To attract and retain a new generation of consumers, few things are more critical than carefully creating a retail culture that rocks.

Sounds cool. But how, exactly, is a small c-store owner—whose chain isn’t run by a deep-pocketed company—supposed to accomplish something so audacious? Well, it’s not that hard. In fact, sometimes it’s just about paying attention to the small, simple stuff and hiring employees who do the same. That, at least, will be the overarching theme of Jim Knight’s keynote speech at the 2019 NACS Show taking place at the Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, October 1-4.

As far as Knight—former global head of employee training at trendsetter Hard Rock Cafe—is concerned, it can be as easy as this: Create a culture that consistently surprises your customers in a positive way. Such a firsthand experience happened to Knight just a few months ago while at a Wawa in his hometown of Orlando. He says that one simple action by a creative and empowered employee has forever cemented his love of the brand.

It happened to be a very hot day when Knight was doing yardwork in his backyard. Tired and thirsty, he trucked down to the local Wawa for an ice-cold drink. Just as he approached the cash register to pay, a long line of customers—many purchasing numerous items—formed in front of him. Knight’s face fell. The twenty something cashier not only recognized Knight as a regular customer but also instantly sized-up the situation.

“It’s on us today,” the cashier said to Knight as he pointed him out the door.

Those four words—and the cashier’s desire to make his day a bit easier and, yes, more convenient—utterly enthralled Knight. By Knight’s estimation, the free soft drink—which might have cost the company about a dime—created a lifetime memory for him. “I fell in love with Wawa that day,” he said.

You don’t have to be Wawa to treat your customers, particularly regulars, special. Nor do you have to hand out free drinks. But greeting them when they are in your store—and occasionally finding creative ways to treat them special—can make all the difference, Knight said.

The success of break-the-mold chains from Wawa to Sheetz to QuikTrip has, indeed, raised the bar for all c-stores, including smaller independent operators. Not only do these stores look great and offer the kinds of new technologies and personal perks that so appeal to younger consumers, they also offer benefits that tend to attract workers with the inner potential to be rock star employees.

You have to be on the hunt on a regular basis for new employees.

Star Search

Even if your store doesn’t have the money to invest in new technology or redesign—you have to find ways to invest in good employees. And most importantly, said Knight, you can’t wait around for them to find you. “You have to invest the time and energy in going out and finding great talent,” he says.

In other words, rock star workers might not saunter into your c-store on their own to fill out job applications. In many cases, they might be employed at other places—even in other industries—and your mission should be to always be on the lookout for them. Back when Knight was the chief training guru at Hard Rock, he always carried a thick wad of business cards in his pocket. Anytime he was out shopping at the mall or attending an event or even in line at the movie theater, if he was impressed by someone’s personality, he’d hand them one of his business cards and invite them in for an interview.

“You have to be on the hunt on a regular basis for new employees” he says. While c-store owners regularly complain about the lack of talented people, he says, “They’re out there—but you have to go out and find them, and not wait around for them to find you.”

The Three Cs

It’s all about something Knight dubs The Three C’s: Competence. Character. Culture.

Most c-store owners focus on competence when hiring new people. In other words, can they figure out how to work the cash register? But competence is just a beginning, not an end, he said.

Character is critical, too. These are employees who go to work because they want to, not because they have to. These are the employees who you can implicitly trust.

Nothing is more important than hiring someone who is a good match for your store’s unique culture, said Knight. These are folks who have a positive attitude and are constantly smiling. These are folks who think creatively. These are brand ambassadors who not only look forward to coming into work but also pass that positive karma along to co-workers and customers.

The single best way to know if an employee is a true rock star? Imagine treating that employee as if he or she were a volunteer. Then, he said, ask yourself this critical question: Would they consider coming back the next day even if you didn’t pay them?

You can’t train someone to have a personality. In a vanilla ice cream culture, people want a little chocolate in their lives.

At Hard Rock, where Knight trained thousands of employees during his two decades with the brand, he always stressed culture over everything. Sure, a cultural fit is harder to find—and often requires more training. But the perfect cultural fit, he says, is someone who—even when they’re not at work—is thinking and talking positively about your brand.

Anytime an employee joins or leaves your c-store, it impacts your culture. Perhaps the biggest cultural loss, he said, is when someone leaves who can tell you the core values of your company.

Culture matters. It matters to employees and, yes, it deeply matters to customers. Back in his days at Hard Rock, Knight was forever doing employee and customer surveys. In the end, he discovered, when customers didn’t return, it wasn’t typically because of obvious mistakes, such as a food menu that lacked creativity or pricing that sometimes crept too high. Rather, he said, it was those times when the brand wasn’t true to its own culture. If a customer doesn’t leave excited about the rock star memorabilia that they see—or if their waiter’s personality doesn’t stand out beyond his or her cosmetic tattoo or nose piercing, that’s simply not enough to bring customers back for more.

“You can’t train someone to have a personality,” he says. “In a vanilla ice cream culture, people want a little chocolate in their lives.”

In the end, Knight says, in his years of analyzing customer surveys, the one question that matters above all of them is this one: Do you plan to come back to the store? If the answer is yes, your company culture rocks. That means that you probably have employees who not only understand and live your culture but also are passing the positivity vibes on to your customers.

Get Creative

It will require creativity on your end to recruit, train and retain rock star employees. Knight recalls seeing some clever Starbucks recruiting ads with the headline, “Dream Venti.” Hard Rock, itself, posted some catchy recruiting ads with headlines that included, “Not Working Here Must Really Suck.” Such headlines help to quickly and cleverly convey to potential employees the culture of the brand.

In creating Hard Rock’s training manuals, Knight said, he eliminated as many words as possible and focused on the visuals. “I made them look almost like airline safety cards,” he said, so that everyone—no matter what language they spoke—could immediately comprehend the Hard Rock values.

Many young c-store employees want to challenge the status quo, and they want to be on a first-name basis with the boss. They want to wear tattoos or nose rings, and they take special pride in their individuality. C-store owners who want a rock star workforce must learn to not only accept these younger employees as they are but also cater to them—not the other way around, he said. “We need them a whole lot more than they need us.” After all, he said, “An unhappy rock star can always find another gig.”

In the end, creating and nurturing a retail culture that truly rocks may be best explained by this experience Knight observed earlier this year at a Chick-fil-A restaurant near his Florida home. Since families often stop by the restaurant on their way to or from Disney World, many kids come dressed in costume. The most popular costumes with young girls, of course, are Disney princesses. Knight observed a young mother hand a $5 bill to her 5-year-old daughter—dressed as a fairy princess—to go to the counter by herself and purchase ice cream. The girl was a bit scared, yet excited. An observant young employee behind the counter saw the little princess approaching and offered this perfect greeting: “All Hail the Princess!”

As if on cue, all of the counter employees bowed to the startled youngster, as if she were truly royalty. The girl giggled. The mother started crying. In all, the whole thing might have taken five or six seconds, but the memory will never fade.

“It rocked everyone’s world,” says Knight.

Now, it’s your turn.