From the bustling streets of Ghana to the grandeur of the American dream, we're thrilled to turn the mic over to Francis Flair, a business consultant with a story that defies the odds.
Francis is a firm believer in the power of customer service, but he also recognizes that many companies fail to grasp what that entails. Tune in as we dissect the dangers of vague customer service directives and highlight the need for precise definitions of 'excellent service'. We'll share some real-life examples of how enabling employees to make decisions can significantly improve customer experiences. Francis also shares his valuable perspective on the importance of creating an unwavering culture of service, even if it means navigating through tough times.
We're not stopping at surface-level insights. Join us as Francis delves into the significance of owning decisions and admitting to mistakes in the customer service industry. Learn from his own experiences, and discover how leadership plays a fundamental role in establishing a culture that prioritizes customer service. We'll also explore the joy of learning from others and the importance of context in understanding one's journey. So, buckle up for a rollercoaster ride of insights, wisdom, and meaningful conversation, all bundled into one riveting episode. You won't want to miss it!
Follow BBB Serving Central Oklahoma on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn @BBBCentralOK
From the bustling streets of Ghana to the grandeur of the American dream, we're thrilled to turn the mic over to Francis Flair, a business consultant with a story that defies the odds.
Francis is a firm believer in the power of customer service, but he also recognizes that many companies fail to grasp what that entails. Tune in as we dissect the dangers of vague customer service directives and highlight the need for precise definitions of 'excellent service'. We'll share some real-life examples of how enabling employees to make decisions can significantly improve customer experiences. Francis also shares his valuable perspective on the importance of creating an unwavering culture of service, even if it means navigating through tough times.
We're not stopping at surface-level insights. Join us as Francis delves into the significance of owning decisions and admitting to mistakes in the customer service industry. Learn from his own experiences, and discover how leadership plays a fundamental role in establishing a culture that prioritizes customer service. We'll also explore the joy of learning from others and the importance of context in understanding one's journey. So, buckle up for a rollercoaster ride of insights, wisdom, and meaningful conversation, all bundled into one riveting episode. You won't want to miss it!
Follow BBB Serving Central Oklahoma on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn @BBBCentralOK
And so, whether you are actively working on your culture or not, culture is happening.
Speaker 2:Hey there, it's Casey Farmer here with the Build With BBB podcast. Today we have a very special guest, Francis Flair. Francis, welcome to the podcast. We're going to talk a little bit about your business in consulting. Let's go from there. Tell us about your business. What do our listeners need to know about you?
Speaker 1:Well, that is a very broad question and I think, for the sake of your audience and to understand context, I think we need to start from the beginning. And I think for any business owner, any business leader, I think sometimes we just tend to focus on the work they do, but I think understanding where they come from and who they are truly makes an impact and makes people understand why it's important for what they do. So, if you can tell from my exotic accent, of course I'm from Houston. Well, I am from Ghana, west Africa, originally, and growing up in an orphanage, I only had one dream, one dream, and that was to go to school in the US. I had no idea how that was going to be possible, no idea how that was going to be. But then there was a missionary at the orphanage at the time who was like well, obviously you know we can't afford this and so if you do your part, then we'll see what God can do. And that was literally it. And so in elementary school, did what I had to do, got good grades, you know you go to school, you do what you have to do. I got a scholarship to go to high school in Ghana, and high school in Ghana. It's like college here, where you live home to go to school. And so I got to do that. And then, when I got to high school, I started doing what I had to do in terms of going to school, getting good grades. I bought a book for the SAT, started studying for that and then, god being so good, I got a scholarship to come to school in the US. And so when I came again, I just stayed full course, graduated, but then I had to move over to Florida. So I came to school in Oklahoma. So Oklahoma is like home to me because that's all I've known when I came.
Speaker 1:And so when I graduated I moved over to Jacksonville, florida, because at the time my girlfriend now wife lived there. And so when I got to Jacksonville I had to start all over again because I had no contact, nothing, and as an international student, if you can relate, you have so many roadblocks in terms of red tapes, of what you can do, what you can do when, how, and so after I got a permit to be able to work, I started working at a convenience store in Jacksonville, florida, a very popular convenience store, very big in the South, and it was working. It was something to do. You came with a dream of doing big things. And then you graduate with a college degree working at a convenience store for $9.50. And it's like that's what it is right. We all had to go through, we all had to do what we have to do. And so one Thanksgiving break I worked 16 hours. That was because I had the morning shift from 7 to 3, but then the afternoon guy, of course, don't show up, and so I worked from 7 to 11. I wasn't working at 7-eleven even though. So after that I thought, well, I can't do this anymore, I need to find something else to do.
