By Kevin Kennemer
Founder The People Group
QuikTrip, a convenience store enterprise headquartered in Tulsa, Okla., has demonstrated how to succeed through Positive People Practices. One of those is the practice of showing respect to their employees 24/7.
You will find no bigger QuikTrip fan than me. I use their gasoline almost exclusively for my cars, and our family frequents their stores because they are clean and well-stocked with a great selection of convenient items. Look at my bank statement and you will see the evidence of my QuikTrip addiction. I am hooked on their Diet Coke with Vanilla. I love their French vanilla cappuccino. When my wife is not around I will buy a hot dog. In fact, every time I leave town I stop by QuikTrip and buy a drink before I leave. But the biggest reason I am a QuikTrip fan is because their employees are friendly. They show respect to their customers.
Every time you walk into one of their stores an employee will welcome and acknowledge you. At a time in America when many companies have forgotten about customer service, friendliness and showing respect, QuikTrip stands way above the pack in the convenience store industry, or most any industry. If you don’t believe me, visit a city that does not have a QuikTrip presence. In fact, the City of Tulsa should advertise QuikTrip as a selling point for living here.
Showing respect to customers has to be one of their key ingredients to success. More importantly, I will venture to guess their employees are first shown tremendous respect by their leaders. Typically, employees model the behavior they see in their leaders. The dictionary defines respect as giving particular attention to something or someone worthy of high regard. I suspect their employees treat me well when I walk through those swinging glass doors, because they are first treated in high regard by the company.
This is amazing when you consider the culture we live in today. Cable television provides an onslaught of news programs where people are arguing and yelling at each other. There is an endless lineup of reality shows where cut-throat antics are utilized to gain a competitive advantage. Drivers on American roadways are even becoming more aggressive, less forgiving and impatient. The workplace is becoming more dangerous and disrespectful where employees are seen as expendable assets rather than people with feelings and families.
So I salute QuikTrip for creating an atmosphere of respect for employees, which ultimately trickles down the line to their loyal and happy customers, like myself. Before the customer enjoys respect the employee must first benefit from a culture of respect.
Note: QuikTrip is currently rated by Fortune Magazine as the 27th Best Company to Work For in America.
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About The Author
The People Group was founded by Kevin Kennemer, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Kevin has twenty years of valuable people practices experience and was formerly the chief human resource officer of an international energy company that rose from obscurity to #5 on Forbes list of largest privately held companies.
