Undercover Boss goes to White Castle

The latest episode of Undercover Boss features David Rife, one of the owners of White Castle, going undercover in the company's operations to view it from a fresh perspective. As always, there were some fantastic lessons for all of us and a few unbelievable moments. I don't want to spoil anything, so use the link below to watch the show first if you haven't already.

Watch the show here

"Do they look like they're happy?"

That's a quote from Geenie, a General Manager at one of White Castle's new stores. She says this to her new employee (David, the Undercover Boss) while complaining about corporate's practice of bringing in too many workers and managers to help with a new store opening. She's referring to her unhappy employees.

This is awesome on many levels. Geenie is the boss, yet she's somehow found a way to blame her employees' unhappiness on "corporate". She makes this complaint to a new employee, perhaps as part of the "soul and spirit crushing" initiative she's included in new employee orientation.  Best of all, those cameras aren't hidden. Geenie makes her complaint knowing full well she's being filmed. Awesome.

My take? We don't always like the direction from corporate, but it's not the boss's role to join the employees in being disgruntled. A good boss can complain up, but he or she had better put on a good face for the employees and help them accept whatever direction they must head.

Blame the trainer, not the trainee.

In another segment, David struggles to learn how to feed a box load of buns into a packaging machine. Time after time, he gets the buns misaligned and the machine destroys them. By the end of his shift he had destroyed 4800 buns.

The highlight was when David's trainer, Steve, blamed David. Uh, what about your lousy training, Steve? Steve knew how to correctly feed the buns into the packager, but he couldn't explain it clearly to his trainee. He also lacked the patience and ability to coach David through his errors. On-the-job training is often referred to as "showing them the ropes", but it takes some skill and preparation to avoid rope burn! The worst mistake a trainer can make is blaming a trainee who hasn't received any real instruction.

"We all need to try to be more like Joe."

Undercover Boss always features an inspirational story or two. My favorite in this episode was Joe. He showed David how to work the drive-thru window at a White Castle store. Unlike Steve the bun packager, Joe was patient and calm and showed David how to work the window efficiently. David marveled at Joe's enthusiasm and willingness to connect with his customers. It's great to see the business owner connecting with those employees that really are the heart and soul of the business.

Lessons from Undercover Boss: A good employee is golden

The new CBS show, Undercover Boss, continues to provide great insight into American corporations and lots of blog fodder. In the show, the chief executive of a major corporation goes undercover and tries out five frontline positions within his company. (There hasn't yet been a female executive.) The latest episode features Joe DePinto, CEO and President of 7-Eleven. Joe comes off as the least clueless executive so far, but there are still some gems in this show that are great lessons for any business person.

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Human interaction hurts service scores in 2009 Q4 ACSI report

The 2009 4th Quarter American Customer Satisfaction Index scores were released today and the big winners were internet retailers that required very little, if any, interaction with a human being. (Ouch!) The average score for online retailers was 83% compared to a 75% average customer satisfaction rating for 'Big Box' discount retailers and department stores. Clearly, U.S. companies as a whole are not doing a good job of person to person customer service.

Internet retailers do well

Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index

Netflix, the online video rental company, had the highest score among retailers included in the report with an 87% customer satisfaction rating.  I've been a loyal Netflix customer for several years and would rate their 'service' very highly, but I don't think I've ever interacted with a single Netflix employee. The many attributes I like include their convenient and speedy service, large library of video titles, and on-demand viewing capability.

Big box stores - not so much...

Source: American Customer Satisfaction Index

I have consistently been frustrated by poor service when I've tried to shop at many large retailers like Macy's. They have many opportunities to assist customers and increase sales, but most employees I encounter are content with ringing up purchases and handling stock. Of course, you can always count on someone at Macy's asking if you'd like to open up a Macy's card. They do do that.

What's the fix?

If the new CBS show, Undercover Boss is any indicator, corporate executives need to get out of their offices and manage from ground level. I suppose you can lead from behind a desk when all your service is delivered online, but you can't be completely hands-off with a retail store. Employees need training, coaching, and motivation. They also need to be held accountable. And, you need to make sure you are hiring the right employees in the first place. None of this can be managed via email or through a spreadsheet.

Undercover Boss is cringe-worthy (and I like it!)