Speaker 1:And there was a dry cleaning company next block dry cleaning, literally work to where during lunches breaks, the RT members would come to the gas station to get hot dogs, quick lunch drinks, whatever that was. And so one time the assistant manager was like hey, we think you should come and give us a try. We are always hiring. We feel this would be a good fit for you. I mean, what have I got to lose? So I really took the opportunity, jam-shipped. I went there, and when I got there, what I noticed was the owners. And if you know anything about dry cleaning. It's really a luxury. People don't have to do dry cleaning. Those who do it, it's because they have some discretionary income. They can afford it. It's all about the convenience. And so to really differentiate yourself, you have to focus on the service and experience. And the owners understood that, and so every year he would send about three to five members of his team to the conference a customer service conference so hoping that they will come back and learn something and come back and implement it in the company.
Speaker 1:And in my first year there I got the opportunity to go. So when we came back, we implemented some of the stuff. And it's the typical you go to a conference and you have this motivational short and you feel like, yeah, you're going to take on the world. Where you come back and you realize, oh, shoot, I still have my work, I need to catch up from last week. Then you get in the weeds and then it's all lost and you do your best to implement some of the stuff, but you have no idea whether you're doing the right thing, and so you still throw in spaghetti at the world, hoping something sticks. So we did what we could. Then we went back.
Speaker 1:The second year I went again and then when I came back, I went to the owner and I said you know, I think this is great, but to really get a real impact, really make a difference, like take this to the next level I think you should invest in me going to learn the secret, the systems of what makes a great service company, like what is a secret to Chick-fil-A, starbucks, the rail's counting, disney, like what's their secret, you know. And so it took me up on Alpha and my promise to him was, if you did that, you wouldn't have to take your team back to the conference. And so he took me up on that offer, went steady, came back you know, learning from the best like Disney, like the road scouting companies who have worked with Chick-fil-A, starbucks and Co. And came back. We implemented the staff and we saw tremendous results and I think I thought I was helping them. But it was actually for me. I went through that transformation in the sense that I realized that I enjoy solving problems. You know I enjoy helping organizations learn how to improve employees or create at their best, and love their jobs. And so we I mean for a small company where people come in and go because they're looking for a job and not a career.
Speaker 1:Considering the industry, we were able to reduce turnover from 35% to less than 5%. We were charging over 30% more than the nearest competitor at the time. We were growing revenue at least 5% each year, and I was like, wait, wait a second If this works in dry cleaning, service transcends every industry. We are all in one industry, which is the people industries. We sell commodities. However, it's all about the service and experience. And so I went back to him again. I said Mike, I think I'm going to go around my own. Would you be my first client? And he was gracious enough to give me his blessings and turn him into my first client. He's still a client and we started Flick Consulting Group from there, and now we are fortunate enough to have clients in higher education, medical as the third living, technology, of course, dry cleaning all over the US and in Canada. And so that's how I learned the customer experience systems and all the secrets.
Speaker 1:But to really deliver a consistently great customer service, great customer experience, it really comes out to three things, and three things only, and I think most leaders focus on the outcome of delivering a great service and experience, but the two pieces are employee engagement, employee experience and leadership. Every world-class company you know of or you love to do business with, it's world-class to work for. Without having the right systems in place in ensuring that all these pieces fit and align, it's really impossible to deliver a consistently great customer experience. So it's really it always starts at the top until you have to have that leadership commitment, you have to have that executive sponsorship where the leaders buy into the why service and experience is important and then translate down over to the employees. Because, at the end of the day, if you want the outcome, it's great, but people deliver the outcome. And if your people are not happy, if they are not motivated, if they don't feel valued and appreciated, it's really impossible to deliver that service and experience. And so for all these things to align, that's when you actually begin to start on this journey of delivering consistency when it comes to the experience. So the pieces, it's simple. Across all industries the formula is the same have leadership, commit to it, ensure that your people are in the right space, right frame, improving their employee experience.
