A High Level of Employee Engagement Results in High Customer Satisfaction Scores in the Airline Industry

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According to an article by Katia Hetter, posted on CNN.com, JetBlue Airways ranked first for satisfaction among all North American airlines for the ninth consecutive year. “JetBlue also earned the top score among low-cost carriers for the eighth year in a row. Southwest Airlines was a close second among discount carriers with 770 points to JetBlue’s 787. Airlines are ranked on a 1,000-point scale.” The article went on to say, “Of course it helps to have happy (engaged) employees.” Jessica McGregor who is the senior manager of J.D. Power’s global travel and hospitality practice, was quoted in the article as saying, “One of things we see is that when you see companies that have high internal employee satisfaction (employee engagement), they have high customer satisfaction as well.”
Note: The parenthetical comments in the above post are mine.

J.Crew CEO Speaks out on Productivity

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An article by Danielle Sacks in the May 2013 issue of Fast Company magazine includes J.Crew’s CEO Mickey Drexler’s 10 rules for creative success. Mr. Drexler points out that every business could be creative. “I talk to so many people about the lack of creativity in companies in America. Part of creativity is contrarianism. Creativity battles common wisdom. Because if there’s common wisdom, there’s an opportunity. In my own experience, whatever was a good idea was a bad idea to most people.” He also points out that American companies are built to destroy creativity. “If you become the head of a big company today, you’re not the youngest person in the world. You have a contract. You get a jet. You have a huge overpaid salary. You get bonuses. Do you think that CEO is going to screw around with fast, creative change? No. And the board of directors–the last thing they want is someone who’s going to change things. Steve Jobs–he would bet the company, he wouldn’t care. But there are very few people who run companies that way.” These are excellent observations and so true. My new book, The Engagement Formula, shows you how to build an organization that fosters a high level of creativity. www.rossreck.com

Having Highly Engaged Employees Makes a Huge Difference on the Bottom Line

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There’s an excellent article in by Steve Strauss today’s USA Today.com on how having highly engaged employees can make a huge difference on the bottom line. The article cited research which said: “employees who are highly engaged in the workplace are about 50% more likely to exceed expectations. Also, noted in the study is that companies with highly engaged people outperform firms by 54% in employee retention, by 89% in customer satisfaction, and by fourfold in revenue growth.” This research confirms what we already know about employee engagement. If you would like to read the entire article, here’s the link: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/strauss/2013/04/29/steve-strauss-good-boss/2115469/

Starbucks CEO has some solid advice for innovators and entrepreneurs.

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In today’s USA Today, Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz provides some great success advice for innovators and entrepreneurs:

  • “Success means never standing still and resting on your laurels.
  • Find something that you deeply love and are willing to sacrifice a lot to achieve.
  • Surround yourself with co-workers who have very specific skill sets beyond your own – but who share like-minded values.
  • Don’t ignore luck when it comes calling. “As trite as it sounds, you need a little luck.”

Then he went on to say that success is not sustainable unless it’s shared. This is excellent advice for being successful at anything. If you want to read the full article, here’s the link: www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/24/starbucks-howard-schultz-innovators/2047655/

 

The News about Employee Engagement: It’s all Good!

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When employees are engaged with their work, good things happen. I haven’t read of heard of one negative thing that’s happened as a result of employees giving all their energy, creativity and passion to performing their jobs. Rather, engaged employees create a competitive edge for their company that can’t be easily copied—they’re constantly making innovative improvements to products, services and customer experiences while providing superior levels of customer service which results in loyal customers. This means higher levels of repeat and referral business which, in turn, translates into significant increases in market share. In addition, companies with high levels of employee engagement enjoy substantial cost savings due to reduced employee turnover, absenteeism, accidents and employee theft. Clearly, having a workforce of employees that are engaged is a very good thing. if you want to know how to make employee engagement happen in your organization, just go to www.rossreck.com.

Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer Has Her Priorities in the Right Order

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Marissa Mayer was hired as the CEO of Yahoo last July to turn the company’s fortunes around. An article in today’s Wall Street Journal points out that Yahoo’s revenue is down and that a turnaround has yet to take hold. What the article doesn’t seem to appreciate is the fact that Ms. Mayer knows what she’s doing and that a turnaround will happen and it will be a solid one. According to that same article: “Ms. Mayer said that it would ‘take several years’ to reach the growth rate she would like, and that her first priority was to make Yahoo ‘a really terrific place to work’ and hire the right people before stepping up the “cadence of product development.” This shows that Ms. Mayer has he priorities in the right order. First, you get the culture right which consists of making Yahoo “a really terrific place to work.” Second, you hire only those people who will thrive in that culture. And finally you turn those people loose and support them while they apply their best efforts to make the company successful. This process takes time, but it’s a “can’t miss” formula and it’s the same formula which is presented in my new book, The Engagement Formula which you can find on http://rossreck.com/.

Why Cutting Staff to Improve Finacial Results Usually makes the Problem Worse

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Attempting to improve a company’s financial results by cutting staff usually makes the situation worse for a number of reasons. First of all, cutting staff does not get at the root cause as to why the company is experiencing poor financial results. This is what needs to be dealt with if a company expects to turn things around. Second, cutting staff deals a serious blow to company morale which causes huge reductions in productivity, innovation and customer service. This, in turn, results in lower sales which makes the financial problem even worse. A good example of this is the J. C. Penney situation that is going on right now: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324345804578423081955213990.html

Why McDonald’s Employees aren’t Delivering Service with a Smile

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According to an article in today’s USA Today, customer complaints are up and profits are down at McDonald’s. Customers are complaining about rude employees and slow or “chaotic” service and the problem is getting worse. As a slide from a webcast delivered by Steve Levigne, vice president of business research for McDonald’s USA, “Service is broken.”  So what is McDonald’s doing to fix the situation? According to a franchisee quoted in the article, “The new leadership has decided to focus on customer satisfaction as a real driver for us to build the brand and build sales.”  The truth is McDonald’s needs to focus on its employees–they’re not engaged with their work. Right now McDonald’s pays its employees as little as possible, doesn’t train them well or treat them well and hence the rate of annual turnover of its employees is high (the fast food industry average is 60%). No company can expect to deliver high quality service with a smile under these circumstances. McDonald’s would do well to take a look at how Quik Trip, a company in a similar industry, treats its employees and it could solve it’s engagement problem in very short order.

The Engaged Employees at Trader Joe’s Make Grocery Shopping Fun

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I absolutely love shopping at Trader Joe’s. The Quality of the groceries is excellent as are the prices. But, the most important reason that I shop at Trader Joe’s is the people who work there– they’re genuinely nice. As you walk around the store, they great you as if they really care about you. It doesn’t take too many visits before they know your name. If you ask them a question, they’ll go to great pains to get you an answer and if you ask them where a certain item is located, they will take you to it rather than say, “If we have it, it’s in aisle three.” In short, these employees love what they’re doing and it shows in the way they do it. This, in turn, is what brings people like me back to their store on an almost daily basis. It’s a great recipe for success.

What Makes Southwest Airlines so Great?

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Southwest Airlines is profitable and growing because it knows how to manage the one statistic that really counts–passenger complaints. If an airline treats its passengers right, they aren’t all that concerned if their flight is on time of if their baggage is mishandled. The following article in today’s USA Today points this out very clearly: USAToday.com