Recently I announced that our franchise wanted to better service the Hispanic Residents of our territory. I did know that we already produce Spanish TV and Radio Spots in Houston. Pastor Jose at Ebenezer told me that many Hispanic people prefer the Spanish Radio vs. reading an English newspaper and that made sense to me. I chose Radio Sol 1430am which broadcasts to our trade area. Speaking to Pastora, as a Latina woman herself she explained to me the importance of having a Spanish-speaking person at our business for the potential Spanish speaking customers we attract via Spanish content radio. Then almost magically I was introduced to Francisco Herrara. He was a Mexican-American Young Man and who had the amazing qualities that accompany the fact that he is a youth minister and devoted to helping people. His integrity, kindness and even the how sharped he dressed on any given day impressed me. I was faced with a big challenge though. Francisco wasnt chasing the promotions and paychecks that motivate many of the rest of us. His first priority was to serve the Lord and help minister and guide people in his free time. Francisco simply couldnt work the same schedule that we require from typical candidates entering our management program. I had to do something though. I felt a force of good at work and was determined to make this situation work. After several long debates with Charlie, my General Manager. I got Charlie to buy into my instincts that havent been wrong yet. I saw a clear road ahead. Francisco would have a different role in our company. He would be charged with teaching store managers a basic 50 word Spanish vocabulary that would help describe mattress buying terms and produce laminated reference cards for us to refer to. Francisco would assist Spanish Speaking people in the stores and even be available to other stores via telephone to help translate and express our desire to serve our Hispanic neighbors the best we can. Plus I knew immediately that I would challenge Francisco to help plan and execute charitable events in the community starting immediately. He was the perfect ambassador to our Hispanic Neighbors, Customers and our charitable events in the community. Then I knew for sure his title would be Community Relations Manager. Ok - sorry for that long introduction….. Francisco started his training this week at our Hilton Head Location with our official trainer and superstar Kimberly. This is a cut and paste from an email that Kimberly sent out to all staff after close tonight: I cant tell you how happy I was to read this email. There are so many wonderful and hard working Hispanic Families in the Low Country. Tonight we finally made a little tiny piece of progress in showing them that we are all one family under heaven and that we care about them just as much as we can about our English-speaking neighbors and guests at Mattress Firm…. Wow! Hey Team- I just wanted to give a shout out to our newest rockstar - Frank! At Day 3 on the job, he closed a really a 3-bed deal to a local Hilton Head hispanic family - finishing the night with a $1500 sale. The family spoke little English but was much more comfortable spekaing Spanish. They took a liking to Frank immediately, and he ran with it to finish the deal at 9:00 pm tonight on his third day! The real kicker is...we havent even gone over much training on product knowledge yet at all since a lot of our material is about to change. This goes to show how important that connection is with your guests - and the importance of building great rapport! Great work, Frank! You are a great addition to our team, and I look forward to seeing how you can help us all improve on our langauge barrier difficulties! Now lets close up here and get home... See you all Saturday, Kimberly J Morris Area Manager
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 04:35:04 +0000
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