Summer is prime time for restaurants, retail shops, and hotels and hospitality venues. So how can you quickly staff up with the right hourly employees who will help you thrive during the busy summer rush? By identifying candidates who provide top quality customer service. More than anything, staffing right can make or break the business you’ve worked so hard to build.
According to Gartner, customers who receive enhanced value during a service interaction have an:
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- 82% probability of repurchase or renewal
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- 86% probability of increasing spend
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- 97% probability of sharing positive word of mouth
We understand how challenging it is to quickly hire the right hourly employees and keep costs manageable these days. Your organization also needs to be mindful of the hospitality turnover rate in 2023.
Of course, you don’t want to pass up customers who are more loyal, profitable, and likely to refer friends.
But how can you easily identify good fit talent without endless stages or trial shifts?
By using short assessments that predict which applicants will deliver the best customer service that improves your profitability.
At Harver, we’ve already determined the job competencies that are most indicative of strong customer focus. All you need to do is implement one of our behavioral assessments. In as few as 7 minutes, you know which candidates to float to the top after we match them against these predictive traits.
4 traits for service employee success
Through 35+ years of scientific research, Harver has uncovered the 4 key traits that tightly correlate to an employee’s focus competency.
1. Insight
For any customer-facing role, it’s critical to show interest in what customers want and understand their motivations. Your employees who score lower in terms of Insight tend to overlook people issues when making decisions. Meanwhile, those with a higher level of Insight are more attuned to interpersonal issues. They also tend to place a higher emphasis on giving customers the best experience possible. Cha-ching.
2. Positive About People
A positive outlook about people makes interacting with customers much easier and more pleasant. If you hire someone on the low end of this traits, they might have service interactions that feel forced due to feeling uncomfortable with being people-positive. Conversely, employees on the high end of the spectrum generally concentrate on positive attributes of people. This means they tend to want to help others, leading to better and more natural customer service.
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3. Assertiveness
Whether you need servers, stockers, or cashiers, these employees need a level of assertiveness. Why? That proactivity helps these assertive employees to ask customers if they want help with anything. Beyond making guests feel more welcome and valued, this can also make it easier and more likely to upsell customers successfully. Candidates who score low in assertiveness can be more reserved and might even be less confident during service interactions.
4. Work Pace
You want to hire candidates who thrive in a fast-paced environment. When you hire employees who prefer a slower pace, they can get overwhelmed at busy times. That can cause aggravation from customers, employee mistakes and burnout, and staff inefficiency. Instead, you want to be able to predict which candidates are most effective during peak times. In fact, these high-pace workers can actually prefer that kind of environment and be better able to make customers feel cared for during especially hectic times.
Staffing for the summer rush is no sweat with assessments
So now you know which traits are most important for delivering enhanced value service interactions. All you need now is a way to identify these ideal candidates who help boost your bottom line.
For customer-facing industries like restaurants, retail stores, and hospitality businesses, you can’t sacrifice speed or quality. That’s why Harver offers scientifically validated assessments that are quick to implement and quick to take.
