By Lauren Shanesy

In retail, your people are your greatest asset. They are your brand ambassadors. As the face of your company, they can impact a customer’s perception of your brand after even one visit.

“Your employees are your most powerful asset. They will make or break your entire business,” said Tiffany Cartwright, senior sales consultant at GNA Partners. “Employee experience is brand experience. The face of your employees on any given day is what your customers are going to see. It’s going to influence the perception they have of your business—and whether they come back or not. Your business is only as strong as its weakest part.”

Developing people at all levels, including yourself, as a key driver in developing your business was the overarching theme of the Women in Carwash Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, held January 19-21. Speakers at the event delved into strategies for developing culture, better customer service, higher sales and building internal loyalty.

1. Lead With Empathy

An employee’s relationship with their manager greatly influences how they feel about their job, said Jamilyn Bertsch, chief people officer at Express Carwash Equipment LLC. “Think about what the managers at your company, yourself included, need to be a person who can lead with active listening, empathy and care. What do they need to be able to fairly evaluate and promote people? What do they need to coach people effectively?”

In her presentation, Diane Stafford, president of UpTalent Solutions, discussed strategies for developing emotional intelligence as a leader as well as leading with empathy to create better relationships with team members. “Our role as leaders is to empower development in our people, and we do so by making sure that we're communicating effectively, that we’re leading with empathy, and that we’re asking questions instead of taking a telling approach,” she said.

“Emotional intelligence helps us manage our emotions, improve our decision-making, gives us the ability to be more objective and allows us to recognize the emotions of others so you can lead them more effectively,” Stafford continued.

2. Have the Right Mindset

Janae Warner, operations training manager at Mammoth Holdings, focuses on starting each day with a positive outlook and can-do mindset, which she also instills in her employees. “Ask yourself, are you training your employees for a task or are you training them for growth and success?” She shared an example of two Mammoth locations in the same state, both of which experienced bad weather during one particular week.

“One location gave their sales numbers and said, We think these are fine given the weather this week. The other location described how they didn’t let the weather stop them and were going to strive for the same performance even with an obstacle. Guess who had the better numbers?” Warner said. “At both locations, nothing was different other than mindset. That’s how powerful it can be.”

She encouraged attendees to “set expectations higher than the minimum and instill confidence in your employees. I guarantee you they will rise to the occasion and perform better,” she said. “If we stay in our comfort zone, we don’t grow, and if we don’t grow as people, we don’t grow as a business. We want our teams to keep stretching their potential.”

Warner tells her employees at every level that their role makes a difference and contributes value to the business. “One of my customer service agents said to me, ‘I’m just a CSA. It doesn’t matter what I do.’ I said, you are not ‘just’ anything. The goals the CEO has can’t happen without you—your sales impact whether this company hits its goals or not.”

3. Culture Is Critical

Recruiting employees is challenge enough for the retail industry. On top of that, there’s the challenge of retaining the quality employees you do find. “If you don’t have the right culture, people don’t want to stay,” said Bertsch. “Recent research shows that in addition to pay and benefits, employees highly value career development, health and wellbeing, compensation, meaningful work, supportive colleagues and inspiring leadership.”

“Investing in company culture to improve the lives of your employees is the least expensive investment you can make in your business that will have the highest yield,” Cartwright added.

4. Empower Employees

Building a positive culture is essential. Empowering employees and having them buy into brand loyalty is how you maintain that culture, said Cartwright. “You want them to feel excited about the work they’re doing and feel ownership in the brand. When your employees are having a good day, your customers are having a good day.”

You should empower employees on the job and in their day-to-day work by modeling the right mindset, creating pride and ownership in the brand and recognizing jobs well done.

Your business should also offer competitive pay and benefits and career development opportunities for your employees, said Cartwright. “A 401k is the most sought-after benefit by millennials currently,” she said. Perks are motivating too—an attendee shared that for every five-star review her car wash receives that mentions a customer service agent by name, that employee receives $5.

At the end of the day, customers remember how you made them feel. That feeling is what will keep them coming back, said Carly Klein, director of marketing at El Car Wash. Your employees are a critical part of that strategy.