Speaker 1:And I think with the pandemic it kind of exposed the lack of employee experience, because it's harder now for companies to get employees to come back. And so we went through the great resignation and then we went through that conundrum, the work from home. It's like it just became a mess, because I think during the pandemic, employees realized wait, I have so much more to give, and if you're not willing to give me what I'm looking for, you're not willing to make me feel important, then I'm not going to work. And so we had done mass excellence of people living their roles and their jobs, and that was just a clear indication that leadership or leaders had not done a good job making your people understand the roles they play and the importance they have in the organization, because with other people you don't get the outcome you're looking for, which is service and the experience.
Speaker 2:Wow, what I'll say. What a beautiful story of how you landed where you're at, where your business came from, the heart behind it, your passion behind what you do. Thank you for sharing that, my the one thing that was going in the back of my mind. It's obvious that leadership is important to you, that people are important to you and the value that people bring to an organization. But then you say I love Oklahoma, it's my home. So what made you bring all of that love and the love for what you do, and say I want to take what I know and invest it in Oklahoma companies that brought you back here. Can you take me down that line? Yeah?
Speaker 1:I mean they said to whom much is given, much is expected. And I was in Florida and I was doing my graduate work. So like how I came back, so to kind of connect the dots there, I was doing my graduate work at Oklahoma State whilst I was in Florida, online, and so that was a and like an internship capstone portion of it, and so I was going to come over for a semester and I was like, well, let's just make it into a move. And so we moved here and we actually Incorporated. I remember vividly I was in toss at the time, incorporated February 3rd, I guess what 2020, a week before the shutdown and and it was like wow, okay, now we've taken this huge risk when we are completely new states and no connections again because we're in in toss at the time.
Speaker 1:But I mean it, it's been incredible. Yeah, the value and and the importance of relationships. I can count the people who have been very Integral in my life and it just goes on to show the value and importance of relationships, like everyone I've come in contact with or met with, built a meaningful relationship with, have really been tremendous In how we got where we are, and so Moving back to the city, just made sense. It just made sense Going to look at my question in Edmond and I'm having all my Connections and I mean the people here who are my support system it just made sense to come over here and that's how we got here. It just made sense.
Speaker 2:Wonderful. Yeah, we have talked a lot about well. Now You've teased a little bit about the importance of the customer experience. Now, when I dug around a little bit because before we hop on a podcast, I like to do a little bit of research to be homework a lot of things on your website talked about your particular customer experience system. Do you want to share a little bit about that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the system. It's really understanding the three pieces we talked about earlier leadership, employee experience and actually the standard or quality in service. But that is broad, right, and so you have to break it down and actually systematize it. So, when you hire someone and you say, well, just take great care of the customer, well, what do you mean and how? And so and I think that's when most companies Forget or they get it wrong they just say, oh, just take care of the customer. However, same Take care of the customer is very vague and and so it's extremely Important as a leader, you recognize that you systematize the processes, and this I mean this used to be I think I think for some people it still is that the golden rule of customer service is what is it? Treat a customer how you want to be treated. That is dangerous.
Speaker 1:Agree you don't treat a customer how you want to be treated. To avoid that, because the customer is coming to you because of value, not not because of price or because of Anything else. It's just because you can deliver on the value. Whatever that is consistency, convenience, productivity, quality, whatever that is. And until you have to be able to systematize the processes of how you want them to treat the customer, and that's where the processes comes in. And so do you have consistency across your brand? If you have multiple locations, am I going to a different location? I haven't, completely a different experience as composed to the other location, and so Consistency is a big one. Convenience, you know. Do you make it easy for me to get in touch with you? Do you make it easy for me to? I'll give you a review, whatever that might be. And so those are the systems kind of looking into okay, are you able to build meaningful relationships with your customers? It goes a long way, but it's really breaking out those three pieces and then actually Defining what that looks like for you as an organization. Again, it's not going to her, because then people are going to leave, morale is going to be low, and so it's about Looking at things from the customer's perspective, through the customer's lens, starting with your team, starting with your employees, and then after that it's really looking at okay, how can we serve the customer? But if your people are good, if your people understand the importance rose the play and why it's so important when it comes to the overall Experience, they will be willing to go above and beyond for the customer any time. And so it really starts again.
