Tamara Greenleaf, our VP Marketing, came into the office today exclaiming "You won't believe the on-boarding nightmare that happened at the grocery store yesterday!"
She went to the deli counter where the manager took her order for a half-pound of sliced turkey, turned to an obvious new employee and proceeded to explain how to process it, in lengthy detail. When the manager turned back to her, she started to give him her next order. He put up a hand, stopped her in mid-sentence and said: "I'm training a new employee. I need for you to give your order to him directly." Not 'Do you have time to help me train a new employee?', but 'Tough luck. You're today's guinea pig.'
Tamara and the manager then stood there and waited. And waited some more, while Newbie struggled with the slicer, the scale and the wrapping paper. By the time Newbie handed it to her, with a very nice smile, she was so annoyed she said "Nothing else, thank you." So the Newbie got trained, but the store lost about $15 worth of additional business in the process.
Is this store insane? During these tougher economic times customers are watching every dollar and easily influenced NOT to spend. You can't let training get in the way of good customer service and potential sales. And you don't have to.
Before your trainees hit the floor, make sure they have the basic skills necessary. Role playing and having them walk you through different scenarios are effective ways to test their knowledge and have them practice before directly engaging with customers. And for goodness sakes, you must intervene when your Newbie is struggling and the customer is bearing the brunt.
Have similar stories to this one? Send it to me, I'll post it on-line, and we'll gnash our teeth and have a good laugh together.
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