Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2011 | Page 20

Grow Market Lead

guests happy by handing out free
samples. Some will prop themselves
up against a wall and passively extend
the tray as people walk by, and then
there are our type of candidates who
will quite comfortably go from guest
to guest and table to table saying,
“Have you ever tried the Energizing
Pomegranate? You better sit down
when you taste it, because your knees
will buckle, it’s so good.”
To ensure we have access to the
best talent, we offer a premium. Our
employees are started at $10 per hour
and, since they are primarily college
students, we offer flexible schedules.
Our employees are also offered a shift
premium of up to an additional hour

of pay for each hour worked retroactively for exceeding targeted sales
goals over the previous two-week pay
period. It can be earned only if the
cafe achieves its total sales objectives
for the two-week period. Therefore,
each team member knows that they
not only have responsibility for driving sales, they also have to help ensure that their fellow employees are
doing suggestive selling and providing
superior service that results in more
tribe member frequency and referrals. 
These simple steps really narrow
the candidate field. As a result, we
have opened with the best and most
motivated team members I’ve ever witnessed in any retail operation. Another

18

Franchiseupdate Iss u e IV, 2 0 1 1

Anatomy
of a Start-Up
organization I admire for its commitment to creating a service experience
is Chick-fil-A. You can check out an
example of their commitment to excellence by doing a Google search for
“Chick-fil-A—Every Life Has a Story.”
I experience over-full tear ducts every
time I see this training video.
Aligning behaviors with
brand promise

How are we ensuring that our team’s
behaviors align with our brand promise? Our new employees are being
trained that we aren’t in the business
to make a sale, but to create experiences and build
relationships. If we just
sell a product, we will be
known as a vendor, but if
we sell a vision or experience we will be known as
a brand and achieve our
brand potential.
To that end, we have
identified all touch points
in the “customer corridor” to ensure that we can
influence the customer
through their experience.
Indeed, every touch point
has the potential to create
an amazing and differentiated experience. These
experiences can be as mundane as preventing customer frustration from not having their favorite
flavors on hand, or as exhilarating as
the customer’s child receiving an unexpected extra like a free Acai Beaded
Bracelet. We purchase these to help
break the cycle of poverty o