The Ugly Baby

The Ugly Baby

By 

Eric M. Twiggs

“In giving birth to our babies, we find that we give birth to the new possibilities within ourselves.”  Jon Kabat Zinn

People don't refer to their baby as ugly.  I had an experience as a district manager back in 2001 that confirmed this fact.  One my store managers named “Rick” would instruct his unhappy customers to call me, without making any efforts to address their concern at the store level. 

The customer would complain, he would give them my phone number, and then go about his day.  Rick was never happy with the discounts I would give to satisfy the customer.  He would accuse me of “giving away the farm.”

Since Rick was unhappy with my resolutions, I implemented a new policy requiring all complaints to be resolved at the store level.  As a result, Rick’s patrons stopped calling, but he would still call me with questions about how to resolve the issues that came up. 

To keep the ball in his court, I would do a conference call with him AND the customer while listening in as HE worked out a resolution.  Rick’s morale improved and he was much happier with how the complaints were handled.

Here’s what’s interesting:  He gave away more in discounts to keep his customers satisfied than I ever did!   So why would he be happier, even though he was doing exactly what he accused me of?  

It’s the same reason that nobody refers to their baby as ugly:  People support what they help to create.  I call this “the ugly baby principle.”   By giving Rick ownership of the customer satisfaction decision,it was now “his baby.”   

Stay with me and you will learn about two other aspects of your business where this principle applies: 

Training Takeaways  

1    Employees that attend training classes  fall into one of three categories: vacationers, prisoners, and learners.  The vacationers motivation for attending training is to “chill out” and get a break from the daily grind of the shop. 

     

     The prisoner doesn’t see the need to come to class, and is only there because the boss requires it. The learner is someone who desires to gain the necessary knowledge to grow personally and professionally. 

     You can use the ugly baby principle to convert your vacationers and prisoners into learners.          

Let’s suppose you're sending your service writer named “Mary” to class.  The first step is to set the expectation BEFORE Mary arrives that she will come back with a minimum of three takeaways to improve the business. 

After she returns, get her to complete the takeaway worksheet, notating what she will do based on what she learned.  Lastly, during your weekly one on ones, review Mary’s worksheet to verify she is doing what she said. 

Since people support what they help to create, starting the conversation with the phrase “you said you would...” will remind her that it’s her baby, and increase the likelihood of future follow through. 

  Team Meetings

1.  You schedule a team meeting with the goal of improving morale and keeping everyone on the same page.  Unfortunately,  many of these gatherings are really gripe sessions in disguise.  The writers complain about the technicians and the technicians complain about the writers in an epic “us vs. them” battle. 

     In spite of your good intentions, employees tend to view these meetings as an hour of their life they will never get back!   The solution is to implement “the notebook technique” at your next get-together.  This has also been referred to as “Eating the elephant”.

Here’s how it works:  You purchase a spiral bound notebook for each employee. Then, have everyone walk the entire shop starting from the parking lot notating everything that’s working well, and areas in need of improvement. 

Next, conduct a meeting where you list everything they found in both the good and bad categories.  Starting with the good findings will allow you to maintain a positive tone.  From there, get a consensus from the team on the top two items that need to be addressed. 

Bay cleanliness and courtesy check compliance usually sort to the top.  Your employees will be more inspired to keep the bays clean and perform courtesy checks if the idea was their “baby” and not just yours.    

Summary

So there you have it.  Giving your people ownership of their training takeaways and team meetings will improve compliance and keep you from crying like a baby after talking with your accountant! 

Sincerely,

Eric M. Twiggs

The Accountability Coach

www.autotraining.net

PS.  If you would like my “Ugly Baby meeting kit” that includes a weekly meeting agenda template along with the “notebook technique”, email etwiggs@autotraining.net and I will send it.