Chapter 02: Camp Bow-Wow: Innovative Management
Summary
TLDRSue, the owner of a Camp Bow Wow facility, dispels the myth of managers as idle, revealing the demanding role of managing people and honing interpersonal skills. She shares her journey from working in corporate environments to running her own business, emphasizing the importance of customer service and staff training. Sue discusses the challenges of balancing efficiency with a personal touch in customer interactions and the need for patience and coaching within her team. Her experience has evolved from handling every aspect of the business to now leading a supportive management team, allowing her to create a more relaxed culture for both staff and herself.
Takeaways
- 😮 Misunderstanding Management: Sue initially thought managers did little work, but later realized the complexity of managing people and tasks.
- 🐾 Dogs vs. People: Dogs are described as simple, loving, and sweet, contrasting with the more challenging nature of managing people.
- 🏢 Previous Experience: Sue's past work in GE and oil and gas industries provided her with valuable managerial experience.
- 👩🏫 A Difficult but Educational Manager: Sue learned a lot from a challenging manager who pushed her to think both about details and the bigger picture.
- 🌱 Starting a Business: Sue bought 'Camp' two and a half years ago, starting with a flat organizational structure.
- 🌟 Aiming for Excellence: Sue's goal is to make her business the best in Boulder and within the Camp Bow Wow system.
- 🛠️ Evolving Expectations: Customers now expect more value for their money, requiring higher levels of customer service and offerings.
- 🤹♂️ Multi-Tasking Staff: Camp Bow Wow's model involves staff doing a variety of tasks, from caring for dogs to handling customer service.
- 🔄 Balancing Efficiency and Care: Sue emphasizes the importance of effective customer service that conveys genuine care for both the customers and their dogs.
- 💡 Coaching for Improvement: Sue is focusing on coaching her team to address issues and improve interactions with both customers and dogs.
- 📈 Personal Growth: Sue is working on being more patient and understanding with her team, acknowledging the need for repeated communication for clarity.
- 🏆 Transition from Solo to Team: Sue has transitioned from doing everything herself to having a supportive management team, significantly easing her workload and allowing for better work-life balance.
Q & A
What was Sue's initial misconception about managers?
-Sue initially thought that managers sat around in offices and did nothing, but she later realized that managing involves a lot of work, particularly in managing people and developing people skills.
How does Sue describe the difference between managing dogs and managing people?
-Sue finds dogs to be simple, happy, loving, and sweet, whereas people are more difficult and harder to train.
What did Sue learn from her difficult manager at GE?
-Despite the challenging experience, Sue learned a significant amount from her manager at GE, who pushed her to consider both the big picture and the details.
What was the initial structure of Sue's staff when she started her business?
-When Sue started her business, it was just her and a staff at the same level with a very flat structure.
What is Sue's goal for her business in terms of customer service?
-Sue aims to provide such a high level of customer service that even if customers have a difficult problem, they feel that everything possible has been done to address it.
How has customer expectation affected Sue's business?
-Customer expectations have increased, requiring Sue's business to improve its level of customer service and offerings to match what customers are willing to pay for.
What is the role of camp counselors at Camp Bow Wow?
-Camp counselors at Camp Bow Wow are responsible for a variety of tasks including taking care of the dogs, answering phones, booking reservations, and managing the front desk.
What was one of the best decisions Sue made for her camp?
-One of the best decisions Sue made was establishing a position that focuses on customer service, which helped balance the efficiency and effectiveness of interactions with customers.
Why is effective customer service more important than efficiency in Sue's business?
-Effective customer service is crucial because it communicates to customers that the business cares about them and their dogs, which encourages them to return, whereas efficiency alone might not foster the same connection.
What are some of Sue's self-improvement goals as a manager?
-Sue's self-improvement goals include making more time to coach her team, addressing problems effectively, and being more patient with her team to ensure they fully understand her instructions.
How has Sue's experience changed from two years ago to the present?
-Sue's experience has drastically improved due to the support of a management team that has taken on much of the burden, allowing her to establish better work-life boundaries.
Outlines
🤔 Managerial Misconceptions and People Skills
Sue, the owner of a Camp Bow Wow franchise, dispels the myth that managers are idle, revealing the demanding role of managing people, which involves improving interpersonal skills and ensuring organization. She contrasts the simplicity of dogs with the complexity of human management. Sue reflects on her past experiences in the oil and gas industry and at GE, where she learned valuable lessons from a difficult but effective manager. She emphasizes the importance of a relaxed culture and the challenges of promoting staff to leadership roles. Sue's goal is to provide exceptional customer service and to be the best in the Camp Bow Wow system, addressing customer problems thoroughly.
📈 Evolving Expectations and Balancing Customer Service
The script discusses the evolving expectations of customers who demand more value for their money, necessitating an improvement in customer service and offerings. Sue shares the challenges of managing a business where staff must handle multiple tasks, including caring for dogs, answering phones, and managing reservations. She highlights the difficulty of balancing customer service with the well-being of the dogs. Sue also talks about the importance of personal connection in customer service, the need to communicate effectively with customers about their dogs' experiences, and the tension between efficiency and effectiveness in a customer-oriented business environment.
