Small business owners are more aware today than ever that the success of their business lies largely in the level of customer service that their staff delivers.
How Do We Hire for Customer Service Excellence?
Okay, so let’s first spend a little talking about what NOT to do. These are four of the most common mistakes that people make when hiring.
Number One – Hiring someone based on their credentials alone. By this I mean someone that appears to have all of the education needed for the position, experience that seems perfect on paper because it is so relevant to either your field or to the position you are hiring for. You get so excited about their paper qualifications that you don’t really pay attention to the actual person you are hiring.
Number Two – Hiring a pulse to fill a chair. You hire someone because you are so desperate to fill the position that you have now lowered your standards to anyone who knows their name and has a pulse. As owners, leaders, and managers it can sometimes be so overwhelming trying to cover a position and still try to do our own jobs.
Number 3 – Hiring the first and only person you’ve interviewed. Sometimes the first person you interview for a position is the best person for the job, but you’ll short change yourself more often than not because you don’t have a good comparison of what is available in your candidate pool. By interviewing at least two people, you’ll have a much better feel and more confidence in your hiring decision simply by comparison alone.
Number 4 – Trying to do it all yourself and not knowing when to ask for help. Your intentions are good, but there is greater strength in asking and getting help when you need it over the frustration of making the same mistakes over and over again.
Now, one of the reasons I know these mistakes is because I’ve made every one of them. These are also the same mistakes that other leaders in the industry cite as the most commonly made as well.
In Part 2 of this post, we will cover the ways to avoid making these mistakes.
I’d love to hear your comments as to which one of these mistakes you’ve made in the past. No worries, no judgement here. We’ve all been there.