A tradesman visiting our home this week made this amazingly insightful comment. He said:
“Your business is only as strong as your weakest employee.”
Isn’t that the truth.
In sport, in Rugby League and in American Football, your defence is only as strong as your weakest team member in that defensive line.
And your opposition know who that weakness is, and they know where that weak player is being positioned, and they will work that weakness all game long just waiting to exploit that weakness.
And so these teams with the weakness need then to address that weakness, and strengthen that vulnerability, so that it is not a weak point at all that opposing teams can exploit.
In business, your weakest employee may be your least skilled or your newest recruit.
They may not have had time to familiarise themselves with every aspect of their role.
They may not have been given time to commit all the plays in the playbook to memory.
Or they may not even have been shown and taught and learned all of the necessary plays they need to perform their role.
I remember when a good friend of mine took a position at a well-known office supplier. She spent eight weeks being onboarded, before being allowed to interact with customers.
And all she was doing was selling pens!!
Whereas in dental practices, more often than not dental practice owners allow new employees to interact and learn their job roles while managing real live customers face-to-face.
“You’ve answered a phone before? There’s the phone there. Off you go then… Let me know how you go”.
is a recipe set for disaster and failure.
This recipe has no pre-training of procedures.
This recipe has no pre-framing of expectations and performances required.
The way to avoid disappointment:
The way to avoid disappointments for all parties [business owners, employees, and customers] is to have clearly defined pathways that need to be followed that create successful permanent outcomes.
And those outcomes are these:
- Loyal happy customers who feel appreciated and valued by employees of the business, and by the business itself.
- Clearly defined systems that breed clearly defined results for all parties, especially for the business owner.
- Educated employees who feel that they are truly involved in the customers’ experiences and the customers’ outcomes.
Shortcuts are often a compromise.
Always check in with all employees on how they are feeling about their roles, and whether they need any extra assistance.
Sometimes employees that struggle managing their roles and all their duties may need some additional assistance in the short term, that pays big dividends for your business in the long term.
Shortcuts in a business’s training and onboarding processes can have dire consequences if new team members are brought into the business without adequate preparation for their roles.
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Dr. David Moffet BDS FPFA CSP is a certified CX Experience coach. David works with his wife Jayne Bandy to help SME businesses improve their Customer Service Systems to create memorable World Class experiences for their valued clients and customers. Click here to find out how David and Jayne can help your business