Focus on Experience Initiative

As an Instructional Design Manager for Jamba at FOCUS Brands, I was responsible for creating content to support operational initiatives as well as training programs. One such intiative was called Focus on Experience. We set out to put guest service front and center in every Jamba store while reinforcing critical training for team members and managers alike.

Why Focus on Experience?

We began by reinforcing the company’s mission, vision, brand promise, and values in order to first ground stores in what Jamba stands for and works to accomplish as a brand. From there the case was made to focus on guest experience as a way to meet those promises.

A critical component of the initiative was to help our managers understand the direct relationship between inadequate training and poor guest service outcomes. A recent LMS report showed that only 52% of current team members were completing all team member training, leaving nearly half of our team without the skills they need to be successful. While placing an obsessive focus on guest experience was key, it was equally as important to be obsessive about giving our store teams the skills they need to deliver positive and memorable guest experiences.

The Focus on Experience Launch Guide

The initiative launch guide was designed to be comprehensive, giving store managers all information needed for the duration of the initiative. Stores were given key tasks to complete each week throughout the four week initiative, and each week had a specific theme for them to focus on as they worked with their team to improve guest service outcomes. An initiative calendar was included to keep stores on task and help them plan training activities.

Fun was a key component of this initiative. As with the majority of Jamba’s initiatives of this type, providing fun ways to keep the team engaged is critical to success.

The Focus on Experience E-Learning Module

An e-learning module was created to deliver team member level content. The module included an interactive activity to provide team members a view of key guest service metrics and data. Also included were a number of critical videos from our team member training program which served to reground teams in foundational behaviors that lead to the types of guest experiences we want to deliver at Jamba.

Super Pam and Jamba’s Goodness Guarantee

The final video included with the module was a quick grass roots training video designed to remind team members about a key guest service promise, the Goodness Guarantee. This promise says that if a guest is not satisfied with their smoothie for any reason, the team will happily make them another to make things right. This promise is a key component of solving guest services issues in the store when they happen rather than allowing them to escalate to the guest service hotline.

While a bit silly and rough around the edges, this video brought the fun factor while covering an important topic that was key to the success of the initiative.