Meet Lexi. You might guess by looking at her picture that she’s bright and probably does a great job answering the phone. I met Lexi first by phone and email. She works for one of the centers that we serve, and about 10 months ago, she was required to implement our birthday sales qualification process. The way our program works is that we provide remote coaching and a script to anyone who answers the phone. The goal is, with a “sales process” in place, we can take the incoming birthday inquiry and turn it into a sale 9 times out of 10. We have shoppers that call to book birthday parties and then send immediate feedback to the center that rates the quality of the call.
In the beginning, when Lexi was shopped, she made sure to follow back up with us when and if she didn’t score 112% (there are bonus points). I spent time encouraging and coaching Lexi. She was doing a good job and getting good scores, but I felt like she might be missing the point. I admired the fact that she wanted to get a perfect score every time, but the real goal was to use the system in order to book more parties.
Last week I got to visit with Lexi in person, and I was so motivated I had to share her comments with you, and how she has helped her facility to increase birthday revenue by 49% this year.
I happened to walk into the sales office last week when Lexi was handling a birthday call. She was so great with the customer on the phone. Our qualification process is simple – connect, qualify, and close. The connection part includes getting the child’s name. As I walked in on Lexi, she was talking to the parent and telling them how much they would enjoy having Zach at their facility.
In Lexi’s words, she says that today, with the sales qualification process, the call is more personal. Once she was finished with the call she was on, I was able to sit and visit with her about the program. She was very forthcoming and didn’t hold back at all. When I asked her about how she felt about the sales qualification program, she answered me with a blunt, “I hated it at first.” Although I was afraid of what might come next, I encouraged her to keep talking.
Lexi explained to me that she didn’t like the process in the beginning because she felt like she was doing a good job. She knew the party program and was giving good information to the customer. She believed she was booking parties and getting the job done.
That made sense to me, and I knew from her early reaction that scoring high on those shops was important to her and that she was frustrated by the process. So I asked Lexi if she adopted the program only to get the high score. She said, “Yes” at first and then added a “But”. Lexi said that when she made herself do it “my” way that she started booking more parties and groups.
In Lexi’s words, when she started making it a priority to use the child’s name, the call became more one–to–one with the customer on the phone. She said that before, when a guest called in, it was a lot more impersonal because she was just giving information about the party. Now it is all about helping plan that special event. Lexi said, “I know it’s the birthday child’s dream day, and now I’m personally involved in helping plan that day.”
I don’t know if you can ever know how to best influence or motivate a change in behavior. For Lexi, making sure her shopper scores were 112% was her initial motivation to adopt the birthday sales qualification process. As a direct result, she herself admits that she absolutely books more parties and actually enjoys the booking process because she is more one–to–one with the customer.
In summary, I encourage you all to “get Lexi’d”! In a world gone crazy with employees jumping out of airplane doors, I think it is awesome to meet someone like Lexi. She was asked to change something that she thought she was doing a good job with, suffered some not–so–perfect feedback as she perfected her skill, and, as a direct result, is enjoying the job more and succeeding at a really high level. A 49% increase in birthday parties is nothing to sneeze about in this economy! Congratulation to Lexi and the super team she works with. Thank you for taking the program to the highest level!
If you have a Lexi story at your facility, we would love to hear how you motivate your team.
