“Hi, can I help you?” said a gentle voice behind us. A 40-ish, grey-haired retail assistant was smiling at us. We must have caught her attention with our rambling on the detergent price.
The lady’s hands were still busy arranging bulky detergents bottles on a shelf — weekend shopping at my local supermarket has always been a crowded affair. Not wanting to trouble her, my mum replied “It’s ok. We are just looking around.”
“You wouldn’t want to buy that.”
The lady didn’t look defeated. Just as my mum took a large bottle of detergent off the shelf, the lady came over and said, “You wouldn’t want to buy that.” She then tipped us off to a much better deal. And by better, she meant a larger bottle at a cheaper price.
This piqued my curiosity. Although it is within her job scope to help out with customers’ enquiries, no one would have faulted her for not approaching us. She was occupied with her priority tasks — sorting and arranging the item on the shelves. But instead she went the extra mile.
After more small talk with her, I found no inkling that she’s getting any commission for promoting these awesome deals. Weird.
A short while later, I had a similar encounter at the cashier while checking out my groceries. The cashier patiently explained to my mum that her loyalty points are about to expire while keeping up a chirpy attitude. All this despite facing the grouchy crowd for the whole afternoon. Again, I could not detect any eagle-eye managers around me.
This was getting counter-intuitive for me. There are no clear rewards for value-added services. There is no need to put on a show. Why the extra mile then? I’m beginning to believe that the supermarket might have some kick-ass management techniques.
Or it could just be the ‘Swimmer’s Body Illusion’ working its magic.
Swimmers naturally have good physiques; that is the reason they are good at the sports.
Nassim Taleb, author of Black Swan, wanted to look fit. He decided to pick up swimming after noticing that swimmers have well-built bodies. After swimming for weeks, he came to realise one thing. Swimmers naturally have good physiques; that is the reason they are good at the sports. They have the god-given predisposition to do well in this certain field. He summed up this cognitive bias as ‘Swimmer’s Body Illusion.’
Back to the supermarket, I started to see a pattern. Most staffs were women in their 40s — 50s with an amiable demeanour about them. The management must have made a conscious effort in hiring people of a certain working attitude. This consistent hiring strategy aids in forming a service-oriented image for the supermarket.
By hiring enough “right people,” they are creating an environment for the “right” things to happen.
Subconsciously, employees manifest their company’s underlying values, which customers are particularly sensitive to. Hence, companies should seek to capitalize on the effects of the ‘Swimmer’s Body Illusion.’ By hiring enough ‘right people,’ they are creating an environment for the ‘right’ things to happen. The ‘right people’ refers to people who inclined to or aligned with the values that the companies want to achieve.
I will wrap up this article with quotes from two persons who focus on hiring the ‘right people.’
“You always hear that people are everything, but often, that’s a platitude that gets ignored. At Virgin, it wasn’t ignored. We wanted people who were energetic and who put their heart into it. When people walk into a meeting room and they are angry or frustrated, or they annoy other people, it’s a cancer on the entire organization.”
- Fred Reid, founding CEO of Virgin America
“When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.”
- Steve Jobs, Ex-CEO of Apple
