Business Development and Customer Service with Tony Johnson - Kiepersol Texas Podcast ep 7

Kiepersol Texas Podcast

Business Development and Customer Service with Marnelle and Tony Johnson - Kiepersol Texas Podcast ep. 7 . . We at Kiepersol like to highlight the blessings within our community and bring to light the good things to be thankful for. . Tony Johnson worked with Brookshire's for 37 years and developed a lot of management skills while discovering his talents. He now is now running a company STI (Speak To Inspire) Consulting. Marnelle and Tony have been very active in the East Texas community, which inevitably caused them to cross paths. . Kiepersol is grateful for Brookshire's as they have partnered with us and carried our products in their stores for over a decade! . Marnelle: "Tony is one of my favorite people! If you're looking to learn, he is ready to teach." . During Tony's time in leadership positions, he picked up on the essentials that allow any organization or business to keep moving forward successfully. Tony talks about how you can see customers or individuals within an organization, have great experiences and great service. Sometimes, however, you can experience great service, but end up with a bad experience. The reason Tony started STI Consulting is that we (businesses) need to get better at providing great customer experience and help businesses to deploy empathy. People don't make their decisions to do repeat business based on their service but based on personal previous experiences. . Tony talks about how Brookshire's is family oriented, family run, locally minded and provides much more than "just a grocery store and pharmacy." . Tyler, Texas has a culture that is hungry for great service and experiences. The ones that succeed end up providing the best experiences. . Marnelle talks about how she remembers first meeting Tony when he was managing the Bullard, Texas Brookshire's Grocery store. Tony's store had run out of Kiepersol wine, so he was kind enough to call Marnelle and sternly request that we restock his shelves or he would find a new vendor to replace our shelf space. Marnelle apologized and responded by immediately sending someone with a new order of wine. Marnelle didn't feel belittled or shame but understood that Tony was holding her accountable with clear expectations. Which shows that Tony cared so much for his customers, that when he ran into an empty shelf, he took the initiative to communicate clearly what his needs were. Marnelle's response showed that she cared for Tony and his needs as well. Sometimes, great service and experience require a fire under your hiney. . . Tony provides 3 tips that people can take away and apply to their careers or jobs to be succesful: 1) Set, develop and communicate clear expectations that you want to see. 2) Accountability. Everyone wants to be liked, sometimes accountability feels like we're punishing or pushing people away. If you're friends with everyone or hold no one accountable, you will not be very effective, as a team member, owner, manager or even customer. People actually desire to be held accountable. Accountability protects your customer's experience as well as your entire organization. 3) Learn how to motivate people, through positive appreciation for work accomplished by those individuals or teams. It is completely meaningless to set expectations, hold accountability and NOT motivate through appreciation. This is an important step in developing long-term confidence and success in your customer's experience. . If you're interested in reaching Tony or STI Consulting call 903.530.6440 or email [e-mail] . shop.kiepersol.com to purchase gift boxes