How Axcess Financial Cut Turnover 30 Percent Without Increasing Payroll

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Axcess Financial, the parent company of lenders Check `n Go, Allied Cash Advance and Tempoe, has grown to 1,000 neighborhood stores across the country and has serviced more than 50 million loans. Over our 25-year history, we’ve faced one consistent problem: high turnover among our retail sales associate ranks. Our brand growth depends on consistent, quality service across all our locations, and this requires finding, training and retaining the right people. But toward the end of 2016, with near critical turnover rates, we knew a big change was necessary to keep our talent on board.

Maintaining quality employees depends on your company’s overall culture; not on short term strategies. The number one mistake salespeople make is focusing on how to achieve the sale, instead of how to help the customer. You need to ask, “How can I solve your problems with what I can provide?” This not only applies to your end customer, but also to the employees who make the sale. If quality service keeps our customers coming back, how could this service mindset keep our associates happy in their roles?

In 2017, Axcess Financial launched the Others First initiative. Others First is a sales cultural transformation that recognizes the importance of service and emphasizes the adoption of a servant mindset. This means not only putting the customer’s needs in front of the sale but also the personal and professional development of the associate making the sale.

Others First trains employees to define a purpose for their lives and their careers, establish goals in line with this purpose, and organize their time and efforts to accomplish that purpose. Purpose leads to passion. Passion leads to performance.

To help employees perform, Others First also teaches associates three principles to shift their sales from transactional to relational, which echoes the Others First values. This “Triangle for Success” includes establishing:

1. Value to the customer for every sales transaction by focusing on the benefits of the transaction instead of the price and product.

2. Relationship by understanding the customer’s needs to build loyalty and trust.

3. Advocacy by interceding between the company and the customer to advise on the options available and empower them to make the best decision for themselves.

We’ve trained employees to see every customer as a customer for life. When you build a partner with each sale, they return to you as their needs grow. Finally, employees are trained to ask for referrals, truly the most overlooked form of marketing—and a reward for executing the three principles effectively.

In just 1.5 years, and without any notable payroll increases, the Others First program saw the associate turnover rate drop by 30 percent. Plus, our company has also benefitted in increased sales and efficiency.

We owe the success of our Others First program to its total, enterprise-wide buy-in. The transformation started from the top down, and it has completely permeated the company culture.

Ty Tennyson
Ty Tennyson has over 20 years of financial and operational leadership experience across diverse industries. His current responsibilities include oversight of Operations, Sales, as well as training.He has been with Axcess Financial for 13 years.

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