The Mission

Our mission is to transform customer service through an innovative training program targeted at service industry workers that is engaging, targeted, and increases job retention and personal growth.

The Problem

I was born and raised in New Orleans, and when I came back home to New Orleans in 2003, I noticed that customer service at fast food restaurants and other minimum-wage service jobs was terrible. I wasn't the only one that noticed this. Everywhere I went, people talked about this problem. From the employer perspective, employees who were terrible at serving customers led to conflicts at work, low morale, high employee turnover, and low retention.

So, I started thinking of ideas to solve this problem. I had also worked as a manager of front-line employees, and I noticed that when it was time for employee trainings, there seemed to be a brick wall. I thought at first that it was just me, but I realized that it had to do with a widespread lack of literacy skills. Most trainings required a basic level of literacy, and when individuals felt that their literacy skills were being tested, they shut down. So, I came to the realization that we had to come up with different training programs that would not be intimidating and that would inspire participants to take what they learned into the workplace.

The Idea

Our solution to poor customer service was a training program that would captivate the interest of mostly blue-collar workers who often lacked basic literacy skills, who lived at or below the poverty line, and were between the ages of 15-30. We call it "Edutainment." Edutainment is our approach where individuals are educated through entertainment. Instead of passing out handouts to read, weíll use videos, games, role-playing, and high-profile celebrity examples to teach soft skills such as courtesy, conflict resolution, positive demeanor, customer service, and articulate verbal and written communication. These are skills that are being increasingly sought out by companies.

Also, we want employees to understand the importance of putting forth their best effort when working and of embracing the philosophy that "what you do is the key to increasing how you perform." Individuals in our program are taught that they are working for more than just a paycheck; rather, they are establishing a foundation for growth and career choices for the future. We want to ensure that all individuals have the necessary tools that will enable them to be highly effective and efficient employees who can retain their jobs and be promoted.

Courtesy Grows is a dynamic training solution, teaching the skills that are not taught in any college or university. These sessions, when designed to meet the needs of the organization and the individuals, should result in a tremendous spike in productivity, fewer on-the-job conflicts, and a happier place to work and visit. Our organization is committed to changing the workplace environment one employee at a time, and we are confident that our program will make a difference. We see this problem not just in New Orleans but in other areas as well. We know that we have an answer, and we hope one day to scale up our programs to other cities in Louisiana and the country.

The Start-Up

We began operations in 2003 with just one employee, serving 3 clients. I funded this operation out of my own savings. Right before Katrina, we had increased our employees to 5, not including myself, serving 50 clients. We were funded by the New Orleans YMCA, church groups, and individual businesses. We hadnít quite broken even, but we were very close. After Katrina, we have had to regroup and restructure our staff, so now we have 1.5 staff members, serving 60 clients. Participants pay a nominal fee to attend our sessions of approximately 20 people per session.

We are currently looking into expanding our training to include weekend and three-day training retreats and hope to, within the next 18 months, be able to provide follow-up or refresher training courses via the Internet. We plan to extend and expand our company to include training for students as young as tenth grade who may be interested in becoming a part of the service industry because we believe that early training will result in more service-friendly employees. We hope to expand our staff and develop a newsletter that may be issued quarterly to those organizations using our services. We believe that in time, if we do our job effectively, we will put ourselves out of business because we will have developed a cadre of service providers who are friendly, courteous and happy to be providing a service to the public.

Our Impact and Accomplishments

Our biggest accomplishment really has to do with changing the lives of individuals. We have participants who are illiterate come to us and say that they are going to enroll in a literacy course or that they are committed to being better parents. Helping people make positive change in their lives--this is why we do what we do.

Overcoming Challenges

Funding opportunities: The establishment of any business is costly, and often it is difficult to find the financial backing necessary to begin. When we could not obtain the financial support from lending institutions, we decided to move forward regardless because this venture was too big and too important to let die. Having no other alternative, I used my own personal savings to keep our doors open. One thing that helped tremendously was receiving media attention from the Sally Ann Roberts show and other newspapers. After people heard our story, we received many requests from diverse groups asking for our services.

Staff Capacity: As a small company, we had limited staff serving in several capacities, making it more difficult to handle the entire day-to-day task in a timely fashion. Also, after Hurricane Katrina, some of our staff members decided not to return to the city. Our solution was to reorganize and restructure the management team. As we grow, we are facing the challenge of finding staff to fill positions.

Our Current Needs

1. Client identification

2. Networking

3. Fundraising

Support and Contact

If you can help out with any of these needs or if you would like to make a donation, please contact Frank Johnson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .