Danny Meyer is a successful restaurateur in New York City who spreads the gospel of “nice” to customer-facing employees.
A recent feature article in The New York Times describes the service philosophy he calls The Virtuous Cycle of Enlightened Hospitality. Meyer’s  common sense formula for keeping both his staff and his customers happy is based on his experience as the owner of 11 restaurants in NYC.

Meyer’s customer service wisdom applies not just to people in the hospitality business, but to anyone who works with customers.

Danny Meyer’s Dictionary of Enlightened Hospitality

Agent. Someone who is on the customers’ side and works to help get them what they want.
Gatekeeper. The opposite of agent, someone who makes no effort to help.
Skunking. Spraying negative energy into the workplace. Skunks spray because they are frightened. The best approach is to give the employee the benefit of the doubt and offer to help or support them.
Richest. Respect, integrity, courtesy, humility, empathy, self-awareness and trust — values that employees show in dealing with each other.
51 Percenters. Employees with the core emotional skills that make them capable of delivering hospitality: curious intelligence, a strong work ethic, self-awareness and integrity, empathy, a warm and friendly character.
49 Percent. The other 49% of a 51%er’s character is his or her technical abilities.
Jazz level. The level of excitement one has for the work that they do.
A.B.C.D. Always be connecting the dots. A cue to employees to constantly collect bits of information about guests in anticipating their wants and needs.
D.H.C.D. Direct, honest, constructive dialogue.

This week follow Danny Meyer’s advice and give some enlightened hospitality to your internal and external customers.

Campfires. What good idea.

Consider the following situation: you are rolling out a new software solution that will allow management to track and report your customer service reps’ performance more effectively. This has the potential to be a tough sell to employees.
You know from experience with previous attempts to make large internal changes that it can be difficult for your reps to accept at first.  Typically, when the change is rolled out, you and your supervisors spend substantial time and energy trying to respond to employee’s very real and often unstated fears. You know the whole process would go a lot faster, smoother and be less arduous if you could get everyone’s concerns out in the open so you can deal with them.

Jodi Wire, the Manager of We Energies’ 150 seat Customer Contact Center in Pewaukee, Wisconsin was faced with this challenge a few months ago. She decided that this time instead of having to spend time handling employee reactions to the impending change, she would get out in front of it.

Last week when I visited their center, Jodi told me that in her meetings with employees to explain the change, she removed the tables from the conference room and had the employees gather in a circle around a “campfire.”  (This wasn’t a real fire, but an ingenious facsimile constructed of plastic and twigs painted flame red on the top.)

In the meeting she told the “story” of why they had decided on the new software and how it would work. What was remarkable, Jodi told me, was that the simple act of sitting next to each other (without the “protection” of the conference room table) created an environment in which people were more open and willing to talk about what was on their mind.

Thanks, Jodi, for allowing me to tell your wonderful story.

There’s got to be a better way. At a recent conference I overheard a manager lament the fact that since she was prohibited from replacing supervisors who leave, they now have a ratio of 25 reps to one supervisor. Yikes! It’s difficult enough to provide the right blend of coaching and support to keep a team of 12 employee engaged and performing at their best.

Although it’s not the perfect solution, if you are faced with ratio-creep, consider implementing a peer coaching program to fill the void.

10 Tips
for creating an awesome
Peer Coaching Program

1. Select the right people.
Make sure you select individuals who are self-starters, have a positive attitude, are great communicators and really know their stuff.
2.  Create an application process.
Generate a positive buzz right away by asking reps to apply to be considered to be a Peer Coach.
3. Encourage good people to apply. The best people don’t always step forward. If you think a rep has what it takes, invite him or her to apply.
4. Avoid selecting the “usual suspects.” Keep an open mind. Resist the temptation to play favorites.
5. Role play. Role play. And role play some more. Don’t skimp on training. The more prepared your Peer Coaches are, the more effective they will be.
6. Training is a process. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that just because they went through a training class that they are “trained.” Debrief the Peer Coaches throughout the process, particularly in the crucial first week after training.
7. Schedule Peer Coach meetings. The most successful Peer Coach teams are those that take ownership. These teams learn to listen to each other and take the initiative to solve problems on their own.
8. Capture lessons learned. The first round of Peer Coaching is often a learning experience. It’s the perfect time to get the team involved in documenting “best practices.”
9. Success can be measured in two ways. Consider your Peer Coaching program a success when they make a measurable difference in performance and other reps are asking how they can join the program.
10. Celebrate success. Give the Peer Coaches the recognition they deserve. It took an enormous amount of courage for some of them to move out of their comfort zone and to try something new.