Speaker 1:It may sound like a deadbeat, but that that that's really the secret. You have to focus on your people, because If your people are not aligned, it's extremely hard, and this is just human nature. Human nature. If you are not happy at your job, if you don't feel like your boss cares about you personally, professionally, you know, want you to succeed and it's willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that you are happy, there's absolutely no way you will go out there and smile to a total stranger that service and experience right.
Speaker 1:There's absolutely no way you'll be able to go out there and say you know, I want to grab and run beyond for this customer. There's no way you want to make a good customer service, a good customer experience decision, because training is important and all but your people need to be educated as well, because at some point they will have to make a customer service decision, which does not come anywhere close to the training that they need, but they have to be able to Make an informed decision that aligns with your brand, what your brand promise is. And so I mean it's all starts with leadership, defining who they are as an organization, as a company, and what they promise to deliver to their customers. And then how can we Work that backwards to see, okay, how can we bring that to life in terms of getting our team to deliver that consistently? And that starts by ensuring that your team it's actually aligned and in the right frame, right mindset.
Speaker 2:So, going back to the successes you saw in implementing some of these things in the dry cleaning business, can you give an example of what that looked like for Imp? I'll say empowering your team to make those decisions?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you, some leaders, say, well, I wish my people could make decisions. I know someone's listening and is thinking, yeah, I wish my people could do that. But then I have a question have you allowed them to make those decisions? Are you on them if they make a mistake? Have you empowered them? Have you elevated them that they feel empowered to make a decision? And so that's where it started.
Speaker 1:Again, it comes back to the leader. As an organization, your leaders have to be OK. Regardless of whether you want the outcome or not, you are making a decision, you are choosing a path, and that's how culture is built. So this is really about a culture change. It's about you building a culture that is obsessed about delivering great experience and great service, and so the systems will vary, but it's leaders understanding that to give your people what they need and to empower them to go on and make decisions. You are going to take some losses along the way, but it's understanding that that's OK and that's part of the process.
Speaker 1:And so, say, in our case, using the dry cleaning for my employer as an example we allow people to reimburse our clients if someone came and said, hey, my shirt was ruined in your care, our team were empowered to say, yes, we'll replace it, or to say we'll redo it at no cost.
Speaker 1:But that's a culture we built Making them understand you own the experience, you own it as the individual. You make the best decision for the customer and in that moment it's not based on training, is they looking at it and saying, ok, based on what you're telling me, this is probably the best course of action, but for every customer. Some customers don't even want you to pay for it. They want you to just acknowledge it, that you messed up. And that's what some companies don't even understand, like they try to fight or they try to get into this engagement with a customer, making them trying to understand or know who is right, who is wrong. And it's not about that. If the customer come to you and they are not happy about something, admit it and try to find a solution that works for both.
Speaker 2:That's also pretty tough. I just think me personally. I think about some of the first like I don't know 10 years. I was working, it was in customer service and it's difficult to own those decisions. Albeit, I was a little immature at the time and didn't realize that, wow, and I maybe didn't have the leaders as well in place to say, to feel empowered to make those choices, but then also to feel like I need to admit when I'm wrong, because it's so easy to just say, oh well, here's a solution. If you don't take the solution, that's your problem. That's not mine, but it was a lot about the culture.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate you saying that, because I led by the example of the leaders that I had in place I mean, it's what I had seen and so, thinking about that a little bit further, like here at BBB and it wasn't until I started working here in 2017 where I was like, wow, everybody owns their stuff.
Speaker 2:It's not always fun and work can be messy sometimes and it's not easy to say I screwed up and I need to fix it. But yeah, I applaud you for owning that and then picking that as your niche for customer experience, because I can agree, small businesses can grow and I've seen them grow so much when they at the forefront of their mind, they are champions for the clients that they have and they want them to leave saying, wow, I've never had a roofing experience like that or I've never had a consultant come in and really change the way my business works. But because they really focused on me, it became a part, it transitioned me. You had mentioned that earlier. It wasn't until I had my own transition that I realized that's where I wanted to focus on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean you hit on a lot of notes there in terms of your experience from your previous jobs. It wasn't your fault. The company failed to teach you what was required. So not to bash on them, and I don't know them.
