Business owners want employees to execute a very high level of professional, courteous and competent service for their customers.

However, despite many owners' best intentions, their businesses, both large and small, tend to fail to consistently deliver great service. Employees are the key to great service. In turn, great service produces long-term repeat customers who form the foundation for successful business.
Developing and retaining high performing employees is both an art and a science that can be successfully implemented by understanding and utilizing five key criteria:

1. Hire right
2. Training
3. Pay-for-performance
4. Quality leadership
5. Employee retention

Hire right... sounds simple?

Most companies will follow the usual recruitment process including advertising, interviews and then candidate selection. While qualifications and experience are important, personal attributes determine whether or not a candidate will be a good fit for a business. People need to be motivated, honest, have a strong work ethic and most important, the ability to get along with a wide range of personalities. At the interview stage ask questions that get the candidate to open up about themselves. How they interact with people in their private life will say a lot about how they will treat customers. Prepare well for the interview and be clear about what the key attributes required from a person are. Do not lose sight of these key components. Stay focused and ask the core questions. It is critical that this first stage is correct in order to implement the next three steps and create a great asset for a business.

Next week: Training