Operation Awesome: Advancing your Front Line and your Bottom Line Through Playful Professionalism
by Gail Howerton, MA, CLP

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Welcome to Boost Camp for Customer Service Professionals. Tactical tips to boost quality service, boost benefits for staff and customers, and boost your front line which will boost your bottom line. The battle cry of Operation Awesome is: "the staff that plays together, performs, and stays together". The mission is to create a climate that is rich in the liberation of talent rather than restraint by rule. Adopt this vision with your facility and watch your staff charge ahead of the field.

It is imperative that we develop a creative environment which is ripe for staff motivation if we are to keep our employees and keep our customers coming back. Motivation comes form the word MOTIVE, and everybody has their own. Nobody can give us motivation, they can only create an atmosphere which may feed our souls. If our soul is hungry for something else, no amount of what we are being fed will sustain us and we will starve. It is our mission to provide opportunities for personal growth through leisure activities for our customers, so it is our mission to provide similar opportunities for our people who provide the services. We cannot empower others if we cannot empower ourselves.

Job satisfaction is critical to our staff and our business survival as well. People like doing business with people who like doing business. They will pay higher prices and drive farther to give their money to someplace where they are recognized and feel comfortable, safe, and are given delightful service. If employees like their job and work well together, then absenteeism goes down, productivity goes up, turnover goes down, customer retention goes up, and they live longer and healthier. A study from Duke University between 1959 - 1975 found that the #1 factor in determining longevity which ranked above good genes and good health habits and 788 other factors, was job satisfaction. Several other studies by Training and Development, Industry Week Magazine, and American Demographics, allude to the top motivating factors as being a mixture of: interesting work, good communication and being in on things, appreciation and recognition, involve employees in decisions affecting them, a sense or worth, responsibility for one`s work, providing regular feedback, and job security. Although good wages made the lists, they were farther down on the list as a motivating factor than we might think. It is more of a dissatisfier when it is not present, than a motivator when it is present. A survey by Working Woman Magazine stated that a creative work environment needed: a commitment to that goal and removal of barriers towards creativity, a pleasant conducive environment, and to have fun.

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A commitment to creating that comfortable, conducive workplace must be shouted from the ivory towers for all to hear. The attitude of the top management flows through the staff and into the customers. Promoting playful professionalism and involving staff in the creation of organizational traditions produces a healthy environment for everybody. Find out what staff members like to do in their leisure time and you will find out volumes more about what motivates them than their job title implies. Encourage bringing who you are to what you do to reveal true personalities of the staff. This not only gives the supervisor clues to how they can motivate them, but it lets the customers know there is a real person on that front line and it allows team members to get to know each other and increase understanding amongst our diverse workforce.

Allowing staff to bring in small toys for their desk, or photographs, or to put up cartoons at the copy machine bulletin board brings some levity to the office and helps reduce stress. It also connects people - Victor Borge said "the shortest distance between two people is laughter". When you laugh with a person, you can work with them, it connects you. The 7-eleven Corporation interviewed would-be robbers whose robbery went astray and found that the major influencing factor of why they did not pull off the robbery was that the clerk smiled at them. The cashier`s smile disarmed them when that connection was made. The Dayton`s stores also did a study of their sales people who went to training to be more attentive and personable to customers and found that those salespeople earned 20% more in commissions than those who never had the training. They were more approachable when they smiled which earned the customers` trust and their money. People like doing business with people who like doing business.

Employee training is critical in creating a high-performing team and creating confidence in the workforce at all levels. There is a flipside to the opinion of "what happens if we spend all this money to train them and they leave". What if you don`t train them and they stay?

There is a basic human need to feel important and that what you do matters to someone. By finding out what employees do in their free time or about their interests in your organization, we can arrange cross training to test the waters. Find out the game they are good at and find a way to let them play their game and teach others. A liberation of talent, rather than a restrain by rule. When staff is restrained by rules and regulations; "when the cat`s away...the mice will play". When people are allowed to test their potential and stretch their abilities, there is no stopping the power of enthusiasm. We had a staff member at our Outdoor Recreation Center who loved paintball and snowboarding when they were both on the fringe of mainstream recreation. He became our resident expert and his recognition by the customers grew along with our programs. He created a need and several profit centers which generated income beyond our wildest dreams because he loved those sports. There is no stopping the fire of excitement.

Discuss your personal game plans with the staff and how that plan relates to the game plan of the organization. Talk about the things each person wants out of the relationship with their job and how to make it all fit. Think about work as a game and we play games because:

games are fun, we play with people we like, we play to win, we know the score, we know when we have won, and we know what we will get when we win.

Encourage feedback and ownership when making your game plan so that everybody knows what game they are getting themselves into. Promote camaraderie by having staff outings or activities which they have designed. Encourage hands-on training in a fun way to reinforce policies or equipment handling, but make a game out of it and give prizes or pizza coupons. Rotate between staff who will lead the next training or plan the next meeting. Meet in the pool and hang out on rafts, do your staff call in the park, or remove all the chairs from the conference room to ensure shorter meetings. Everybody loves treats - have snacks at training, but be forewarned, once you start this tradition, the staff will not let you stop!