Speaker 2:Sure, they're not a leading company I would say you mentioned some big players in the game. You weren't mentioning that one I worked for. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But, in terms of organizations, have built the wrong cultures and they continue to add to the wrong cultures, whether good people or bad people, and they realize they forget that at the end of the day, they made a choice to bring those people on board. And so, whether you are actively working on your culture or not, culture is happening, intentionally or not. And so it all comes back to leadership to say who are we as an organization, who are we as a brand? And then how does that translate over to the customer and how can we bring our team on board along that journey to ensure that we are always honoring our brand promise? Your brand is not your logo. Your brand is something you have promised to deliver to your customers. That's what your brand promise is. So, whatever that is, you need people to deliver it.
Speaker 1:But you have to ensure that you are hiring the right people to begin with, and so that's why, in our system, we actually help you develop a system to really help you define the employee experience you wanted to deliver. Looking at it from, say, from the talent acquisition stage to, say, 10, 20 years, defining the entire employee experience, career with you and saying, ok, how do we want to stand out. What are the people? Who are the people we want to attract and what do they look like? And once we have them on board, how can we give them a great experience, that they want to stay and then tell their friends and families about it?
Speaker 1:Because we are the employer of choice and so it's simple, but it's a mindset that leadership needs to have in order to start building a culture that is obsessed about the service and experience. Anytime I go to a place and the service is terrible, I don't blame the employer. I actually feel sorry for them because they have no clue what they are doing. In fact, they are doing their best because their leaders never give them a chance to succeed. They just hire them and say, take care of the customer, not defining clearly what that looks like.
Speaker 2:When I think about the work that you're doing, I see like two paths. One I could see where, if you were starting a brand new business, I would want to work with you immediately to make sure that I have those processes in place. Right, yeah, but for a business owner who's already established, what does it look like when they've built a completely different culture than one based on the success of the customer? Maybe they need to hire new teammates? What does that look like when they reach out to you and say Francis, please help me get my business in order?
Speaker 1:Yeah, first, and I tell all the CEOs, the presidents, this we can do it, but it's going to be hard work. But you have to be willing to stick it out, because we don't want to take on projects or partnerships, or partnerships with companies who are just focused on the outcome, that they don't want to do the work it takes, so they are not willing to look at the employee experience, they are not willing to look at their leadership style and communication style and look at how they can make it better, because all those pieces are live and so it is possible. But the leader have to accept that it's going to be some hard work and if they the CEO, the president, the owner is not willing to be part of this transformation, we don't take, we don't do it. We don't do it because one we don't want you to destroy what you already have, because if we start this and, like I said, this is a program, this is a journey, you know, it's not a flavor of demand, this is a culture change.
Speaker 1:Okay, so if we start this and three months down the line, you're like, well, this is too hard, I'm stopping. What did we just do? We just killed the morale of your team. You just lost trust and, ultimately, loyalty with your team. They are not going to trust you ever again. They didn't even trust us when we started because they are thinking well, that's another thing Casey wants us to do. Just give it six months, it's going to go away anyway, but that's what you've been doing.
Speaker 1:So you build this culture where people think oh yeah, it's another thing you know, let's just give it six months, right, but this is supposed to help you build something that is perpetual. You know, you just kind of keep updating it, right, and so it starts with a mindset that you are willing to stick it out and do the work is required to actually get you there. I mean, anything can be changed and that's why we look at the experience holistically, not just looking at it from the external viewpoint of what the end user gets or it's delivered with, but actually the whole package of the experience. Because if you have people leaving, people are not happy, your culture is bad, it's probably because you have poor communication internally or you have a bad employee experience. You know employees don't feel like you care about them. Employees don't feel appreciated. Employees don't feel like they work for a company that truly cares about them.
Speaker 2:So, francis, we've talked a lot about the customer experience. We've talked about what I would call, you know, like Fortune 500 brands. Let's talk about Francis Brands, flare Brands, brands that you've given Flare to. What is your favorite customer journey that you've been on so far?
Speaker 1:That's a tough one. That's really tough. That is really, really tough. I think to go back to my previous employer, that would be easy. So, to be fair, I would say it's a higher education client we are working with, not going to mention who, but that in itself is innovative.
