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Energy flows where attention goes

Many companies do an effective job of training their employees and holding them accountable to certain job functions.

For instance, in the checkout line at my local supermarket I’m routinely asked, “Did you find everything you were looking for?” And, when picking up my order at my favorite take-and-bake pizza restaurant, I’m frequently asked, “Have you baked our pizzas before?” And the cashiers at several area retailers regularly ask, “Would you like to enroll in our loyalty program to receive future discounts?”

Job functions are those tasks or duties associated with a job role. They are mandatory and, in most cases, are observable and measurable. Job functions receive a great deal of attention from supervisors and employees are held accountable to consistently perform them.

The irony is that, while employees are usually very good about asking routine questions pertaining to job functions, they oftentimes lose sight of the essence of their jobs.

Job essence refers to an employee’s highest priority—which, for most businesses, is to create delighted, loyal customers. Demonstrating job essence through one’s style, attitude, and personality is optional and, oftentimes, difficult to measure. For these reasons, supervisors and employees at many companies fail to consistently demonstrate job essence, devoting more of their energy and attention to the performance of job functions.

So, even as an employee asks, “Would you like to enroll in our loyalty program to receive future discounts?” (a mandatory job function), if she doesn’t smile, add a bit of enthusiasm to her voice, or in some other way appear to be engaged or interested (demonstrating optional job essence), then she’s missed an opportunity to “connect” and make a lasting positive impression.

Energy flows where attention goes. If a company pays attention to job functions, it will increase the number of people enrolled in its loyalty program. If it pays attention to job essence, it will increase the number of delighted customers who are loyal to its company/brand.

It’s better to earn 100 delighted customers who are loyal to your brand, than to capture 1,000 passive customers in a loyalty program who are indifferent toward your brand.

Where is your attention going?

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 3rd, 2010 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Customer Service, Employee Engagement, Enthusiasm at Work!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://reallyjeannie.com Really Jeannie

    Those in direct contact with customers need to know that customer loyalty depends on how engaged the customers are, and how much they trust the company and its products…

    I used to work in retail and i’ve spoken to repeat customers who came back because of the quality of the merchandise, and the amount of money they save whenever they shop. In my conversations with them, they never mentioned their experience with any of the sales associates. It gave me the impression that if they were happy with product and price, they would be accepting of satisfactory service. (am talking about a clothing store) Working in retail is not easy. We all know it pays low, and we all know that sales associates are on their feet all day. They may not have a ready or perfect smile at the end of the day, but sales associates try hard to please the customers. They just basically use their common sense. The store manager may not necessarily have the knowledge and the leadership skills to lead their staff or to cascade information down the line either. Store managers might not be even capable of engaging their own staff. Or perhaps management does not have it in their budget or priorities to provide programs or events that will instill the values and cascade it down the ranks, because maybe the sales associate job has a high turn over rate anyway, so what’s the use?

    But you are right, Steve, paying attention to job functions is effective. I remember the times when i would ask ‘would you like to join our rewards club?’> i did that out of duty. And i also know of the times that i didn’t ask it, because i really didn’t care. So what if i missed asking 5 to 10 customers, no one would know, right? There really was is no immediate consequence to asking that question.

    There you go.. the mentality of the minimum wage earners… =) I’m done with that!!!

    *jeannie

  • http://www.stevecurtin.com Steve

    Jeannie, thank you for sharing a frontline point of view. That’s an important perspective to consider since a customer’s shopping experience is often defined by her one-on-one interaction with a frontline employee. I agree that customers’ expectations are influenced by the positioning of the retailer (i.e., a shopper’s expectations of a sales associate at Nordstrom differs from that of a shopper at Target). Even so, there’s no reason why an employee at a discount retailer cannot smile, make eye contact, and add a bit of enthusiasm to her voice – just as one might expect from an employee at a high-end retailer like Nordstrom. It may seem idealistic but if an employee felt justified in leaning or not smiling toward the end of her shift because it had been a long day, I would ask her if a shopper who arrived at 5:30pm deserves any less customer service than one who arrived at 10:00am. Hopefully, she would reach the same conclusion as me. If not, I’d suggest she find something she’s truly interested in (even passionate about) and channel her energy in that direction. Have you noticed that when you do something you really love, you don’t compromise on quality. You’re simply unwilling to. It would be offensive to you. Maybe it’s cooking, photography, gardening, music, home brewing, tennis… The list is endless. Jeannie, there’s a reason you no longer work in retail. And, though I don’t know you well, I do know that you’ve recently left a comfortable/familiar place to stretch yourself and pursue your passion. My hunch is that, as it pertains to your new venture, you will be unwilling to compromise. And because of that, you will shine.

  • http://reallyjeannie.com Really Jeannie

    =)
    Haha you are right about there’s a reason why I left retail… You are absolutely right Steve, it is offensive to compromise on something one is passionate about. I am passionate about my music center (http://musicandbounce.com) but i had to take a step back and take a break until i know I can give it my 100%.

    I think in order for the frontliners to think and live a company’s mission and vision and show that in their respective functions, is for the loyalty and internal customer / employee satisfaction to occur first within the organization. Culture is so important. Most people spend 8 hours of work 5 days a week and what goes on internally will easily reflect externally.

    For example: FedEx. FedEx pays attention to their relationships with their subcontractors because it is these subcontractors who deliver shipments on time. I don’t know what management and the culture is like in Zappos, and they sure make people happy don’t they?

    I once had an unfortunate experience at Loews Hotel in San Diego last year – i had some major cramps on both my legs late at night, and i was alone and in extreme pain. I won’t go into the details but i got poor assistance that evening. It was unbelievable. Even if the check-in manager tried to make it up to me as much as possible (the next day), here i am still writing about it. Looking back i realize that they could have done more, if customer satisfaction was really important to them. Now I think the manager just did what she could to ‘control the situation’ and did not escalate it to upper management.

    So going back to your title: energy flows where attention goes. You are right, Steve. If management does not pay attention to what is important, the energy won’t be there… Without energy there is no passion, without passion you have nothing (something ike that – by Donald Trump).

  • http://www.stevecurtin.com Steve

    Jeannie, thank you for inspiring the idea for the next post… ; )