How (and why!) Zingerman鈥檚 drives next-level employee experience
Zingerman鈥檚 Deli might be known for its reuben, but its true legacy lies in its approach to employee experience. In fact, the is so passionate about employee experience that it launched a spinoff. is a training consultancy that drives Zingerman鈥檚 employee training program while also sharing its expertise with other brands looking to optimize their EX.
So when we wanted to get a behind-the-scenes look at Zingerman鈥檚 legendary employee training and development programs, we knew exactly where to go.
鈥淭raining has always been important to Zingerman鈥檚,鈥 says Maggie Bayless, founding partner of ZingTrain. 鈥淲e try to always think about what it takes to help people be successful.鈥
First: a bit of background on Zingerman鈥檚 and ZingTrain.
Zingerman鈥檚 and ZingTrain: the backstory
The OG Zingerman鈥檚 Deli was founded in 1982 by Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig. Then, rather than take a franchise model to growth, Saginaw and Weinzweig opted to partner with passionate entrepreneurs to develop independent businesses in the Ann Arbor area: bakeries, a Korean restaurant, a cheese shop, a candy store鈥ven an event venue and travel food tour service. Now, the 鈥淶ingerman鈥檚 Community of Businesses鈥 includes 10 businesses in the Ann Arbor area. But one founding principle that鈥檚 been with the community since the very beginning is a commitment to stellar employee experience.
鈥淔rom the very beginning they wanted to create an organization where not only people wanted to come to shop, but people wanted to come to work,鈥 says Bayless. 鈥淭he employee experience has just always been a big piece of Ari and Paul鈥檚 vision.鈥
So, naturally, a core component of Zingerman鈥檚 was employee training. 鈥淭hey wanted to help people be successful,鈥 explains Bayless.
But, employee training needs structure. Especially as Zingerman鈥檚 started to open additional businesses, they knew they needed a way to standardize their process to ensure consistent baseline of execution and customer experience across current and future businesses. And that鈥檚 where ZingTrain came in. But ZingTrain couldn鈥檛 just be the employee training department. If it was going to be in Zingerman鈥檚 Community of Businesses, it needed to generate its own revenue. So, Bayless suggested that ZingTrain could show other brands how to elevate their CX.
鈥淎t that point, Ari and Paul were getting requests to teach Zingerman鈥檚 approach to customer service to other organizations, so it felt like there might be a business case there,鈥 says Bayless.
Zingerman鈥檚 approach to customer service
When your businesses range from event spaces to candy shops, how do you create a baseline of CX? How can Zingerman鈥檚 approach to customer service apply to their whole community? It comes down to a concept they call .
鈥淪ervice is plain and simply the right thing to do,鈥 explains Timo Anderson, trainer at ZingTrain. 鈥淎nd so if you don’t have that belief, it makes it very hard to be here at Zingerman’s because part of that is doing those extra things, just intuitively helping that family get to a great experience. The other thing is that we have a mission that really drives our behaviors and that mission starts with getting clear on the idea that the Zingerman鈥檚 experience is different for each person. We are trying to get really clear on meeting each person’s experience one at a time and trying to hit all of the pieces that they’re aiming at.鈥
There鈥檚 a common denominator here: people. 鈥淲hat we find, keeping it from a consistency standpoint, is that it鈥檚 all working with people,鈥 explains ZingTrain managing partner Katie Frank. 鈥淓ven IT service providers that are working with technology, there are still humans interfacing with that. So we find that keeping one approach is critical from a consistency standpoint.鈥
As anyone who has read knows, they鈥檙e a fan of organizational 鈥渞ecipes鈥: simple, easy-to-follow guidelines for employee behavior or task execution (which is music to our ears鈥we love a bite-sized communication). And when it comes to customer service, there鈥檚 the 5-90-5 rule that informs the organization鈥檚 approach to customer service.