CBS has a new reality show called Undercover Boss, where the head of a major corporation goes undercover as a frontline employee to get a ground-level view of the organization.  If the first episode is any indication, the executives featured in this show will be incredibly detached from their organizations, use their undercover stint as an excuse to create chaos, and highlight enough dirty laundry on national television to make you cringe.  And, because it’s television, we’re sure to see a lot of happy endings.

Spoiler alert – watch the first episode before reading further if you don’t want anything revealed before you’ve seen it.

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/

Episode 1: Waste Management's Larry O’Donnell
Waste Management’s President and COO, Larry O’Donnell, is the featured executive in episode one.  He tries out five different frontline jobs and the employees assigned to show him the ropes apparently have no idea he’s really an executive with the company.  I admire him for putting himself out there and letting a television show get such an intimate look at his organization.  He seems to have his heart in the right place and wants to do right for his employees, but his ego and apparent detachment from reality are a bit stunning.

Oh so detached
At the beginning of the program, Larry is enthusiastic about the opportunity to visit some of Waste Management’s operations.  He tells the audience, “I may be able to revolutionize some of our processes.”  Attention executives: You don’t need to be on a reality show to go visit your operations and see what’s really happening!  Go ahead and spend some time out in the field.  Feel free to revolutionize processes that need revolutionizing even before the cameras start rolling.

The good news is Larry had his eyes opened by what he saw throughout the show.  It was particularly interesting to see his reaction to the human toll of the cost cutting measures he had spearheaded at Waste Management.  Like many executives, Larry has a super hero alter-ego.  When he saw how budget cuts were affecting real people, he undoubtedly said to himself, “This looks like a job for Captain Meddler!”

Captain Meddler
Ugh, Larry.  Ugh.

Jeff Richardson manages one of the locations where Larry goes undercover.  He has made the best of Larry’s cost-cutting measures and runs an efficient operation with a motivated team.  One of Jeff’s employees, Jaclyn, appears to be an incredibly committed employee who is capably handling multiple responsibilities due to the cut-backs.  Jeff should be praised for keeping his team motivated through lean times.

Enter Captain Meddler.  Larry spends a day with Jaclyn and is taken aback by her work ethic and dedication.  He’s amazed when she invites him to have dinner with her family, and is surprised to learn that Jaclyn is supporting her extended family and has trouble making ends meet on her salary.  The next day, Larry meets with Jeff and tells him he’d like to see Jaclyn get promoted and make more money.

On one hand, it’s great to see the big boss recognize an employee’s contributions and want to reward her for them.  It certainly seems well-deserved on Jaclyn’s part.  On the other hand, you never see Larry give Jeff any credit for making the most out of the meager resources that Larry himself had provided.  It’s great that Larry has a new perspective once he’s glimpsed the people behind the numbers, but it’s ridiculous to see him march in to Jeff’s operations and try to come off as some sort of savior.

It’s a bit sad that it’s not an uncommon tale in corporate America.  The middle manager gets squeezed.

Cringe TV
There were some outstanding moments in this show that I hope is a sign of more things to come.  My top three:

3. The boss can’t cut it.
One of the jobs Larry tries out is picking up trash.  At the start of the day, Larry asks his supervisor, Walter, for some tips.  Walter’s response was pure gold: “What kind of technique do you want?  You’re just picking up paper!”  By the end of the day, Walter informs Larry that he’s just not cut out for picking up trash.

2. Pay docking scheme.
On another job in a recycling center, Larry and his supervisor for the day are sitting in the lunch room when she suddenly jumps up and runs to the time clock.  She clocks in from lunch and then walks back to the lunch room and continues eating.  Apparently, the site manager has a scheme where he docks workers two minutes of pay for every minute they are late.  This whole scene is wrong on many levels, which is precisely why I like it.

1. The pee can.
The best of them all was Larry’s stint on a trash collection route.  Janice, the driver working with Larry, tells him she isn’t given the opportunity to take bathroom breaks along her route, so she keeps a coffee can in the truck.  She hands it to Larry and says, “That’s our little pee pot!”  Yup.  I'm so glad the editors and the lawyers let that gem through!

OK, so there's still a happy ending and Larry's definitely not an ogre.  By the end of the show, he tries to do right by his employees and tells the team he has a new perspective. I just hope the next episode is just as good!