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Building Professionalism

Professionalism starts with simple things like clean trucks and uniformed technicians, but it extends to every interaction with the customer.

Michael Gai has a simple standard for evaluating his employees: Would he send them to his mother’s house for a job?

When he took over the Glass Doctor Seattle-Tacoma franchise in late 2003, he says, “I would have only been comfortable sending one or two people.” Today, things have significantly improved.

The improvement is the result of hard work aimed at increasing the professionalism of his business and his team by focusing on both simple elements of appearance and manner and the overall approach to customer interaction.

“When I came into this business, I was surprised at how low customer expectations were,” he says. “Customers expect your people to know what they’re doing with glass. What surprises them is when a person shows up and is professional and presentable, friendly and respectful.”

These low market expectations translate into sales opportunities for Gai. “That’s where we exceed expectations, by having competent people that are professional in how they handle themselves,” he says.

Professionalism takes many forms, starting with what Gai calls “setting the stage.” When he purchased the franchise, he says, “We walked into a disastrous location and place, so the first thing we did was clean the whole place.” As soon as possible, Gai moved the business to a new, better location.

Professionalism “doesn’t have to be big things,” Gai says. “Just keeping the trucks clean. You have to be in uniform, you have to be clean shaven.”

Not all of Gai’s efforts have been embraced by his staff — at least not initially. “The first response to putting booties on your shoes when you enter the house was, that’s corny,” he says. “But people look at that as you’re respecting their property.”

Gai tries to bring home lessons on professionalism in staff meetings in which customer feedback is shared, failures discussed, and successes celebrated. Sometimes the successes are small, but success builds on itself.

“When our technicians started implementing the shoe covers, they started to see that it worked. They’d say, that’s one of the reasons I got that order,” Gai says.

This attitude of professionalism can change day-to-day ways of interacting with customers. For example, Gai says when he purchased his franchise, quotes were given over the phone. “The day we came in, we quit quoting over the phone. Instead, we made sure people were going to be there when we came out, and we bid on-site through the menu price book.”

“Now the technician has a chance to introduce himself, put on shoe covers, show he’s in uniform,” Gai says. “Now that customer is comfortable with you.”

The end result is a new idea of what it means to succeed, Gai says. “You might think it’s a successful day if you’ve pulled out broken glass and put in new glass,” he says. “I believe it’s a successful day if you’ve made an impression, talked to a customer, done good work and made the customer feel good about it.”

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