Kindersley Chamber: You Can’t Send A Duck To Eagle School
This has been on my mind for quite a while and now is the time to share this philosophy. It is so simple but not every hiring person gets it. I have always been a big believer in customer service as I have been in retail for many many years. I have seen the best of people and I have seen the worst of people (both employees and customers).
Why don’t employees give better customer service? Is it a lack of training? Perhaps. Is it a lack of product or service knowledge? Again, perhaps. Is it maybe that they don’t care? OR maybe that’s just not who they are. Their talents and skills may be in other areas that have nothing to do with dealing with people.
Why is it that some companies have no problems hiring great staff who go on to bigger and better things? Given the current business climate and mediocre customer service at times, you would expect them to have a super-sized training manual! But no, they don’t. How do they do it?
I had an interesting conversation with someone years ago when I was beginning my career and what was discussed was life-changing for yours truly. I was told “What we do is find the best people we can find and we empower them to do whatever it takes to satisfy the customer.” Sounds simple right? But what I was told next kind of blew my mind and made total sense and I have never forgotten it. I was told “You can’t send a duck to eagle school.”
So, what does that mean? “You can’t teach someone to smile, you can’t teach someone to want to serve and you can’t teach personality. What you can do, however, is hire people who have those qualities and teach them about your products, your services and your company culture.”
As long as I have been in the retail sector, I have never forgotten that quote. It makes such perfect sense. Not everyone is cut out to deal with the public. It can be an extremely stressful situation dealing with someone who may be wrong but is still expecting you to make it right. And no, the customer is NOT always right, no matter how much they say they are.
Also, what can be unfortunate is as an employer, you may not have a deep pool of talent to hire from. And I get that. Some employers almost laughingly say “Well, if they are breathing, then they are hired.” Some employees do make a successful transition to customer service stars. But their true talents may be elsewhere.
So, in closing, keep in mind when you are hiring a new person, ask yourself this question, “Am I hiring a duck thinking they will become an eagle?” Maybe you don’t have many candidates to choose from. If that is the case, all you can do is make your best choice as to who you hire and work with them closely and observe and see how they match up with your company values. I truly hope you can find some diamonds in the rough. There is a ton of good people out there looking for work and most of them just need the chance. How they present themselves to you is on them. They have to realize that certain criteria must be met. And that is a whole other topic to be discussed.
Hire for attitude, teach the technical skills.
Kevin Martin
Executive Director Kindersley’s Chamber of Commerce
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