Comments on: Does Your Staff Know What Your Company Does?

By: Lowell

Lowell — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:26:36 +0000

I really appreciate how you skillfully use stories to illustrate, in emotional terms, “not workable” and “workable” scenarios. Then you help us along with the example of a solution your company created. You make it easy for us to answer the question, “what did you learn from that blog post?” The total package.

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:39:37 +0000

I love this stuff…The “Curious Incident of The Thomas Cake Conundrum,” and the employee you interacted with touches on an organization-wide issue, of, in my opinion, instilling corporate identity in every employee, especially during the on-boarding process. Harris Teeter, is a generally positive consumer experience for me (perhaps just a disenchanted bad seed), not an organizational issue.

After growing up in Maine and doing most of my grocery shopping at small, family owned businesses, after moving to VA, I was shocked at the varying consumer experiences at Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Giant, Safeway, Harris Teeter, etc. I did a bit of digging and found that the places where I experienced the most consistently good service, and product knowledge have a drastically different corporate culture, in-depth training, generally higher pay rates, and employee benefits than the ones where I received poor service. For example: Did you know at Trader Joe’s, a cashier communicates with the managers on duty by ringing a bell by the register, and the number of rings indicates the type of assistance needed?

I digress.My point is, I think when it comes to the individual attitude and knowledge of a staff member, the key is incorporating the organization’s culture, values, missions from the beginning. Much like developing an Elevator Pitch for your organization, (http://www.thematrixfiles.net/blog/whats-your-elevator-speech/) it is so important to include ALL staff members in understanding the company’s “schtick.” Not only does it build continuity in the type of work produced by staff, a sense of community, but it provides scripts and guidelines for staff to respond to inquiries like “what does your company do? Do you make this Thomas cake? What do I need to make a great banana bread? Do you provide a product that I can manage my association’s membership database?”…etc.

By: Joe Grossberg

Joe Grossberg — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:48:37 +0000

That anecdote illustrates the problem nicely.

On the flip side, it can also be a problem when people over-promise, such as (real life example):

Client: Do you do iPhone apps?
PM: Of course we can!
(a short while later)
PM: I promised the client an iPhone app
Dev: But I have zero experience doing that.
PM: That’s OK. You’ll learn. Oh, and we promised to deliver it by [tight deadline].
Dev: …

And no one was happy with the results — a buggy iPhone app that was clearly written by a total novice.

As you said: “know when to say yes, when to say no, and when to say “let me check.””

IMHO, in the bakery, online-voting and iPhone examples, I think that “let me check” would have been the right answer.