The Employee Factor

Everyone who writes about or develops customer experiences should watch the McDonald’s 1972 training videos. Why? Because, in reality, we are still trying to teach employees the same things – to treat customers with courtesy – with a smile…

While the videos are certainly not Disney-quality – the messages as true today as they were over three decades ago. Customers want to be treated with courtesy. They want to be asked how they can be helped. They want to be thanked for their business. And they want to understand the best deals that are available – “do you want fries with that”?

We all know that employee engagement is at an all time low. And all of us have dealt with employees who don’t like their jobs. What we love about these videos is the simplicity of the messages. McDonalds tries to show its employees how smiling and treating customers with courtesy can be contagious. According to the video – “courtesy is what makes it run smoothly.”

However, what becomes increasingly apparent is the fact that so few companies are actually delivering on this simple concept. There are only a few companies that consistently deliver exceptional customer experiences and at the foundation of these experiences are engaged employees, who at a minimum treat their customers with courtesy. Why is it so difficult to deliver the smile?

Well, we certainly agree with Seth Godin, that it will take more than the creation of motivational videos to create courteous employees. We think that more and more companies should look to what the best have done - hire for attitude and train for skill.