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Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$er
February 2020 #12247 Page #96
What If You Ran Your Factory Like a Chick-fil-A? By Gary Fleisher
I
love stopping at Chick-fil-A, not only for the food but also to see how organized and disciplined every store is. The food isn’t bad either.
It occurred to me that there must be a secret to their success that modular home factory management could use to ramp up their sales staff’s performance and bring more builders into the modular home business. I decided to take a look at what they do differently from all other fast food restaurants that makes them so busy and successful, and what I discovered was not really shocking but absolutely brilliant. Their training process consists of two or three interviews with a Team Leader or Manager, and then training that consists of a video curriculum and short tests afterwards. It’s not terribly difficult. Most modular factories I’ve worked for and have observed have little or no formal training program for new sales reps. But I was more interested in what happens after the initial training. My theory is that employee morale is maintained by having good leaders who hire the right people and by the sense of knowing they’re working somewhere special. Every fast food restaurant has a drive-thru, but how many have a line of cars that wraps around the building no matter what time of day and has seven or eight registers in the lobby that are operated continuously, especially during peak times? Even in mall locations, every other place just has one register--period. Chick-fil-A has at least five. That says something, and I think there is a sense of pride that comes from working there. Secondly, management is selected very carefully. If you have the values and the skills to become an operator for Chick-fil-A, then you know that not just anyone is right for your Team. The management must be highly motivated and mature individuals who care about the brand and not just about food service or a paycheck. These leaders, in turn, keep their workers motivated, who were also hired because of the sense of pride and ambition they demonstrated during the hiring process. Yes, there are some good Sales Managers in our industry, but as a rule most were given the position simply because they were a good sales rep and the job opened up. There is almost no formal training in our industry for Sales Managers. Continued next page
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