One of my more memorable client experiences occurred a few years ago while I was working with a company to improve customer service and ancillary sales. After conducting the initial discovery visits and leading the frontline team through our core seminars, the company experienced an almost immediate and very significant improvement in both service and sales.

The general manger was so delighted with the positive results of the program launch – the changes in employee attitude, happiness, and the positive bottom-line impact – he literally cried out, “Thank God for Frontline Performance Group!”

In that moment he understood the power behind our principles, program, and the reason for our unwavering commitment to creating service-based sales cultures: happy employees = great customer experiences = improved bottom-line results.

This, of course, is no secret. However, what most business owners and managers do not realize is that changing a workplace culture requires much more than just wishful thinking; it requires the implementation of a hyper-efficient, impactful business system. This takes time, commitment, persistence, and diligence. But as this client realized, those willing to transform their business culture into one that supports employees and a service-based sales environment will reap the benefits a peak performing sales organization has to offer.

Andy Racz - Senior Account Manager, Frontline Performance Group

I often see high-level managers and business owners express an almost irrational fixation on a singular internal metric or Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Their steadfast focus, while admirable, is often shockingly misguided and harmful to the business. This owner intensity typically drives the organization to dramatically improve one specific metric while ignoring others, which frequently results in business trauma, unintended consequences and collateral damage.

One organization I recently worked with focused all of their attention, compensation and recognition on their top volume revenue producers. They characterized these agents as ”top performers” and rewarded them as such. Upon closer inspection, however, the agents who had produced the most revenue were not the best salespeople. They were simply “churning” calls and skimming opportunities rapidly for the easiest sales. This “cherry-picking” does produce large revenues; however, it does so at the expense of more needy customers who require greater attention and patience. Once conversion of opportunities handled and a customer service index were added as performance indicators, many of the perceived top agents fell significantly in the rankings. Although they were producing large revenue sums, the hidden collateral damage they were doing to the brand through their insensitivity to other customers largely outweighed the positive sales results they were generating. This situation is tragic…and common. Conversely, with the new performance indicators in place the true capabilities and contributions of some of the near-top and average agents were seen for the first time.

In one industry, an owner might place all of his focus on sales revenue only to get burned by profit slippage from excessive agent-to-customer incentives or discounts, or on the back-end through poor quality sales resulting in high accounts receivable defaults. In another scenario, an owner may become fixated on utilization percentage (as in car rental or hotel room usage) while simultaneously neglecting to see the harsh effect of the lower daily rates needed to drive that utilization. If you had a four room hotel, would you rather have 100% occupancy at $100 per room night or 80% occupancy at $150 per room night? The first example produces a Revenue Per Unit of $100 while the less-used property produces a Revenue Per Unit of $120 — a 20% revenue premium for less work! Factor in the reduced labor needed to handle the lower number of transactions along with the reduced product cost, and you see a new perspective surface. In yet another case, transactions produced per hour may be the driving force while little or no consideration is placed on the profit or brand-building potential of those transactions to the organization.

All of these metrics, along with many others, are worthwhile and critical to your success. However, it is important to remember more often than not it is the calibration of several Key Performance Indicators that will ultimately drive the two metrics that matter most, long-term customer care and profit.

Chris Brown- Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group

Forget about experience, age, background, what industry your candidates come from and how many degrees they have. The SEE Factor is primarily what you should be looking for.

Sincerity: Effective selling is “relationship selling.” It is selling something you believe in. It is selling with conviction and purpose. It is selling sincerely. You need earnest people who care about the customer and understand that what they sell will enhance the customer’s quality of life. Sincerity needs to be a non-negotiable attribute requirement for any new-hire candidate you are considering.

Empathy: Empathetic people relate well to most other people. They like to work with them and they love to help them. Frontline people with this quality can relate to your customers, build rapport quickly and find common ground. They make great first impressions and customers instantly like them.

Ego: Your team also needs people with strong egos. An individual with a strong ego (as opposed to a false sense of superiority) is someone that wants to be the best and succeed day in and day out, someone that does not settle for mediocrity, wants to maximize every opportunity and does not crumble as a result of customer rejection.

Make no mistake these are the qualities of a top performer – the qualities of your next superstar. They are not common, and not easy to find, but they do exist. Now that you know what attributes to look for, all you have to do is make a personal commitment to sculpt your team one strong performer at a time.

Our goal is simple: build rewarding relationships and deliver results. But the relationships we strengthen are not just those with our clients; we also foster relationships between our clients and their customers.

While coaching the frontline of a client, I was recently approached by a customer who had repeatedly experienced difficulty in receiving reward program credits. He expressed frustration with the company and mentioned he would be using a competitor for his next purchase. Because we were between manager shifts, I acquired his contact information and assured him that the problem would not only be addressed, but resolved, quickly. Prior to his leaving, we spoke briefly about his patronage as the backbone of our client’s success.

The management team immediately contacted the customer and he was 100% satisfied with the resolution. In fact, the customer was so delighted with the way the dispute was handled, he wrote a letter to the organization expressing his renewed faith in the company and his restored confidence that outstanding customer service still exists in America.

The impact you have on your customers revolves around how you make them feel during their limited interactions with you. If you want to positively impact your customers and in the process, move your bottom-line, you need to move your customers through an emotional connection. This is done by the actions of your frontline.

By actively listening to the customer, displaying understanding, sincerity and enthusiasm about his problem, and being responsive to his needs this company was able to not only prevent the loss of a valuable customer, but create a potential customer for life.

- Tom Diaz, Senior Performance Manager, Frontline Performance Group

When you are booking a hotel over the Internet, can you “feel” the difference between one five-star hotel in New York City and another? Of course not. This changes however, if you are on the phone and you have an enthusiastic and motivated salesperson on the other end of the line, describing the property’s distinct benefits. In those moments, that representative is the hotel. It is in those situations that a company becomes “relational” versus “transactional,” producing a huge flashpoint of advantage.

Need proof? Consider these revealing responses from a study performed by T. Scott Gross & BIGresearch that included over 9,000 customers in the retail arena. The participants were asked, “What is the most important thing you look for in a shopping experience?”

• 41.4% of participants wanted knowledgeable and helpful salespeople
• 27.0% of participants wanted courteous, caring and friendly staff
• 18.3% of participants wanted low prices and product information
• 8.8% of participants wanted merchandise that is easy to find
• 4.5% of participants wanted a fast check out

As you can see, 72.9% of what people are looking for is impacted by your frontline!

To be truly successful, you must understand and appreciate the role of your frontline as the vehicle that can transform your bottom-line.