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Have you ever done something that seemed so harmless at the time, but it ended up in disaster? 🙋♀️🙋♂️
Let me tell you about what happened to our oven two days before our big Thanksgiving dinner and how this experience can help your police recruiting...keep reading! 👀
Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, we’re talking about the simple act that sent our oven up in smoke, my wife and I frantically looking for a new one, and how the whole thing led me to a lesson about better police recruiting. 💡
OK…so there were…it’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving most of the day was already gone and somewhere between lunch and dinner my wife decided she was going to give the oven a nice cleaning before our big family gathering now just a day and a half away. 🧼
Now…my wife is no stranger in the kitchen…she’s made many a big meal and has certainly cleaned an oven or two in her day…she’s really very handy and it’s not uncommon in my circle of friends for them to start asking me a mechanical or fix it type question only to realize they’ve got the wrong ‘Sye’ for the job and need to be talking to her! 👉 👩
Like she’s done a million times before...
Dawn opened up the oven door, lathered it up with her favorite oven cleaning spray and got to work. What she didn’t realize is that house we’re now in has a self-cleaning oven and its number one arch nemesis…is oven spray! 😳
As she tried to wipe it clean, a white chalky residue was left behind. It was everywhere all over the inside of the oven. Scrubbed again…it got worse. Scrubbed again…worse still. In a panic, she grabbed the can off the counter and low and behold the very first line on the back is DO NOT USE ON SELF CLEANING OVENS. Oh boy. 🤦
Apparently self-cleaning ovens absorb this particular type of oven cleaner into their enamel and as we found out by turning the oven on in attempt to burn it off…smoke up like a fog machine and fill the house with a burnt chemical odor by doing so. That’s not gonna be good for the turkey. 🦃
Realizing it’s starting to get late in the day, I suggested we leave right now and go looking for a new one…surely, we’re not going to risk poisoning everyone at the dinner table and hopefully someone will have one in stock for us to take home. 🤞
First stop…
Lowe’s...and their ample selection of ovens and appliances. It didn’t take us long to find the one Dawn had searched for online on our way to the store and up to the counter we went. I was actually quite surprised there was a four-person line and wondered if everyone else ruined their ovens too…but they were just there for the good holiday deals being offered. 🤷♂️
Finally, when it was our turn, we told the salesperson what had happened and how we needed a new oven like right now. The immediate look on his face said it all and then he confirmed my fear by telling us that everything is down at their warehouse and the soonest we could get a new one delivered would be Friday. 📅
Dawn asked if it was possible for us to simply go to the warehouse to pick it up, and…it was not. They don’t allow for that. He offered to go look in the back to see if they had any ovens back there, maybe a return or an old floor model…and warned that it definitely would not be the oven we wanted but at least we’d have something. 🙅♂️
Let's try calling some places...
As he went to the back to search, we started calling appliance stores in the area. One after another…same story. They don’t have ovens on hand and the soonest delivery date would be Friday. 😑
After a short while, the salesperson returned, informed us they didn’t have a single oven in the back but maybe the orange guys across the street may have a basic one in stock as that was not uncommon for them. We thanked him for his time and set off for the Home Depot. 💨
As we reached the car, I remembered a Best Buy being just around the corner in the same plaza and said we might as well look in there…I think they have appliances. Dawn quickly jumped online and confirmed that they did and off we went. 🙌
Could it be?
We entered the store, headed to the back corner and began looking around. We initially saw a similar oven to the one she found online and as we reached the very last row of appliances an employee who was hustling to the back, glanced at us, started to keep walking and then stopped, turned and asked us if we needed any help. 💬
Now, as someone who worked retail for a number of years when I was younger, I had seen and made that walk before. That was the ‘I’m getting ready to go home walk and glance’ so I told her that we were just looking for an oven but could wait for someone else if she was busy. She politely said it would be no problem to help, and my wife told her about our oven disaster and what was going on. 😩
She immediately empathized with our plight, quickly answered every question Dawn and I had, and pulled out her inventory iPad to search for the oven we wanted. Boom. In stock…but delivery available on Friday. We asked her if it was possible to pick it up at the warehouse and she said, you know…I actually think it is and asked us to give her a second to check. 🤔
The woman called the store manager…told him what was going on and he immediately got on the phone, called down to the warehouse and was trying to find out if we could pick it up. ☎️
There was hope...
