My #1 hiring suggestion for the studio's best front desk staff

It is, indeed, not Wednesday! After flying from LA to Jakarta, Indonesia, earlier this week for a dear friend's (& former 🚲 instructor whom I trained to teach years ago!) multi-day wedding festivities...I am constantly reminding myself what day it is. 😊 
 

Today at SaladStop in Kemang (if you're not in Southeast Asia & unfamiliar: think sweetgreen in the US or customize-your-own salad spots wherever you live!), their staff remembered my order from yesterday, exactly, as I ordered it again...and were one step ahead of me in my client-journey.
 

When I was in India for 2 months earlier this year, building powerCycle with Physique57, I was consistently amazed at the staff at the Tim Horton's by the studio. Their greetings to me were not phony, they always remembered my order & by which method I would pay. Same as at SaladStop this week, they were one step ahead of me, anticipating.
 

When I mentioned this to one of Physique's managers as an example of hospitality, he shared that the staff remembered his order, too...and he'd only been there one other time!

(If you're puzzled at this very random reference...yes, Tim Horton's as in Canada's well-known coffee & doughnut chain & yes, I didn't have "buy coffee from Timmy's when in Bombay with a cycling studio" on my 2024 bingo card, either!)

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to you, a similar experience at the Starbucks in California by where my Dad lives.

If you're sensing a pattern with these 3 examples from the food & beverage industry...yes. And they're universal across the world IF there is structure in how staff is trained & what is important to the company.
 

The #1 tool I can offer you or your hiring management team to look out for on CVs when hiring any client-facing staff but especially when hiring for front desk reception...is if they have big-corporate service industry work experience, bring them in for an interview.

They may not be mold-able for exactly what you are looking for in your company culture...or they very well might be.

What they most assuredly will be...is accustomed to structure at work. 
 

MASSIVE bonus points for any candidate who has worked at an Apple Store or a Disney theme park, especially; they will have learned authentic client engagement & working with structure. (Anecdotally, the best sales person we had when I worked in Shanghai…was a poach from China's first Apple Store!)
 

What I've found over the past 10 years of working with boutique studios across class formats worldwide, is there is a flip-side to hiring someone with this specific background I've shared above:

If your studio's systems could use a refresh…and that hasn't been tackled yet…it might prove frustrating to an excellent employee accustomed to delivering competent customer service & overall warm hospitality.

If you think you might benefit from a consultation to look-over your written materials for your operating systems & identify any "holes" I encourage you to book a "Pick My Brain" session, here.

As always, click reply to share your hiring wins or anything else; I always love hearing from you.

Have a great rest of your week!