Sure, folks want to know what makes that Chick-fil-A sauce so addictively delicious. But what everyone – especially folks who manage a team of employees – really wants to know is…
What makes Chick-fil-A customer service so remarkable?
Here’s a story that plays out across the nation every day but Sunday.
This is a story compliments of Charles Marshall
If you’ve ever managed people, you know this kind of cheerful loyalty-building interaction doesn’t happen by accident. That’s why one of the most popular topics people ask me to speak on is Chick-fil-A ’s legendary customer service. I have been asked to teach on this everywhere from school attendance offices to audiences of franchise owners on the other side of the U.S.
As the owner and operator of two stores Chick-fil-A locations, My leadership HAS to exemplify the actions I want conducted at Chick-fil-A in my day-to-day operation. You can’t expect people to do in the front of the house what you’re not doing in the back of the house. If I’ve got employees who are out there running to grab a mop, it’s because my leadership team and I have showed them what serving others looks like.
Let’s go up a notch… I have seen Dan Cathy, former CEO, picking up trash in a lobby of a restaurant. The example MUST start at the top.
I’m a true believer that everyone wants to be part of something big. It’s just that a lot of people don’t know how to do that. It’s the little things we do for customers that make a difference. Clearing off a table, carrying customers’ trays, replacing a spilled milkshake, giving a guest a plush cow to help make sure their birthday is special, empowering my team to comp a meal if they feel the need – these are just a few small ways we display our commitment to remarkable customer service.
Now, there are companies out there that don’t invest so heavily in this kind of training for their team members. The truth is, it takes work, and most people want to invest as little time or money into training as they can. Of course, they’re the ones who look at my Chick-fil-A stores and ask, “How in the world do you do so much business? Why are there people lined up around the outside of your store?”
Well, I will tell you this… it’s not because we chose not to invest in our people.
How do we do it?
We don’t leave it to chance. We train our team members how to make our guests feel special. In fact, we train on making our guests feel special so often that it practically becomes second nature. I use the motto,
“How you perform at practice is how you’ll show up to a game.”
We will not only show them the training videos and go thru the process, but we do what others won’t.
We do role playing. It feels really stupid, but I will sit down with new employees, and we come up with scenarios. I give them a list of the tools. Tell them the scenario and let them write down what they should do. Let them be creative. Then they share it with the group. The more often they do this, the more ready they are to handle real life situations.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a pregnant mom with five kids in tow came in. I have six kids, so I know what it’s like. When I saw her and her family ordering, I told my team member, “Hey, take care of their meal for me, will you?” and he did.
The lady called me aside minutes later to thank me and ask why I’d done that. I said, “Because I have six kids and I relate. I wanted to bless you today.” She started tearing up and then shocked me by saying, “You know, it’s really funny that this happened today. My brother-in-law was at the Chick-fil-A corporate office, sitting behind founder S. Truett Cathy’s desk, signing his operator agreement because he is going to be an owner/operator of a store in Maryland.” She said, “We all love Chick-fil-A and what happened right here is one of the reasons why. It’s because of things like this. You didn’t know me, you didn’t know anything about me. You just wanted to bless me and my family.”
As happy as that made me feel, what was even better is that my team members saw the whole interaction. They were involved in the process. Did this clarify why we do this, and how it is to be done? YOU BET!! Now, when an opportunity comes up for them to be a blessing, are they going to be hesitant to do it? Probably not, because I’ve shown them exactly what we want and empowered them to make a difference, too.
Want to build this kind of customer service into your own team and company culture? I spend quite a bit of time speaking on topics just like this – and I’d love to help inspire your organization, too. Of course, running two busy stores means spots are pretty limited. But if you message me here, it would be my pleasure to talk with you about making it happen.