#2: “BLACK BELT” MASTERY FOR FRONT-LINE SERVICE JOBS
The Achievement: Crummy Service-Value to Guaranteed Best
I bought a small, 3-location distributor that was unprofitable. No one had gotten a raise in two years. Warehouse wages were 15% below the average for that job niche in each city. Best (lucky) hires didn’t stay; coasters remained; and levels for - experience, work-ethic, morale, and commitment -were all low. And, service mistakes were about 70 for every 1000 line-times processed.
How do you get to: highest, everyday fill-rates with zero errors and 100% on-time order shipment?
Solutions?
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I announced that I wanted to improve warehouse – skills, quality and productivity – high enough to support 150% of the average job-comp for each city. A 76% increase!
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I introduced a learn-n-earn program so that all warehouse folks could become “black-belt certified” at over a dozen different tasks within the warehouse.
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I educated all employees on the “mastery process” for skills and implemented a monthly, personal-mastery program.
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We hyper-focused on best customers within one best, core segment of customers for which we tuned fill-rates to be the best in our markets.
Results:
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Errors dropped to 1-2 per 1000 picks, and we offered customers a zero-error, money-backed guarantee.
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We began to grow 3-4X faster (and more profitably, with fatter rebates) than our overall channel.
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Gross-profit-dollars/head grew faster than wages. Our premium wages as a percent of margin dollars declined.
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We had people who had “learned how to learn” and become promotable from within. Jobs turned into careers with “best-service” pride.
The How-To details for my “solutions” are at these different on-line locations:
Go to my youtube channel at this link: Bruce Merrifield - YouTube. Choose “Module 5” and watch most narrowly video clips 29-38 which are on the process of mastery. My expectation of all employees was that they would first re-learn what they were doing to become - “black belt first-degree” capable. But, masterful learning did not stop there.
In my main warehouse, I went from 10 employees making on average about 85% of the average wage for warehouse workers in the metro market – to: 5 employees who were cross-trained at all jobs making 150% of the average warehouse wage in the metro market.
Key stats:
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The job niche wage increased by 76%.
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The (new five) crew processed 200% more gross-margin-dollars (in orders) through the warehouse than before.
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Although the original 10 employees all had a chance to learn-n-earn to be on the final team, none made it.
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Turnover dropped to zero.
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And, because each crew member had learned-how-to-learn and mastered multiple new skills, they were more promotable within the company.
For details on this entire transformational process go again to module 5 at : Bruce Merrifield - YouTube and watch clips numbered 67 to 72.
Having “good” people who deliver “good” service is a commodity. How is your firm achieving measurably-best, service-value for one, targeted, customer segment at a time?