Speaker 1:Higher education does not look at students, guardians and parents as customers. They rarely do. They look at them as money. You know, how many students can we get on board? How many students can we really get to come to school with us? You know, because the more students you get, the more money you make eventually.
Speaker 1:That's how it's always been and I think for a higher education to consider the fact that we need to look at our people, the people we serve, internally as our employees and externally for our students, for the apparent and the guardians, that's innovative in itself and I would say that the best clients in the sense that they get it and they understand it's not easy.
Speaker 1:They didn't know it's a journey, but they are committed to it.
Speaker 1:You know they are committed to it.
Speaker 1:And to be thinking about people outside their individuals that are on campus, that they get to interact with every day, that's next level in terms of to be thinking about a student, parent, you know, grandparent, guardian, whatever they are as a client, because most of the times is a parent and guardian's grandparents paying for their education, all right, and so if they are calling your admissions team and your admissions team is kind of all over, don't know what they are doing, or they are calling to kind of set up for classes and it's like you're making it difficult they may want to look for an alternative and what the student prefers most likely, what is going to go, and so it's really all about the experience for them, and that has been an interesting project that I would say one for us to also learn from it and also get to see how we can help them improve the experience of our robot. That is extremely innovative, to really have a higher education. Look at experience that I don't think I mean it's not happening in most of the colleges around the nation.
Speaker 2:Changing gears. You said what I like about this is that we're learning from it. So I think that maybe a business owner who comes to a consulting company might say consultants have all the answers. But I think what we've had in this whole conversation is you're always learning and growing your business too.
Speaker 1:All consulting firms are paid to learn. Essentially, that's what we do. We are great at coming up with solutions, but in order to provide solutions, you first have to learn to go in there, because at the end of the day, we are not trying to make anyone Disney 2.2 or Chick-fil-A 2.2. That's not what it's about. This is completely customized to you, based on your needs, where you are, where you find yourself, and, like we say, we bring the toolkit. We help you define the experience you want to deliver, but we don't know who you are, we don't know what your brand promise is. But once we partner together, then we begin to learn about each other so we can better guide you and say, okay, if this is what you're trying to do, then this is perhaps the good approach to go about it.
Speaker 1:And so we also learn on the job, and it's about learning. You have to always be a student. You have to always be a student, and that's one of our core principles. You have to keep learning, because we don't want to be giving solutions to things that have worked in one industry thinking that it will work in the other industry. They are completely different industries. However, the formula remains the same, and so how can we model the formula to fit your needs? And it's all customization.
Speaker 2:For any of our businesses that are listening today. Is there anything we haven't covered in the podcast that you think they should know about your business? Where can they connect with you?
Speaker 1:Well, you can connect with me on social media at Francis Flair anywhere YouTube, tiktok, instagram, linkedin. On Francis Flair. You can find more information at our website at flerconsortinggroupcom. And I don't know for a give. I have a free six step checklist that you can also find on the website, but I'm more than happy to give that to you. Maybe you can add it to your show notes.
Speaker 2:We'll link it in the description.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, for people to download. But yeah, you can find me everywhere on our social media at Francis Flair.
Speaker 2:And maybe at a BBB event. You attended our happy hour last week. I'm not gonna.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna promise you're gonna be at other events, but you might catch Francis at some of those other events. Francis, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today to talk about the customer experience and so much more than that talking about serving Oklahoma business owners. I think the heart behind what you do is amazing and you know, what I really love is when you came on and said I want to provide context for why I started this business, because there's this whole backstory for why I love what I do and that's my favorite part about working here at BBB is that I get to have conversations like this and I get to learn so much about people. I'm not in consulting, though I feel like I get to learn every day when I do a podcast like this because I get such a wide variety of people on the show with way different skill sets than I have, so I've so enjoyed our chat today.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you, it's been a pleasure.
Speaker 2:So for our podcast listeners, thank you for listening today. You can connect with Francis at Francis Flair and, of course, we'll be sharing this on all of our social media channels at BBB Central. Okay, be sure to give this episode a like, share it on YouTube and anywhere else you listen to your podcasts, and we will see you in the next episode. Bye.