Order Up: Digest the Secret Sauce of Customer Service

As an entrepreneur, author and owner of two Chick-fil-A restaurants in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Arthur Greeno lives and breathes customer service every day. With over three decades of experience in hospitality, Greeno has experienced the good, the bad and the ugly of customer engagement, and has found a successful customer service formula.

During the 2024 Independent Home Improvement Conference in August, Greeno served as one of the event’s keynote speakers and shared these five ingredients that make up his “secret sauce” of customer service.

Keep It Simple

Greeno says he received a 3-foot-tall pepper grinder one year at a Chick-fil-A conference to use in the
restaurant. It used to just sit near the manager’s station, but one day employees began using it as a
way to naturally connect with customers.

Instead of just walking around from table to table asking if they needed anything, the pepper grinder
provided a way to engage with customers beyond just “Do you need anything else?” Employees can
offer customers fresh pepper, something typically only available in fine dining establishments, and
connect with the customers in a way that elevates the experience.

“It’s not about the pepper, but it’s a simple tool to engage with our guests. My team told me that the
pepper grinder, a tool I had just sitting around, makes it less awkward for them to interact with customers,
so it was a no-brainer to include that in our daily interactions,” Greeno says. “Customer service is all
about looking around at what you already have that can provide simple paths to a great experience.”

Training Is Critically Important

Before an employee can be successful in their role, they need to have the training that equips them to
be effective. An employee can set all kinds of goals, but won’t be able to reach them without the right
preparation and tools, which comes from training.

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training,” Greeno says. For Greeno and his crew, that effective training looks like demonstrating, imitating and repeating. During the training process, training leaders demonstrate a procedure and then have the employee imitate that same procedure, repeating it until they fully grasp it.

Greeno and his team do the same for situations that will come up during the course of a work day, demonstrating various scenarios and having the employee role play along.

“We do it over and over so we get that muscle memory working,” Greeno says. “No matter the moment or situation, the employees know what to say, how to do it, how to behave and how to react.”

Go the Extra Step

At Chick-fil-A, children who order a Kid’s Meal can exchange the toy for an ice cream cone. Greeno says one day in the store, he was training some new teams when a young child came up to ask to exchange his toy for ice cream. Greeno asked him if he’d like to make the ice cream cone himself. The child gave an enthusiastic “Yes!” and the team members took him to the back, had him wash his hands and then let him make his own cone.

“What do you think Mom was doing while this young man was making his ice cream?” Greeno says. “She was over there pretty quick with her camera, taking pictures, making videos and sharing those on social media, letting people know how Chick-fil-A created this fun and memorable experience for her child. Now we’re advertising along with providing an exciting customer experience, and it just took a few extra minutes out of our routine to make it happen.”

“Customer service is all about looking around at what you already have that can provide simple paths to a great experience.”

—Arthur Greeno,
Chick-fil-A Owner

Keep Employees Accountable

At each of Greeno’s restaurants, employees are considered a part of the family and are treated as such. A phrase Greeno often uses in regards to his employees is, “It’s easy to quit a job, but hard to quit a family.”

When employees join Greeno’s team, he wants to be sure they are treated so well that it makes it hard for them to want to quit and gives them motivation to stay with the organization. This uplifting environment also makes keeping employees accountable less taxing—it’s easier to say the hard words and easier for the person to hear hard words in a positive atmosphere.

“Accountability can be hard. I take pictures of mistakes and post them for the whole team to see so that everyone can see how to fix it, which can seem harsh,” Greeno says. “But when you create spaces where employees feel valued and are well equipped for their jobs, it makes it easier for them to hear what went wrong and how they can fix it.”

“Accountability can be hard. When you create spaces where employees feel valued and are well equipped for their jobs, it makes it easier for them to hear what went wrong and how they can fix it.”

—Arthur Greeno,
Chick-fil-A Owner

Take Care of Your Employees

Part of making employees feel like part of the family is seeing each employee as an individual and meeting
them where they are, Greeno says. Everyone has a story and different challenges or situations they are going through at times, and it’s important for managers to understand that about their employees. Greeno has created a culture of caring at his stores, which colors how his team members care for customers.

“If you’re caring for your team, they will care for your guests,” Greeno says. “It’s that simple.”

Greeno is continually looking for ways to make his team feel special and celebrate them. He publicly celebrates birthdays, anniversaries and other milestones. When each employee joins the team, Greeno gives them a survey asking for their favorite drink, restaurant, snacks and more, so he has a way to personalize how he celebrates them.

“They feel special because we’ve listened to them. Having a culture of care is the glue that keeps everything
else together,” Greeno says. “Every organization is going to have rough days, but if you’re constantly building into your employees, when those things get tough, they’re going to be able to move forward. They want to do the best job they can, because they know the organization they’re working for.”

Behind-the-Scenes Elements of Customer Service

Many of the elements you incorporate to fortify customer service may be visible to customers, but there
are also numerous aspects you can implement that aren’t customer-facing but still make an impact on
improving your customers’ experience. Here are three behind-the-scenes ways to boost customer service.

• Be sure all your employees know your business’s core values and understand it is critical to give customers attention and care.
• Keep employees up-to-date with product and project advancements so they can share that information
  with customers.
• Stay informed on what your competition and other retailers are doing in the realm of customer service to keep your own service fresh.

5 Underrated Customer Service Must-Dos

On the very first day of training camp in July 1961, Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi started practice by holding up a football and telling his players, “Gentlemen, this is a football!” He wasn’t insulting their intelligence as professional football players but rather pointing out the importance of sometimes starting from scratch and building on a foundation of fundamentals.

The same principle can apply to your retail operation. Sometimes, you need to go back to the basics of customer service and build a top-tier customer experience from there. While they may seem obvious, these five underrated building blocks of quality customer service are key to a successful customer experience.

• Give a Greeting: Go beyond just saying “Hello” or “Welcome to our store.”
  Ask each customer how they are doing and if you can help
  them find anything.
• Ask Questions: When a customer tells you how you can help them, ask follow-up
  questions to get a better feel for their project and the products
  and any instruction they need.
• Be Available: Instead of just pointing a customer in the right direction, if you can,
  physically walk them to the products they need. If they want to
  browse, stay close by to answer any follow-up questions.
• Follow Up: After you make a sale, or even if you don’t, let them know they can
  always come back with questions or projects. Share your website or
  social media so they connect outside of the store.
• Be Kind: You have no idea what people are going through at any given time,
  so even if they are unkind to you, be a positive spot in their day.