Boxoffice-March.1988

PROGRAM: STAFF TRAINING/MOTIVATION
Wednesday, February 24, 10:45 a.m.
By Harris M. Plotkin
President, Plotkin & Associates
THE PAST 12 years, Plotkin & Associates
has assisted both large and
FOR
small theatre chains in increasing
their sales and profits by utilizing our preemployment
honesty and personality
testing programs, and our customer service
training program. The keys to increasing
profits are really quite simple,
but too few organizations have taken the
steps necessary to increase those profits.
Training Workers How to Treat
Customers
What are some of the key techniques
and steps necessary to increase your profits?
One is to treat every customer in the
way you would like to be treated if you
were the customer. In order to do that,
you have to treat your employees as if
they were your customers.
We have trained hundreds of organizations,
both in the theatre industry and in
other industries, in customer service
training. Success occurs only in those
organizations where the head of the organization
treats the vice presidents as if
they were his customers, his vice presidents
treat their division managers as if
they were their customers, the division
managers treat their regional directors as
if they were their customers, the regional
people treat their managers as if they
were their customers, and the managers
treat their front-line employees as if they
were their custoiners. Then, and only
then, will the front-line employee truly
treat the customers in the way that you
want them to be treated. There's an old
expression that goes "The fish stinks
from the head." If the head of the organization
doesn't truly believe in customer
service and treat his employees with dignity,
respect and recognition, there is no
way he can expect or will ever see his
employees treat his customers the way he
would really like them treated.
Everything begins and ends with the
customer. We are all in existence to
please our customers, clients and patrons,
whomever they may be. Every action that
we take, whether we are selling boxoffice
tickets or concessions, or in the projection
booth, or booking movies, or paying
bills, or running the organization, must be
directed so that the end result is to make
the customer happy. If the customer is
happy, he will buy more concessions from
you, tell his friends, and attend your
theatre more often than your competitor.
Every major study that questions why
customers stop interacting with a business
comes up with the results: 1 percent
die, 3 percent move, 5 percent develop
other friendships, 9 percent stop because
of competitive price, 14 percent stop because
of product quality, 68 percent stop
because of indifference by sales and service
personnel.
Surprised that two-thirds of the people
that stop attending your theatre do so
because they were treated poorly by
someone on your staff? You shouldn't be.
Whether you are the owner of one theatre
or president of a large chain, at least once
a month it would be worth your while to
visit one of your theatres. Go in some kind
of disguise or have someone you really
trust, a friend, a neighbor, a relative, or
a checking service, visit one of yotir
theatres and report back to you how he
was treated by the cashier, by the tickettakers,
by the concession people, or the
ushers. If every one of those interactions
wasn't exceptionally good or didn't really
make you smile and feel that the help was
there just for you, then it's time to do
something with your organization.
Hiring the Right Person
What is iinportant to do if you do find
problems is not to fire everybody. You
need to analyze the problems. Our 20
years of experience with more than 600
clients, both in and out of the theatre
industry, has led us to conclude the following
about any organization: in order to
be successful, you have to get the right
person into the right job; their inental and
personality traits must fit the job in question;
and they should be honest. Honest
employees have a better attitude toward
work, are absent less, are rarely late, and
in general just want to do their job. If they
also have the required mental and personality
traits, they will do their job very
well. If you train them properly, they'll do
even better. Keep in mind that no amount
of training can train a round peg to fit into
a square hole. If an employee does not
have the right mental and personality
traits to be a cashier, sell concessions,
operate a projector, or manage a theatre,
no amount of training will make that person
better in his/her job. T^ie key to
achieving excellence in customer sen>ice is at
the point of selection Hinng the right person
for the right )ob is the key .
For the past ten years, American Multi
Cinema, Midstate Theatres and other
large and small theatre chains have used
our personality tests primarily to select
their theatre managers and assistant
managers. Some chains have used our
profile test to select all of their personnel,
from cashiers to concessionaires to projection
booth operators. Our honesty test
is used by most theatre groups to select
their front-line personnel. Our customer
service training has been used to train all
theatre personnel in how to deal with the
customer. Despite the great success these
and other organizations have had with our
pre-etnployment testing instruments and
training programs, it's quite surprising to
see how few theatre chains or independents
take advantage of these programs to
increase their profits.
The Tenants of Hiring
The keys to hiring successful people in
any job position are a result of their:
" Being honest
* Having the mental and personality traits
for that job
*
Being trained in the right attitiiilc for
that job in that industry
*
Being given the necessary skill training
for their job
*
Being taught about their product or service
*
Being managed, motivated, communicated
and treated with dignity, respect
and recognition
* Being held accountable for their work
as well as your patience to wait for the
right person to fit the job and the patience
to train them to perform that job successlullv.
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SW-20
Boxoffice