Give 'Em a Big Bear Hug

My first real employment was at the Big Bear Grocery store in Hurricane, West Virginia. This was a summer job immediately following my high school graduation. I was employed as a “bag boy”. I enjoyed this summer experience and actually learned a number of great business lessons that has remained with me over the years.

A few weeks after I began my job at Big Bear, there was a change in corporate management over the chain of large grocery stores. It was announced that the new CEO would be making a visit to each of the regions and meeting with all of the employees. Although some employees were frustrated to have to go to a meeting, others, including myself, were very enthusiastic to get to meet the new CEO. It was very exciting to think that he was interested in speaking with even the newest entry level employees.

Business Lesson #1 – As a high level manager, you have a very tremendous influence on the morale of all employees. You set the tone for the business. By simply acknowledging, thanking, and paying attention to employees at the ground level, you can dramatically improve motivation and align teams behind the company.

The day of the meeting came, and all of the employees from our store and a few other stores in the area gathered in a large meeting area at a local college. We were greeted by a large and elaborate breakfast spread (hopefully from the Big Bear deli and bakery). After the breakfast reception, we were all seated for the CEO’s presentation. He began by talking about cutting expenses and saving money. He discussed various examples of where the company was spending too much money. For example, the produce department had plastic bags printed with five colors. He explained the amount of money that could be saved simply by switching to single color printed bags without having any affect on the customer experience.

Business Lesson #2 – Spend money wisely, focus spending on what will produce value to the customer. If you are spending money on items that have no direct or indirect value to your customers and you goals as a business, it is a waste of money. The key to this, however, is identifying what has “indirect” value. For example, professional development, competitive employee salaries, generous employee benefits, morale building activities, employee recognition, and community involvement don’t necessarily directly provide value to the customer, but by building a strong business, you are able to provide better products, services, and support, which is certainly a value added feature for your customers.

Another main agenda topic of the CEO’s discussion was the distribution of product return cards to all employees. Every employee received a small plastic sleeve containing business card sized product return cards. We were instructed that if a customer brought back in items for returns, or even told us they purchased a product with which they were not satisfied, we were to fill out the card with the item information and the customer could exchange the card for the return value or replacement at any cash register. This empowered any employee the customer came in contact with to provide customer service. The CEO further explained that we shouldn’t question or argue with the customer – even if they returned a product that we didn’t sell, or we knew the customer was taking advantage of us, to simply happily give the customer the return and thank them for their business. We were further told that, as an employee, we would never get in trouble for doing too much to serve a customer.

As an entry level employee, I was thrilled to have this empowerment. I was engaged and ready to serve the customers and felt that I had the tools to do so. I don’t think I ever actually had an opportunity to use any of the cards, but, I faithfully carried them with me and felt aligned with
the organization to provide outstanding customer service.

Business Lesson #3 – Empower your employees to serve the customers. Your teams need the proper and necessary tools, knowledge, and motivation in order to provide outstanding customer service. If any one of these three is missing, you will not get the results you desire.

Another amusing story from my employment at Big Bear was in unloading a truck one afternoon. I was asked to unload a freezer truck that had arrived early. Caught a bit off guard by such a request, I asked what all needed to be done. They said I simply needed to take everything out of the tractor trailer and put it in the large walk in freezer. So, I went to the back to find a truck at the loading docks, opened and ready to be unloaded, with no one else around. The food was packaged on pallets. I looked around and found a manual lift that could move the pallets. After figuring out how to pick up the pallets, I began trying to navigate the pallets from the truck bed, across the storage area, and through the freezer door that was only marginally wider than the pallet. I managed to unload the entire truck, although not without a significant casualty. I lodged a pallet against the freezer door frame, and managed to completely tear the frame off the doorway. I had to explain to the store manager why they needed a new door frame installed on their freezer. Fortunately, I wasn’t fired for the mistake – I also was never asked to unload a truck again.

On a particularly busy afternoon, I tested out the promise from the CEO that no employee would get in trouble for doing too much for a customer. The phone at the front stand kept ringing and ringing, but there were no supervisors around to answer it. As I was working close by, I could hear the phone and guessed that a customer was trying repetitively to talk to someone. I knew I wasn’t allowed to answer the phone, but I had a minute of down time between customers right as the phone started ringing, so I answered it. The customer asked questions about a certain product we sold – what varieties were available, the pricing, etc. I answered her questions and welcome the customer to visit the store to purchase the item. As I hung up and turned around, the supervisor was standing behind me with a smirk on her face. She told me that I had done a great job with the customer, but that I was not authorized to answer the phone and should never do it again.

I definitely enjoyed my experiences working at the grocery store. It was a great insight and introduction to the business world.