If you're new to my newsletter, welcome. Anyone who has read a couple of issues will realize that my business and marketing principle is simple:
Sales + Service = Success
Pretty straightforward, right? What makes a business unique/competitive is its sales and service. It works with every business in any industry, and it is very applicable to golf operators.
To simplify, both sales and service are based on our people. So hire, train, and retain good/exceptional people and you'll be successful. Easier said than done, right? If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.
So, how did you do? Well I took my own medicine and here is what I learned.
1. You have to show up. 30% of employees did not take the quiz, or if they did, they didn't share the results with me as they were instructed. Guess what? Those 30% are my marginal employees.
The same employees that show up late and have excuses for their lack of performance. Not a surprise, but it documents/solidifies what I already knew.
2. Now you're talking. Of the 70% that took the quiz, it helped me quickly identify concerns they have. When someone rated the question a 1 or 2, I addressed the concern with them and within days had it resolved. It's an easy way to start a dialog.
3. Protect your revenues. I learned that I need to do some things better. I need to encourage more and to mentor more, make myself more available to my all-star employees. These employees are completely satisfied with their career, they scored 50 and above.
However, by having a couple quick conversations about their responses and some of the other responses I received I learned that I need to proactively protect my all-stars. I need to encourage the things they do well on a more regular basis and offer more training/mentoring on the things they lack. Not earth shattering, but extremely helpful.
What's the difference between the gold and silver medal? In a 100M sprint, it's often 0.01 second. A hundredth of second, you can't even humanly measure it but it makes a huge impact. It's leaning towards the finish line just a hair more than the next guy.
That's so often true in our businesses. We want dramatic change, but often it's just taking five more minutes with a customer or employee, picking up a extra piece of trash in your parking lot, making sure their is soap and paper towels in your restroom, or raising your weekend morning rate by $3.
Have your employees take this quiz. Take 30 minutes to read the results.
