Front Counters and the Success of Your Business

Well, after some time off and finally being able to retrieve my password for this site, I thought it was time to begin to write again.

With this...

Last night I got the urge. You know, the urge for a late night trip to fast food land. I thought, why not? I did get a gift card to McDonalds. (Which, by the way was my first gift card for McDonalds since the old days, with their paper gift certificates.)

As I say there waiting for my replacement order, watching Glenn Beck on the super size TVs, I noticed something really refreshing. As I took a breather from the TV, I looked over to the point of sale and saw something that was so profound...

It was clean and clear of clutter. Wow... It just felt so right and so NOT overwhelming. In this, I began to wonder if there was a coorelation to success by how clean and clear of clutter a businesses point of sale is? Or, for that matter... the guest services area.

Too often, they are just a plain mess as situation after situation leads employees to add to this evergrowing mountain of stuff. It can also show a lack of discipline with store presentation standards and could eventually lead to a real reflection to the moral of a location.

I mean, really... is it ok to come to work everyday in the midst of this? I got to wonder what the back room looks like?

Honestly, for a fast food place, and I do realize the stringent department of health requirements, it still was SO clean and it made feel comfortable.

For customer centric businesses, this is so critical. For, what type of message does this really send our customers? Or, for that matter, what if we call them guests instead? All the more reason to manage a tight ship to these expectations.

In the end, there may or may not be any coorealtion between the success of a business and how clean their front counters, guest services, and back rooms are. But, if it was up to me to decide... I'd say yes.

Of course, I could go on about how to motivate a staff to maintain such an experience. But, it really should go without saying. I think we all know. So, all I really have to say is...

Just do it.