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. ^ SW-20 <strong>Boxoffice</strong>
COLUMBIA PICTURES CORDIALLY INVITES THE mShoUtest 'SB DELEGATES TO VISIT OUR PENTHOUSE HOSPITALITY SUITE. 26TH FLOOR MAIN BUILDING
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