What an absolute pleasure it was for me to speak for the Art of Celebrated Service event hosted by Celebration Cinema in Grand Rapids, Michigan and provide some customer service training for some of  their employees afterwards!

Each person I met was a customer service superstar!! No surprise to me – that’s why they have several wonderful stories in my forthcoming book, 501 Ways to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Your Customers!

You can read more about them in the book (to be released in late December, 2015) – but here are two tips they shared with me that you won’t find in #501Ways.

Two easy-to-implement customer service training tips

1. To keep their team focused on engaging with and interacting with customers, they play Celebrated Service Bingo! Each staff member gets a bingo card filled with customer descriptions. For instance, someone with flashing light sneakers, or a red hat, etc. Once they find a customer who matches that description, they earn a “bingo mark” by engaging that customer in some way. That includes smiles, eye contact, friendly greetings, brief conversation, expressions of gratitude, or even finding a way to make their day!

I love this!!! What a fun way to keep those simple hospitality skills front and center at all times. Customer service training is not an one and done event, but an ongoing process. It’s creative games like this that ensure the customer service training you provide sticks.

 

2. Here’s a bonus tip! Celebration Cinema managers are told to actively seek out employee traits in a 3 to 1 ratio. So, if you see something you need to coach or correct in an employee, look for 3 praise-worthy attributes before you speak to them. Focus on the positive, while still addressing needed improvements.

What the people at Celebration Cinema understand is that the customer service training they provide is only as good as the steps the managers take on an ongoing basis to keep it going!

Want more from Celebration Cinema?

Read more great ideas from Celebration Cinema in my forthcoming book, 501 Ways to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Your Customers: Easy-to-Implement Ideas to Inspire Loyalty, Get New Customers, and Leave a Lasting Impression. 

 

Donna Cutting is the Founder and CEO of Red Carpet Learning Systems, Inc. She and her team provide customer service training for organizations whose leaders want to earn the competitive advantage through giving a red carpet experience. She can be reached at 800-519-0434. Follow her on Twitter at @donnacutting. Or LIKE the Red Carpet Learning Systems Facebook page.