Important points in Managing Fun and Making Your Business Memorable

• The best workplace humour is that which starts from the bottom up, not imposed from the top down; so management’s role is to create the environment where this humour can ‘rise’.
• Fun in the workplace is a proven way of increasing staff loyalty and decreasing attrition rates.
• Work and fun are not opposites. Work made fun is more likely to be done well.
• Fun is a very efficient way of getting your message across because it people (customers and staff) are more likely to listen to you.
• Fun makes unpleasant work more enjoyable.
• A fun atmosphere attracts a better type of customer who is more likely to stay longer and spend more.
• Fun in business needs to follow the RAPP Rule – it must be responsible, appropriate, positive and professional.

Fun is a very powerful tool that can add greatly to staff and customer interactions. Like any powerful tool, used indiscriminately or without knowing how can cause great harm.

People are more likely to remember the business and recommend it to family, friends & acquaintances if they have fun while they’re there. Fun makes you memorable. People remember funny incidents and experiences because –

1. It is more pleasant for the brain to recall fun experiences than boring ones.
2. They can often add them to their ‘repertoire’ – the catalogue of stories that they use in social interactions.

   If people remember a business favourably, they are more likely to recommend this business to their family, friends and acquaintances – giving that business the best publicity possible – word of mouth.

   Breaking down the interaction between customer and staff member in a traditional face-to-face customer service encounter gives you the opportunity to identify where touches of fun could be added. The six steps fit the acronym GELATI –

   Greet and make them feel welcome
   Eenquire about their needs
   Listen to their response
   Attend to their needs
   Thank them for their custom
   Invite them back
   
   
   
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