by Jurek Leon
There are two questions I am often asked about name badges, one by managers and the other by staff.
Managers ask: How do I get my staff to wear their name badges?
Staff ask: Why do we have to wear name badges?
Should staff wear name badges?
Lets deal with the second question first. I agree with the wearing of name badges, not just for frontline staff in the public eye but also for all team members including managers, CEOs and owners of organisations. There should be one rule for everyone.
Name badges are great for customers, suppliers and anyone else who deals with an organisation. Why?
1. They save regular visitors from embarrassment if they have forgotten someone’s name.
2. In businesses where uniforms aren’t worn name badges help customers to distinguish between staff and other customers. It can be embarrassing when you mistake a customer for an employee!
3. If someone knows your name you are no longer ‘Accounts’ or ‘Despatch’, you are a real person dealing with real people. That’s what customer service is all about whether internal (with other departments of your organisation) or external.
4. The Law of Reciprocity: If the customer knows your name they are more likely to tell you their name.
5. Accountability: It demonstrates that you are not hiding behind anonymity. You are accountable for what you do.
Getting people to wear name badges
1. When people are employed there should be an itemised list of points that they are expected to adhere to. This will include, standard of dress, hygiene and the wearing of name badges. They should initial each individual point on this list to confirm that they have read and understood it, then sign at the bottom to show that they have agreed to abide by these standards.
2. Sell to staff the benefits of wearing name badges. This means that instead of telling them that from now on they must wear name badges, get them together in small groups and ask them to list the benefits of wearing name badges. If they say it, it’s true....and they will most likely come up with some additional points you haven’t thought of.
3. All senior staff should lead by example. Bosses will often say to me, “I don’t need to wear a badge. Everybody knows me.” I point out that by not wearing a badge the message they are sending out to their team is, “Badges aren’t important”, and even worse, “Badges are only for insignificant people.”
4. Catch people doing things right: Have spot prizes, fun awards and the like for people ‘caught’ wearing their name badge.
5. If it is a team award it helps ensure that peer pressure becomes a factor in ensuring name badges are worn. For example, if every team member in the restaurant is wearing their badge when the ‘mystery shopper’ comes in they share a reward. If one person isn’t, they all miss out.
6. Consider making the badges fun by getting people to create interesting job titles such as ‘Lynne Smith, Service Super Hero’ or ‘Kim Marsh, Director of First Impressions’.
7. In his book ‘Think For Your Customer’ John Stanley recommends: “Always get two badges made for each member of your team. Give one badge to the team member and keep the other in the office. Sooner or later someone is going to leave a badge at home. When that occurs, he or she can obtain one from the office by donating a pre-defined and agreed amount to a company charity. In my experience this works exceptionally well.”
Badge Design
Often I see badges being worn that look very classy but are extremely difficult to read, which defeats the whole purpose of the badge. This may be because they have a shiny surface that reflects under artificial light or because there are done in a type style that is hard to decipher.
Always check out different types and styles of badges in your work environment before you invest in them for all your team.
Make the print as large as possible on a background that isn’t reflective. If you have job titles put them in smaller type than the name.
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