As all this was going on, two other associates joined us in conversation. When they learned what happened, they too felt what we were going through, offered sympathetic apologies and encouraged us that they were going to figure this out. 🧠
As more minutes passed, I couldn’t help notice how friendly every associate was being…all wearing giant smiles on their face as plain as their nametags and the Best Buy logo on their shirt. Everyone involved kept checking in with us while we waited for the news to keep us informed and encouraging us that they think they’re going to be able to help. 😃
Finally, the store manager returned…he had good news. He arranged for us to be able to pick up the oven in the morning down at the warehouse and we would get an email when it was ready for pick up. So relieved, we feverishly thanked everyone for their help, and it wasn’t hard to see they were all genuinely happy for us and the outcome as well. 👏
We paid for the oven, left the store and set off to grab some dinner when the phone rang. It was Best Buy. 😨
The sales associate had even better news…the warehouse called and decided they could have us pick the oven up that night if we could get there before 7. We raced down there, got the thing home, installed, and had ourselves one heck of a Thanksgiving meal. We can’t thank Best Buy enough. 🙏
So…how does this apply to your police recruiting?
Well, this whole awesome experience got me thinking that night…are you just going through the motions and giving the same standard answers like we experienced with Lowe’s and the other appliance stores…or are you going to go the extra mile…like the folks at Best Buy? 😎
When an applicant asks you a question…are you just giving them the website address where they can find the answer or are you taking the 5 minutes it would require to actually answer the question for them? 🗣️
Are you sympathizing with those who are struggling to pass your testing or navigate their way through your process, or are you just turning them away and dismissing them as not ready yet for this type of job? 💪
At testing, are you out there encouraging people that they can do it and to keep going during the run, or cheering them on to bang out another pushup or two? Or are you yelling and screaming at them or worse still staring at them with no warmth, reaction, or care if they pass or not? 📣
Are you wearing a smile like a uniform with every single contact you make? Or are you portraying that you’re miserable working here with that same stoic look the salesman from Lowe’s had when he returned from the back? 😁
Lastly, are you following up with applicants with phone calls or emails telling them how excited you are for them to be in the process and that you can’t wait to see them at testing…or is it they’ve left the store, so to speak, so no need to reach out? 👻
These simple going the extra mile type gestures actually take little to no effort at all and can be the difference between building a customer for life or someone who will just go to the first place who has a great deal on a oven next time they need one. 🎯
Put in the work and you’ll start seeing a lot more applicants who want to work for you and only you! 😍
Now…you ready to have your mind blown with more revelations on how you can better set your agency up for recruiting success? My Road to Better Recruiting course is open right now and will teach you how to start winning with recruiting and never have to put your agency’s integrity in the hands of an outside company ever again. 🏆
Check it out now on my website by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr. This course is gonna change your police recruiting forever. 💯
Have a friend at another agency who needs to hear this story? Share this video with them so they can learn too! We’re all in this together and the future of our profession will thank you later. 🤝
Have more questions about police recruiting, marketing, or anything else you're struggling with? Don't hesitate to reach out...I’m always here to help. ⛑
Until next week my Police Marketing Squad, happy recruiting! 😃
Tom
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👋 I’m Tom Sye, your Police Marketing FTO. I founded ‘For Cops’ Training to teach Police Departments how to attract more qualified candidates through the same tried and tested methods I’ve used for the past ten years at my own department to keep up with turnover and stay ahead of vacancies.
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