🔄 Adapting to Growth and the Importance of Patience
Sue reflects on her personal growth as a manager, recognizing the need to be patient with her team and to provide coaching and support. She acknowledges the importance of addressing issues between team members and their interactions with the dogs. Sue's experience has changed significantly from being overwhelmed with business operations to having a supportive management team that alleviates her burden, allowing her to establish boundaries between work and personal life. The narrative ends with Sue's commitment to self-improvement, particularly in patience and effective management.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Managers
💡People Skills
💡Customer Service
💡Dog Care
💡Camp Bow Wow
💡Staff
💡Leadership
💡Efficiency vs. Effectiveness
💡Coaching
💡Patience
💡Self-Improvement
Highlights
Misconception about managers being idle corrected with the revelation of their significant workload and people management responsibilities.
Comparison between the simplicity of dogs and the complexity of managing people.
The speaker, Sue, shares her background in various industries including GE and oil and gas, and her current role as the owner of a business.
Learning from a difficult manager who emphasized the importance of both big picture and detail understanding.
Sue's initial business structure was flat with a focus on a relaxed culture for staff and herself.
The desire to be the best in the Camp Bow Wow system and in Boulder, setting high expectations for customer service.
The challenge of meeting increased customer expectations for value and service.
The dual role of camp counselors in taking care of dogs and handling customer service.
The difficulty in balancing customer service efficiency with the need for a personal connection.
The importance of effective communication with customers regarding their dogs' experiences.
The tension between operational efficiency and providing a personal touch in customer service.
Sue's self-improvement goals, including better coaching and addressing team issues.
The significance of patience in management and the need for repeated communication for understanding.
The transformation in Sue's experience from being consumed by the business to having a supportive management team.
The personal impact of establishing boundaries and achieving a better work-life balance.
Transcripts
um the biggest misconception I had about
managers was that they sat around in
offices and kind of did nothing my name
is
I was really wrong it's a lot of work
it's a lot of managing people and
working on your own people skills and
making sure everybody's organized and
where they're supposed to be at the
right time
dogs are pretty simple they're happy and
loving and
they're really just kind of sweet
whereas people are a little more
difficult they're way harder to train
yeah so before this I worked for GE for
years and years and before that oil and
gas when I was in manager positions
through most of that hi I'm Sue I'm the
owner of campaign
I had this manager that was just
miserable to work for but taught me an
incredible amount she's one of those
people that took joy in
um
making me uncomfortable every time I
went into her office with a question if
I was up here looking at the big picture
she asked me questions about the detail
and the next time I'd go in and ask you
know questions about the detail and
she'd want to know about the big picture
so I we were always on different pages
but when I look back on it I learned
more from her probably than anybody else
but it was painful so I bought the cam
two and a half years ago and when I
started it was just me and a staff that
was all at the same level and a very
flat structure I definitely went into it
wanting my own more relaxed culture not
just for my staff but for myself as well
once I started getting people like
Candace where I could start promoting
them and mentoring them into more lead
positions I did it
um I want to be the best I want to be
the best of all the facilities like this
in Boulder I want to be the best in the
Camp Bow Wow system as a whole I mean my
expectations are that the customer even
if they're dealing with a really
difficult problem with us that they come
away knowing that we've done everything
we could to address it
for a half day okay perfect
I think the big thing that we've had to
react to is that people are still
spending money on bringing their dogs in
but they're expecting a whole lot more
for their dollars so the level of
customer service has to be that much
better and the level of our offerings
has to has to match their expectations
the hardest part of my job as a manager
is trying to juggle the customer service
side with the dog side so making sure
that the customers are happy also that
we're doing what we need to do to keep
the dog safe and happy the the model for
most Camp bow wows is the camp
counselors
do a little bit of everything so they do
they take care of the dogs they answer
the phones they book reservations do the
front desk the works and I had a lot of
people on staff who were fantastic with
the dogs and miserable with customer
service
or good with the customers but couldn't
run a credit card properly one of the
best things I did for this camp and
Candace was a part of it was
establishing a position where she's here
in the mornings and then she leaves she
comes back in the afternoons customers
service I mean it has to be
effective as opposed to efficient
because it's important for them to know
that you care and that you care about
their dogs and if you're just trying to
be efficient and that's not going to
make them want to come back and it's not
going to make them feel like you know
them or that you know their dog they
want to know how their dog did they want
to know if they got along and if they
didn't get along then you know with
other dogs then we need to let them know
and we need to do it in a way that you
know is going to convey the best message
to them I can see that sort of tension
the the efficiency
um
you you're almost tripping over those
two things every time a line of
customers is out here waiting to get
their dogs because you're trying to do
the customer service and make them feel
like that personal connection that we
talked about before but you're also
trying to get the dogs out here quickly
and get the payments done and so I think
she balances that literally every time
she checks out a dog
there's a couple things my list for
self-improvement I think everybody has a
couple a big thing I'm learning to make
more time for is making sure I really
coach my team making sure that if there
are problems even between people or
between their interactions with the dogs
that I really make time to sit down with
them and just talk it over and give them
ways to kind of narrow that in and kind
of improve on that as opposed to just
you know worrying about all the little
operational things that we have to get
done probably my biggest my biggest one
is being more patient making sure that
I'm patient with my team that just
because I said it once doesn't mean that
they understood it completely
um and that you know I need to work on
that as a manager
to try to be more effective with them I
mean the difference in my experience
from two years ago to today is hard to
even put into words because it was just
me doing absolutely everything I was
I was consumed with the business and now
I've got a management team that supports
me I have a management team that takes a
lot of that burden off of me so it's
easier for me to kind of put boundaries
around work for myself on a personal
level it's it's hard to even describe
the difference as huge
[Music]
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