Secret 2

Your Internal Customer: I refer to your employees as your internal customer.  They are equally important.  You’ll hear me say hire eagles, not turkey’s because turkey’s cost you more money in missed opportunities than you’ll ever be able to quantify.  I know it’s hard to find eagles out there in the huge flock of turkey’s, so we hire them, thinking they’re eagles.  They are trained to dress and act like eagles.  So we hire them and when we realize that they’re really a turkey, we think it’s a motivational problem.  So we institute a motivational program.  When we realize it wasn’t a motivational problem, we think it’s training, so we give them more training.  But if the eagle really is a turkey, all we end up with is a trained, motivated turkey.

I want you to identify your biggest turkey today and get rid of them.  Their lack of morale and poor work habits can be cancerous to your entire organization.  Even if you have to pay a significantly greater compensation, an eagle will pay you back dividends that will far exceed those of a turkey, and more than substantiate the increased wage.

Your fist assignment is to get some business cards printed that say “You were really terrific.  If you’re ever looking for another job, please give me a call,” and give your phone number and your business name.  The next time you encounter great customer service and think, I wish my employees were like that, hand that person one of these cards.  You should always be recruiting, even when you don’t need anyone, because sooner or later, you will.

If you set high standards for your employees, you will attract more that have high [...]