During times of renovations or while implementing new systems in your business, you may find your e-mails and suggestions box inundated with a large amount of negative complaints. It is important during these times not to allow these situations to take over your lifestyle. If you wake up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, then you will rarely disappoint yourself. It is because of this, Gainesville Health and Fitness created a system that helps to highlight all the good that is going on in our business.
That system is an employee recognition system that we have titled our “Eagle Boxes.” The name comes from the comparison between eagles and ducks. Ducks quack and complain, whereas eagles soar above the crowd. The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm, so while the storm rages the eagle continues to soar above.
It is important to note that we don’t ignore all the suggestions and complaints — we actually make it a point to contact every single one of them back. And, we don’t let the suggestions bring us down. We look for and celebrate the eagles that are written out by our members, as they notice an employee going above and beyond.
Celebrating our eagles creates an environment that pushes everyone to go that extra mile for our members and guests every single day. It also has created an environment where members no longer focus on all the negatives, but has them also keeping an eye out on all the positives in the club.
Take a look at your environment — have you created a flock of ducks that constantly quack, or eagles that look to soar above?
Adrian Antigua is the operations manager for Gainesville Health and Fitness in Tioga, Fla. Formerly a desk manager, Antigua is heavily involved in customer service and staff training. For questions on operations, e-mail Antigua at AdrianA@ghfc.com.
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
