she was going through TSA on the busiest travel day of the year. I swear, you cannot make this stuff up.
© 2018, Matuson Consulting.
Questions or comments? Feel free to reach out to me at roberta@matusonconsulting.com.
To your continued success!
Roberta
© 2018, Matuson Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
Roberta Matuson, The Talent Maximizer® and President of Matuson Consulting, helps organizations [sic] achieve dramatic growth and market leadership through the maximization [sic] of talent. She’s the author of four books including the newly released, The Magnetic Leader. Sign up to receive her free newsletter, The Talent Maximizer®. Follow her on Twitter.