Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite fast food restaurant is Chick-fil-A. Aside from the fact that their chicken is especially good and I can always have sweet tea, I have a valuable business reason for eating there – they offer amazing customer service. And these lessons are not just taught at my closest location. But in any city, any town, every time I have been to Chick-fil-A, I have felt like the Most Valuable Customer.
Now you may be wondering what you can learn for your fast food restaurant business. In short, a lot. Just because your business is different doesn’t mean you can’t take someone else’s ideas or techniques and apply them to what you do. So I challenge you to be open to what you can learn from a chicken.
They are focused.
Chick-fil-a knows that his expertise is making good chicken. You don’t drive up to their window with options like beef, pork, or fish. Their focus remains on what they know. No empty promises of the best steak in town or a delicious oriental creation, just chicken. We must do the same for our Clients.
Don’t pretend to have experience where you can’t deliver. Customers are good at sniffing us out. If you promise something that you cannot deliver just to get your business; you will be left without a customer.
They give me what I want.
I love the Polynesian sauce (dip for nuggets) for my fries. Chick-fil-A never charges me extra even if I don’t order their nuggets. They are happy to give me what I want.
How many times do we charge our Clients all these additional fees if they want something that is not the standard? When your customer is hungry for something different, make it easy for them to eat.
They take a rest.
I often crave chicken on Sunday afternoons, but Chick-fil-A is never open to the public due to the company’s clear values and beliefs. They choose Sundays as the day of rest. They are never open, no exceptions, and according to your business plan they never will be.
Very often we deceive our Clients by not breaking with our work. Too much work can affect our ability to concentrate, cloud our focus, and leave a bitter taste in our mouths. To what extent do we help Clients if we are exhausted?
They train their employees.
On a visit to Chick-fil-A, you’ll hear things like, “It’s my pleasure to serve you.” “Please.” “Thanks.” “Hope to see you at the window.” The atmosphere includes smiles, laughter, and happy workers who seem to love their jobs. And I doubt that your happiness is based on the love for chicken; They have been trained to value the Client.
If you want to excel as a business, hire superstars who believe that the Customer writes their paycheck. Set expectations with your employees and staff that excellent, not optional, customer service is expected. Add customer service as an important part of an employee orientation. And most importantly, lead by example. S. Truett Cathy, chose to do things her way taking care of Clients and employees by hiring operators and managers who believed in her philosophy. To date, Chick-fil-A, the company he founded, has more than $ 1 billion in annual sales.
I encourage you to visit a Chick-fil-A when you get the chance. I will continue with my weekly visits to reaffirm my customer service beliefs (and to get a chicken sandwich, no pickles with a large sweet tea!).
ps You will notice that in both articles the words Client and Client are capitalized. Capitalizing the word is just one way we can remind ourselves of how important customers are to our business. After all, without them, we would not be in business.