​In last week’s Sunday Supplement I wrote about coaching your team for the behaviours you want in your business. No sooner had I pressed the ‘Send’ button than I received an email from Paddi Lund about motivating your staff.

He pointed out that a fundamental frustration that almost all entrepreneurial business owners face is motivating their team to high levels of service. He went on to say that far and away the biggest impact on motivating his team to higher levels of service, caring and going the extra mile is what he calls his Care Person System.

Paddi decided he would assign each client to one of his newly named Care Nurses for all future interaction! All phone calls, all greetings at the door, all discussions in the Personal Lounge.One day after work Paddi and his team talked about each and every client searching for the As and Bs. Almost accidentally, he also asked which Care Nurse had the best relationship with each customer. At that point, each client’s name was placed on a list for the Care Nurse to look after exclusively from that point forward. A key point of contact, if you will.

There were obvious continuity-of-care benefits in that arrangement, but the flip side of that strategic move has proved far more impactful: it is the very relationships the Care Nurses have developed with their clients that has proven to be the greatest motivator for delivering such high service standards.The very process of building relationships with customers has created a strong and satisfying connection for Care Nurses.

So it is now the Care Nurses who stick up doggedly for a customer’s position. It’s the Care Nurses who really look forward to seeing one of their good clients come in. It’s the Care Nurses who are constantly looking for nice ways to enhance their customers’ experiences. It’s the Care Nurses who come into work even when they’re sick (yet strangely now they don’t seem to get sick as much) so that they don’t let their customers down.And all of this happens quite naturally.

It’s now self-perpetuating because it plays on the principles of human nature and our basic desire for a high status position, to serve others well and the satisfaction we derive from those two things. Now, it may seem really hard to find the kinds of team members who would suit such a role. However, it might not be as hard as you think, you simply need to find:

• People who are interested in other people (about 60% of the workforce out there).
• People who would be satisfied with this kind of role for the long term (about 70% of over 35 job seekers, or about 30% of under 30 job seekers).
• People who believe in the principle of the little things that really make a difference.

Once you know that’s what you’re looking for, I think you’ll discover those kinds of people are everywhere.

PS If you don’t know who Paddi Lund is check out his book Building the Happiness-Centred Business.