You've heard the expression "one bad apple can spoil the bunch" and that is so true when it comes to your business. A single employee with a bad attitude can leave your customers with an unfavorable impression of your company. In the past we've talked about focusing on employee satisfaction as a way to improve morale and increase the chances that your employees will be positive and helpful when interacting with customers. For more on that you can also click here or here. What if this doesn't work though? What if you have an employee who should be satisfied and happy with their position yet they are still negative when interacting with customers? Keep reading for some tips on handling this challenging situation.
- Communicate expectations. You need to make it clear to your employees what is expected of them when they interact with customers. Attitude, inflection and even facial expression can all impact a customer's perception regarding your employees and your business. Let employees know how important it is to sound interested and engaged when talking to customers. Remind them to smile and thank customers for coming in. Some employees may not realize that what they see as efficiency comes across as abruptness or flat out rude behavior.
- Deal with problems immediately. Many people prefer to avoid confrontations but as the business owner or a manager you can't afford to ignore the situation and hope that it will resolve itself. Left unchecked, you could find yourself with a surly employee and very few customers. As soon as you realize there is an issue you need to address it. Bring it to your employee's attention that their recent customer interaction wasn't up to company standards and be specific about what they should have done or said differently. Often people don't know there is a problem until you tell them and if it is just their personality they certainly won't know how to fix it without specific suggestions.
- Don't be emotional. Of course, anything that negatively impacts your business can cause you to become emotional. Don't let those emotions cloud your judgement or impact your conversation with your employee. Approaching them calmly is key. If you seem angry or upset when you begin the conversation it can elicit an emotional response in return which can escalate an already volatile situation.
- Outline consequences. Let your employee know what the consequences will be if their behavior continues. It may have just been a one time occurrence but if it is the start of a pattern of negative behavior it is good to have in writing that you made your employee aware of what the consequences would be. Labor laws are there to protect both employers and employees so you want to be sure that you follow proper procedures.
- Terminate. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. Yes, employee retention is important and hiring new staff can be time consuming and expensive but keeping a negative employee can have a much stiffer impact on your business. Not only will they run off your customers, but they could also drive away other employees. Hopefully you can avoid this step but if it becomes inevitable you may need to terminate a bad employee.
There Are No Bad Apples in Stockpile Fast Online Inventory Solution
When it comes to inventory you shouldn't have any bad apples. If you use Stockpile fast online inventory solution it will be easy to track your inventory within a single location or across multiple locations. Plus, Stockpile is fully customizable so you can add the fields that make the most sense for your business. Why use an inventory management solution that was designed for someone else? Stockpile fast online inventory solution was made for small businesses. Stockpile is also mobile compatible so you can access your inventory data anytime from anywhere. No more trekking to the office to see if you have something or trying to do a work around using your store website. You can see your full inventory records on your mobile device with Stockpile. Include photos in item records, run reports, there are so many things you can do with Stockpile fast online inventory solution. Try it today!
