-By Maggie Bayless

Reorientation just might renew your long-term staff's customer service energy.

If you've got some customer service training up and running, and it seems to be going pretty well, you may get to the point where you ask yourself, "When, if at all, should employees retake a class that was part of their orientation training? Is retaking a customer service class a good way to get experienced staff members refocused on important service basics?"

Those questions seem to come up again and again -- not just here at Zingerman's, but in every organization that I've worked with that offers customer service training for new hires. We all know that longer-term employees can benefit from being reminded of the basics, but very few of us (in my experience) have established expectations for ongoing training. Should we have something like the Red Cross has for CPR and First Aid certifications, where you have to go back and do some additional training and retake the tests every once in a while to stay "current?"

Zingerman's internal "Art of Giving Great Service" (AGGS) class is required for all staff during their initial orientation. On an ad hoc basis, some managers will include retaking the class as part of someone's annual performance expectations and retaking it is part of the certification process for anyone who wants to become certified to teach the class. But we do not currently require staff to take the class again after a certain length of time.

At an early fall meeting of our Great Service Group (this is our organization-wide service committee), we were talking about how to get more people to take our newly developed, more advanced service class ("Turning Greens into Evergreens"). Which also got us talking about whether we should have a requirement to retake the basic AGGS class after a couple of years. The conversation then turned to the importance of getting everyone's customer service "tuned-up" for the upcoming holiday season -- when we (like most retailers) would be serving more customers than at any other time of the year. And we realized that getting people into those classes would be a good way to get staff refocused and to ensure that our service was at its best during the holidays.

So we decided to run a game to get people to the service classes. We called it the "Service Tune-Up," and we targeted people who had worked at Zingerman's for at least three years. The game ran for the months of November and December. It's a time of year when managers are often reluctant to send staff to classes because they're needed on the floor -- but we also knew that when it's so busy is exactly when people can use a service pick-me-up. In addition to focusing on how to provide great service, teaching these classes gave us the opportunity to provide great service to the staff who attended -- connecting with co-workers, enjoying great food (we always provide something to eat), and being able to sit down for a couple of hours (not a small thing in the holiday season)!

We offered $25 ZingDollars (our internal gift certificate) for attending one of the classes, $60 ZingDollars for attending both. Everyone who attended at least one class and submitted their entry form also has a chance for additional prizes that will be awarded through a random drawing. And, of course, they get paid for the time they spend in the class. Our target was to have at least 50 people participate in the game, and as I write this in mid-December, it looks as if we're going to hit our goal.

Enthusiasm for the game has been high, and from the time it was introduced through our staff newsletter, there has been the kind of buzz that we hoped for when we came up with the idea. I asked both trainers and students what they thought about having new hires and "old timers" together in class. Here are some of the comments:

• "The experienced employees held back when it was time to role-play in order to let the newer people practice, but they had great input when it came to examples to share with the class, so we could see how great service adapts itself to the different businesses." Dana, new Bakeshop employee.
• "It had been a long time since I'd taken a service class, and I'm so glad I did. It was inspiring and reinvigorating to talk about giving really great service, and talk through the kinds of situations I encounter at work literally every shift." Jacqueline, experienced Deli employee.
• "Having experienced staff along with new staff in the service class increased
the level of energy, fostered great information sharing, allowed staff to get
to know each other, and seemed to raise the level of enthusiasm for service
for both groups -- truly a win/win!" Ann, ZingTrain trainer.

The energy generated by our Service Tune-Up has convinced me that getting experienced staff back into customer service classes is the right thing to do, and it's something I'll be advocating in our organization. What do you do in your business in terms of "retraining" longtime staff? Please e-mail me (zingtrain@zingermans.com, ATTN Maggie) and let me know. After all, a service tune-up is very much like a tune-up for your car: easy to ignore and/or postpone. But keeping your car -- or your business -- running smoothly and efficiently, and avoiding emergency breakdowns is ultimately a much better bottom-line decision!

Comments? mmoran@gourmetretailer.com