The 24 Hour Employee

It makes me cringe just typing the word employee since I don’t believe in that word. But I had to write this article based on something I heard at the Disney Customer Experience Summit. One thing they discussed was about treating your employees like 24-hour employees. I knew what they meant but had a problem with the terminology. So for the rest of this article, I will refer to this as the 24-hour team member!

I love this idea, and the term is what inspired this article. What is a 24-hour team member? Over the years I have always told my team that I am not only here to help you in your career but in life as well. I try to make sure that all my actions and training events are geared around not only making things better for the company but also good for the team and their happiness. The whole idea is that you don’t stop caring about a team member because they clocked out for the day. In order to provide exceptional customer service, you have to treat your team the way you want them to treat your customers. This includes caring about their health and happiness as well as their entire family unit.

I can hear managers from earlier generations gasping as I say these words. While I have always felt and managed this way, it is definitely not the norm. Although, as the times are changing, it is my opinion that it will be very difficult to be successful without this approach. We are on the precipice of a customer service revolution, and just being good will not be enough in the coming years to keep customers.

Over the years I have been told that “I am too close to my team” and that “in order for me to be successful, I have to stop caring about people, they are tools to get the job done.” While everyone’s opinion on the definition of success may be different, I consider myself extremely successful in my career, and I have done so all the while caring deeply about my team. If they hurt so do I, whether it is work-related or not. This type of caring cannot be faked, so don’t try. You must really care, and want the best for them and their family. Their success is your success; their failure is your failure.

Recently I had one of my managers come to me with a perfect example of this type of 24-hour caring. He brought to my attention that one of his team had an anxiety attack at home. This didn’t happen at work; it happened at the team member’s home. Yet he was close enough with his manager to let him know about the episode. The manager cared enough to bring it to my attention so that we can try and help this team member with some tools to help manage stress. The next step, of course, is to help coach the team member and continue to keep the lines of communication open so that the team member can feel comfortable talking with us about the stresses of the job and how he is handling them.

I also had another example of one of my managers who was talking with a supervisor. The supervisor was expressing their frustration with a particular team member because they continued not to follow certain policies outlined in the company. After the manager verified that the supervisor was clear about the expectations of the team member, she then told the supervisor that he would have to figure out what motivates that individual. I was so proud when I heard her explain to the supervisor a recent event with her dog to illustrate the point she was trying to make. She explained that she had her dog in obedience training, and one of the tools they taught was that you needed to understand what motivates the dog to perform. Some dogs react to praise, while others want love or maybe even a treat? She explained to the supervisor that he needed to understand what motivates that specific individual. Every person is different and so are their motivating factors. You need to spend more time listening and less time talking so you can understand this team member. Only then will you be able to get through to them what you need.

Above are two prize examples of managers thinking of their team members as 24-hour team members rather than a forty-hour-a-week-person who is there to perform a task. Only when you start to really care about your team and help them get what they want and need in life, are you ever going to achieve exceptional customer service. Because after all, that is what you are asking them to do for your clients.