Great news out of Washington, D.C. – My Edible Arrangements franchise won the “Customer Service” Award at our annual franchisee convention. My store was the best out of 936 Edible Arrangements franchises worldwide.
I’ve had my eye on this prize for a while. Of course I want to serve my customers well. But as a motivational speaker, it also lends more credibility to the peak performance concepts I discuss in my programs.
One of my challenges as an employer (I’ve got a staff of ten people.) is getting top-notch performance from my employees while I’m away. The life of a motivational speaker requires a lot of travel, so I’m not in my store very much. I’ve have to develop effective training programs and motivate my staff remotely.
I opened my store five years ago as a sort of laboratory. I’ve been speaking on leadership for a long time and I wanted to see how my concepts would work in an actual business setting. I didn’t want to be one of those motivational speakers who talks about leadership without practical, first hand experience.
From the beginning we focused on teambuilding. We brainstormed goals as an entire staff. I tried out various methods of praising and reprimanding. My manager and I also took our employees through a values assessment.
A lot of this stuff yielded no results (other than making a few people roll their eyes). But a lot of it has made a measurable difference. We have low turn over and great attitudes. We have a pleasant work environment. And we now have award winning customer service.
I have a lot to learn about business as I do about being a motivational speaker. But walking my talk has helped my store, just as running my store has enhanced my business speaker programs. The “soft skills” motivational speakers share can lead to hard results.
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- Customer Service or Customer Shakedown?
- Press Release
- How to Turn Angry Customers Into Customers For Life
- Motivational Speaker Asks: Can One Bad Apple Spoil The Bunch?
- Motivating Retail Employees
