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How To Motivate Your Employees

Posted on 09. Jul, 2009 by Rohan in Blog, Business Psychology

Motivating Your Employees to Give a *&%$ About Your Business

So I’m at Shoppers Supermarket today getting ready to send some cash by MoneyGram (Works just like Western Union but it’s a gazillion times cheaper).

I know what you’re thinking already.  Who the hell still sends money using Western Union or Money Gram when we have the Paypals of the world?

Well I had to send cash off to my nephew in Barbados and Paypal hasn’t gotten around to making it easy to receive money in some foreign countries.   So for $9.99 and the gas to get there, MoneyGram does the trick.

Anywhooo, I walked up to the clerk and asked for a pen so I could start filling out the paperwork.

No response.  Maybe she didn’t hear me.  I asked again.

Only then I realized that she’s on her cell-phone chatting away.  It’s cool, I’ll wait.  Another two minutes into her conversation she figures out that I needed a pen and hands me one without even looking in my direction.

Okay, this is shaping up to be what I like to call “Customer Service In Reverse!”

I finished up the paperwork and handed it to the clerk.  She did her thing, printed out the receipt for me to sign and took my cash while still on the phone and having uttered only 2 phrases to me so far: “$9.99” and “Sign this!”

I still haven’t figured out how she knew for sure I was there because she still hadn’t looked in my direction.  I guess service isn’t what it used to be here!

At The Check-Out Register 2 Minutes Later

At least that’s over with.  I grabbed a few things from the supermarket (You know my life wouldn’t be complete without Twizzlers and Red bull) and headed to the register.

“Hey, how’s it going? Thanks for stopping by Shoppers today.”  This was before I was even next in line.  The checkout guy was joking, and just a really pleasant and cool guy.  I mean, almost to a fault.

I literally said to myself that I wished I could hire him for my business.  Same company, two extremely different set of experiences.

Have Your Business Tell One Story and One Story Only

Customers create a mental image of their shopping experience with you in story form.  Tell a negative story and that’s what your clients will take away.  Tell conflicting stories and your client will seize on the one that most aligns with their pre-conceived notions about your company or companies in your vertical.

I don’t know those two employees personally, but I can say that today, one of them cared a lot more than the other one about their company.  Two vastly different stories.  Not a good thing.

The secret to having a more uniformed customer service experience is to have more motivated employees.  Simple.  Not easy, but simple.

So What Motivates Employees

Fun! The experience your customer has is a direct reflection of how your employee feels about your company.  An employee that’s having a great time at work feels more connected to the brand, and is more likely to treat your customers like royalty.

What type of fun are we talking about?

The type of Fun that has your employees talking for days after the event.  The type of Fun that employees post pictures of on their Facebook pages. The type of Fun that makes employees of other companies wish they worked for you.

Come up with these types of experiences for your employees and you’ll have far more of the Check-out register guys than not.   Better yet, have your employees come up with fun ideas themselves and listen to them.  You might be surprised at what happens.

Are you down?   Click here to subscribe to IttyGrow so you won’t miss any of my brilliance.  There are going to be 19 more articles in this series on how to motivate your employees.  If you’re super-cool, re-tweet this and follow this blog on facebook.