Let interviewees know up front about what game they are getting into and recruit only those who will fit well on your team and into the game you play. It is wise to hire attitudes and aptitudes (hire teeth and eyes), then train skills. Hire the smile and the sparkle in their eye for their love of people, and their industry. It is far easier to train a front-line person on the technical aspects of using the equipment, than it is their demeanor with children or other angry customers who are trying their nerves. Tailor your interview questions to find out more about their style - ask their favorite hobbies, or music, or what they would do first if they got an unexpected day off or a windfall of cash.

Your front line is your bottom line. If we take care of our front line and make them feel important, remove as many barriers as we can to their performance, then they will take care of our bottom line. Remembering that perception is reality and feelings are facts; your customers will feel it if your front line feels it. The perception that what your front line is doing really matters will flow through to the customers in a tidal wave. Empowering them to say yes if they have the power to say no is a great way to streamline effectiveness.

Herzberg`s studies showed that hygiene factors (the working environment) were not necessarily motivators, but that if they were not up to standard, then they became a distracter. A comfortable worksite in comfortable and appropriate clothing will not only provide an atmosphere conducive to staff morale, it will create a better image for your customers of a high-performing team and a quality organization. This includes temperature, music, colors of the facility and staff uniforms, type of uniforms, types of furniture and wall hangings, lighting, technology, policies, and ease of getting the workload done - are the right tools in place for a smooth delivery. If uniforms and nametags are provided, then be aware of different seasons and the amount of uniforms so doing laundry does not become a stress point every other night for field staff. Think about weather-proof outer gear for those working outdoors and get input from the staff on color and styles. I found this out after I ordered hunter green shirts and with the language barrier being overseas, we received Kermit-the-frog-green shirts. Our staff was embarrassed to wear them. We made sure about how ‘dark green` translated in our next order. Adopting a true sense of caring for individuals and a commitment to the importance of basic humanity will carry us through in any question of creating a climate rich in trust and the liberation of talent.

With risk comes reward and sometimes a mistake or two. Encourage stretching the parameters in the name of innovation and reward appropriately. What gets rewarded, gets repeated. Behavior changes are much more effective when there is reward stemming from a particular behavior, rather than from a punishment stemming from an unwanted behavior. Lavish praise on people and see their eyes light up and their face beam with pride. Recognition should be done sincerely, timely, appropriately - in relation to the specific behavior performed, and in a manner which is meaningful to the employee. Some love large public recognition, while others would prefer their check (or tickets to the local theater or football game) to be kept between them and their supervisor. Knowing what types of praise your employees would prefer helps make it more meaningful to them. Ask them if they would prefer time off or a cash award. Their answer may differ depending upon the time of year, family obligations, their leave accrual situation, or their financial situation.

Involving staff in the selection of their title on their business card and ensuring that each staff member has a business card to better represent your organization, will give them more ownership in the program. I have seen such titles as: Emperor, Minister of First Impressions, Paintball Meister, Adventure Specialist, Princess of Promotions, Reality Facilitator, Chief Energizing Officer, Chief Problem Solver, and Grand Poobah who presided over the Joy Gang at Ben and Jerry`s Ice Cream. The Joy Gang goes around spreading joy to the workers as a collateral duty. They help plan staff activities such as: dress-up day, Elvis day, hat day, and polka dot day. The fact that you would invest in business cards for some staff members makes them feel very special if they have never had them. It also gives a good impression to your customers and colleagues of the professionalism of the staff. I have cards that say "You Are Simply Awesome"and give them out to people who have exceeded my expectations. I have used VIP cards (very important patron) cards which entitled freebies to "frequent flier"customers. We also honored our volunteers and staff from other divisions who have helped our organization that year by a banquet called "Just Desserts"which included a build-your-own-sundae bar and a certificate presentation recognizing their support to our success. There are volunteer catalogs from which to buy things like buttons that say "I`m appreciated", or fortune cookies that say "volunteers are this programs` good fortune", or a pack of flower seeds that says "volunteers make this program grow". Supervisors who are sincerely interested in the programs their staff create and who attend the programs are held in higher esteem than those who do not. Workers tend to perform better if they think their work will be inspected, instead of just expected. An old Army axiom is: ready for inspection at all times.

Some staff may still need some guidance along the path to becoming the Enlightened Recreator. If this is necessary; praise in public and discipline in private and discipline with dignity. State the issue as something outside of the person and work on correcting the issue to save face for the individual. There are 2 million assaults or abuse in the workplace per year. The second leading cause of death at the workplace in America is murder. Of all the murders at the worksite, 72% of them were committed by disgruntled employees. People get angry when they feel they are mistreated.

Getting to know co-workers as individuals will help discern if their performance is off from their usual behavior. Burnout and stress inhibit performance, costing American employers $200 billion per year and an additional $24 billion per year is lost in business due to depression. Depression affects 17.5 million Americans cutting across all gender, racial, cultural, and socio-economic lines. Alcoholism afflicts 1 in 10 workers and substance abuse is found in 1 in 12 employees. Inconsistent behavior or mood swings may signal to the teammates that there is a problem. Problem behaviors must be confronted and not condoned, or else the supervisor creates unsettled issues with other employees who are taking up the slack of the unproductive worker.

Everybody wins when a department adopts a strategic plan involving respect, courtesy, playful professionalism, and the basic standards of humanity. Lighten up the workplace with fresh ideas to put some zip back into the workers and the programs. Operation Awesome is meant to boost the spirits of the workers which will boost the morale of the workplace, which boosts the energy of the organization. People like doing business with people who like doing business, isn`t that an awesome thought?