鈥5% of the population is naturally good at service is intuitively spectacular. 90% of the population is trainable, and 5% might not be a great fit,鈥 explains Anderson. 鈥淏ut that 5% is a lot less than a lot of business owners and business managers think. They鈥檙e not good at service if we don’t give them the tools to get there.鈥
So how is Zingerman鈥檚 getting the right tools and training to that 90%? A big part of their approach is the clear and direct principles that every employee lives by鈥攚hat Anderson calls 鈥渟caffolding.鈥 For example, early on, co-founder Ari Weinzweig came up with the 鈥3 Steps for Great Service鈥:
- Figure out what the customer wants.
- Get it for them: accurately, politely and enthusiastically.
- Go the extra mile.
The three-step system is simple, and can be modified to different roles or businesses, but provides a baseline to unite all of Zingerman鈥檚 businesses under one approach to CX. Zingerman鈥檚 has similar 鈥渞ecipes鈥 for handling complaints, order accuracy, employee conflict resolution鈥攜ou name it.
鈥淚 know to follow these steps, and at the end I can know if I鈥檓 successful or not,鈥 says Frank.
But there鈥檚 something else that aligns every Zingerman鈥檚 employee in their pursuit of next-level CX: their employee experience.
The role of employee engagement
Employee engagement is so at the core of Zingerman鈥檚 entire approach to employee experience, it鈥檚 hard to imagine the company without it. Case in point: when asked about the business case of employee engagement, Bayless didn鈥檛 even know how to answer the question.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 even understand the question. How can you have an organization without the employees? How could they not be important?鈥 she said. 鈥淚 just can鈥檛 see needing to make a business case for employee engagement.鈥
For Bayless, and the entire Zingerman鈥檚 leadership team, employee engagement isn鈥檛 a nice-to-have, it鈥檚 a must-have. It鈥檚 what gets the organization where it needs to go. 鈥淭he more engaged employees are and the more they understand where you鈥檙e trying to go as an organization, and the more bought-in they are to where you鈥檙e going, the more they understand how they can have an impact,鈥 she explains.
But like we鈥檝e said before, behaviors that get recognized get repeated. So to tie customer service into their deep-rooted commitment to employee engagement, Zingerman鈥檚 also rewards and recognizes people for their continued commitment to building a service culture.
鈥淲e have a great service committee, which is representative of each business, and each month we have nominations,鈥 says Anderson. 鈥淎nd when a nominee gets chosen, they get $50 added to their paycheck. Not huge. But here’s the other fun part: the nominator also gets $25 in their paycheck because the nominator did the work to actually document it. We also document it in a newsletter鈥攅veryone nominated gets listed. So new staff are able to say, oh, I didn’t know I could do that. I didn’t have this opportunity. So it builds both a reward and a training opportunity into a circular process.鈥
Tools for employee experience
So what does the Zingerman鈥檚 employee experience look like? What does employee engagement look like, for that matter? At Zingerman鈥檚, it鈥檚 a complex ecosystem. 鈥淵ou can have a really great heirloom seed, but if the soil is poor, it鈥檚 not going to result in a great tomato,鈥 says Frank. 鈥淲hen we talk about the tools that help with employee experience and culture, there鈥檚 a lot that goes into it. It鈥檚 hard to just isolate one part of the garden and say, that鈥檚 why it was successful last year.鈥
With that in mind, here are a few of the major components of Zingerman鈥檚 employee experience:
A written vision created by the organization鈥攁nd shared with the organization
鈥淭his is about being transparent about where we鈥檙e going,鈥 says Bayless. Zingerman鈥檚 co-founders have repeatedly developed and shared long-term visions for the organization. The first one, written in 1994, shared their vision for where they wanted to be by 2009. In 2007, they launched their 2020 vision, and recently . These visions give staff a clear sense of where the company is headed, and what their role will be in moving the organization forward.
