OK, I appreciate we haven’t all had a good experience of our future talent pool of leaders, movers and shakers in the guise of a young intern or apprentice of late, although I’m about to prove you can’t tar them all with the same brush….
First Impression Training has recently started working with a local client (Yes – can you believe it? We have a Kent gig for the first time in years!) who provide full secretarial and practice management support to consultants within the private healthcare sector, from booking clinic appointments to managing & chasing payments on behalf of the Practice and they’ve enjoyed significant growth over the last few years – mainly from personal referral and word of mouth, and we can easily see why.
We LOVE this client! Mainly because they ‘get’ it – they know their people are the vital ingredient in their recipe of success. They understand that their Frontliners will be the difference that makes the difference to their customers’ experience, so as they continue to grow, they’re working hard to find the right people, with the right attitude to represent their clients’ brand on the telephone, in order to enhance both customer and employee loyalty.
So I wasn’t too surprised when I came across their delightful young Apprentice – Hana Neseyif has definitely been hired for her attitude! Fresh, full of energy and raring to go on just about any project you set her, she’s already proving a valuable asset to the business and well worth investing in.
We’ve recently carried out a FIT Healthcheck & Development Needs Audit (DNA) of the operation’s frontline, to fully scope the training & development programme we’re building for the company. While we were ‘up close & personal’ with the team, doing some live obs and in 1:1 discussions with staff, we heard (and read) some really fantastic feedback – from patients and consultants alike – thanking staff for being so helpful and acting like a GEM (Going the Extra Mile) and praising them for their customer service.
Yet sadly, these Frontliners are so busy ‘doing the doing’ – taking & making calls, typing up medical reports, carrying out a myriad admin tasks – they never share this great feedback with anyone, so unless the Team Leader happens to be there while the WOW! is being given, it’s just forgotten and the daily slog continues as business-as-usual. I say slog because, like many frontline operations we work with, it is exactly that – the team are paid to be the ‘dartboard’ for customers complaining, so actually, making a big thing out of a small bit of feedback is VITAL for keeping our frontline staff upbeat and on track to represent our brand positively, wouldn’t you agree?
So I suggested a WOW Wall or Success Stories board to display visually in the centre and reward the biggest WOWZA on a monthly basis, so that everyone is encouraged to continue to give fabulous customer service (as standard) and claim their place of pride on the WOW Wall!
I love it when our clients take an idea and run with it – I love it even more when it’s a bright bubbly young Apprentice who grabs the idea and creates something which can only be described as genius! A little one percenter that’s now made a 100% difference to those frontliners who are working tirelessly day after day to ensure a PME (Positive Memorable Experience) for their customers.
Now they can SEE the difference they’re making by just looking at the WOW Wall – and it’s encouraging them to get more WOWs from their conversations, because people FEEL GOOD when they know they’ve made OTHERS feel good, and as 84% of our customer’s experience is all about how they FEEL about that experience, it makes sense to give and get as many WOW’s as possible!
Check out the awesome visual the lovely Hana has created – and if you can’t find yourself a Hana, find someone in your team who’s got a creative spark about them and can recreate what she has for their centre.
I promise you, you’ll be gobsmacked by the energy and momentum it stirs to get a WOWZA on the wall – we are, after all, only human and we LOVE to please and this is a real win-win way to do so!
Have a great week – and stay FIT!
