No More Rotten Apples

Recently, I was killing time between meetings in a bookstore coffee shop.  Bored with my project, I  over heard a manager interviewing a new employee.  The conversation consisted of the manager telling the candidate that customer service is expected and the candidate nodding their head.  I assumed (and so did the supervisor) that the candidate was implying, “Yes of course I will provide great service.”  As I listened, I wondered if the manager would be surprised in 60 days when this new hire turned out to have a bad attitude toward customers. 

Hiring and selection is a critical task for supervisors and managers.  Often however, supervisors get bogged down in answering e-mails or other administrative tasks that are more urgent but not as important as designing questions that force a candidate to reveal their true nature.  Hiring has an extensive impact on business operations. By taking a short cut, we cannot build a foundation for great customer service.  Here is an extreme example of the impact of poor hiring on customer service from High Fidelity .  (Warning warning, the customer uses extremely foul language as he walks out the door, stop watching at 35 seconds to avoid).

Leslie Clark

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