But it鈥檚 not just about sharing the vision鈥攊t鈥檚 about creating it together. 鈥淥nly the 2009 vision was written by Paul and Ari alone,鈥 explains Bayless. 鈥淓very subsequent vision has involved everyone in the organization who chose to get involved. The first drafts were developed by the partners group and then town hall-style meetings were held to share the drafts and solicit feedback. That feedback was then reviewed, and a small writing team of both partners and other staff developed the next draft. Each vision went through several drafts before being finalized and then adopted by consensus.鈥
Transparency in how decisions are made
Equally critical to Zingerman鈥檚 approach to employee experience is transparency around where decisions are made within the organization, and how they鈥檙e made. And part of that is having systems that allow staff to have input on those decisions.
鈥淧eople need to know how to make suggestions,鈥 says Bayless. 鈥淭hey need over time to feel that their ideas and input are valued. Because who wants to be somewhere long-term where you鈥檙e not heard?鈥
They call this system the 鈥淏ottom-Line Change鈥 process, and it outlines exactly what a staff member needs to do if they want to suggest a change at the organization (again: clear, concise information for the win!). Staff can even attend classes on 鈥淏ottom Line Change鈥 to learn how best to bring forward a change that they鈥檇 like to see made.
That doesn鈥檛 mean every single idea is implemented鈥攂ut that鈥檚 not the point. Staff need to feel heard, no matter what the feedback they鈥檙e sharing.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 actually one of the most interesting things we鈥檝e seen working with other organizations through ZingTrain,鈥 says Bayless. 鈥淭hat people say they want employee input, but then they鈥檙e disappointed with the input that they鈥檙e getting. But wait鈥攋ust look at that. Is it because it鈥檚 not aligned with where the organization鈥檚 going? Do people need to have better information? Are they just not good enough because they鈥檙e not your ideas?鈥
A 鈥渢raining compact鈥
The very first page of the Zingerman鈥檚 staff guide is a Training Compact, which outlines what the trainer agrees to do, and what the trainee agrees to do. Essentially, the trainer agrees to document clear expectations, provide the training to meet those expectations, and recognize and reward performance. The trainee, meanwhile, agrees to take responsibility for the effectiveness of their training.
鈥淲e believe that the responsibility is 100% on both sides,鈥 says Frank. 鈥淲e hire great folks and then the compact says, we鈥檙e going to treat you like an adult. I don鈥檛 know how you learn, so if you need more training on something I expect you鈥檙e going to ask me. It takes people out of the passive.鈥
From there, staff have 鈥渢raining passports鈥 that outline these expectations in detail, explains the training process and generally gives new hires a sense of what to expect in seven days, 30 days, 60 days and onward.
It seems simple: tell people what you want them to do, give them the tools and training to do it and reward them when they do it. So why do so many frontline organizations still struggle with employee communication and supporting their staff?
鈥渓earn how best to bring forward a change that they鈥檇 like to see made,鈥 says Bayless. 鈥淚 just think they don鈥檛 realize that it鈥檚 not clear.鈥 I think a lot of people in leadership got to where they are because they were pretty good at reading their bosses鈥 minds. And so then they think people should be able to read theirs. And I just think that鈥檚 such a waste of time.鈥
鈥
In fact, if you look beyond the lists and compacts and staff guides, Zingerman鈥檚 entire approach to employee experience is surprisingly simple: trust your employees to do the right thing鈥攂y giving them the right tools, training and support.
鈥淢ost people want to do a good job. They want to make a contribution. Yes, there are people that just want to punch the clock and go home. But I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 most people,鈥 says Bayless.
鈥淧eople spend a big chunk of their life at work. They want to be engaged and feel like they鈥檙e building something and that their brain is being used. I think that for a long time people just didn鈥檛 think that was possible at work, so they didn鈥檛 ask for it. But I think people always would have liked it.鈥
And now, increasingly, frontline employees are asking for it. And while some organizations are scrambling to figure that out, Zingerman鈥檚 is keeping on course. Until 2032, at least.
For more on how Zingerman鈥檚 builds a customer service culture, watch our recent ITK interview:
Want to enhance your frontline communications strategy? Check out our聽Ultimate Guide to Frontline Employee Communication.