WEEKLY FOCUS

SF Customer Service Excellence

Create the ‘right environment’- watch your teams flourish and grow!

‘Business is business,’ no time for play, so let’s get a good days graft done! Well sort of… but what about the environment? The work place can take many forms but for your teams to flourish and grow, a number of things have to be present. An environment in which people feel valued, a combination of having an ‘open and honest’ culture, where ‘values and visions’ are aligned and where empowerment lets people thrive and grow.

But what about the physical environment?

When delivering workshops, i often refer to Pikes Place Fish Market- not a very flash place, cold and perhaps smelly but where the staff love to work and entertain their customers. I visited another business which had a fabulous refurbishment, the place looking stunning! My thinking was shattered when the Operations Director explained how they could ‘cram the place with more desks!‘ Personally i have never been a fan of ‘hot desking’. My view being that we all need a sense of belonging- our own space. This conflicts with the retail industry, where profit is often measured by square foot. It is important to remember that it is how you look after your people, the surroundings you provide, the atmosphere you create and the spirit that you instill with the culture that you build. Never overlook the environment that you create!

‘I view my role more as trying to set up an environment where the personalities, the creativity and individuality of all the different employees can come out and shine.’ Tony Hsieh