Carol Ann Schneider
Owner and founder
SEEK Careers/Staffing Inc.
1160 Opportunity Drive, Grafton
Employees: 110
seekcareers.com

Carol Ann Schneider founded Grafton-based SEEK Careers/Staffing Inc. 46 years ago and remains the leader of the business. She was recently honored with the
BizTimes Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual BizExpo conference. Schneider participated in a Q&A with BizTimes Media publisher Dan Meyer, and shared her wisdom with an audience of entrepreneurs and innovators at the Bravo! Entrepreneur and I.Q. (Innovation Quotient) Awards luncheon. Following are portions of that interview.
How important is goal-setting to you and your business?
โIโve always been a goal-setter. In addition to setting your goals, you need to write them down, because if you donโt youโll forget them. We set goals on a regular basis at every meeting that we have, every daily huddle. And I get very annoyed when people come to the next meeting and they canโt remember what their goal was. Why did you bother setting it if you canโt remember it?โ
What are your company values and how have they evolved over the years?
โI would ask (employees), โWhat are our values?โ And they would give me a blank stare. Iโd say, here are our values: passion, integrity and extraordinary customer service. And they would still look at me like, โI donโt remember this.โ Until one day I said, โThey spell PIE.โ Now everybody remembers. Passion. Gosh, if you donโt have passion for what you are doing, why are you doing it? Integrity, absolutely a must. I would rather err on the side of losing money than compromise my ethics. Extraordinary customer service sort of evolved because customers started saying things like that to us. One day I said, โWell, if the customers think we are giving them extraordinary customer service, maybe we should tell them that we are.โ And so we do.โ
What does extraordinary customer service mean in your business?
โIt means we have a person, a real-live person, answering the phone 24/7. You can always get to us. A lot of the sales reps and team leaders will provide their home phone numbers. So, if you want to get ahold of us, you can get ahold of us any old time. Two oโclock in the morning, you have a problem? Call, and weโll answer. Another thing we teach (the staff is), when a client calls or a candidate calls, tell them when you are going to call back.โ
Do you feel entrepreneurs worry too much? Donโt they have things to worry about?
โIโve bet the family farm I canโt tell you how many times. Iโm a farmerโs daughter, so I can say that. But why are you worrying? What can you do about it? You canโt do anything until you can do something about it. So if you wake up in the middle of the nightโbelieve me I did wake up last night, started to worry, and said, โWell, this is crazy. I canโt do anything about this in the middle of the night.โ So I have a pad of paper and a pen next to my bed. So I start writing the things Iโm thinking about and throw these papers on the floor. When I wake up in the morning I might have a floor littered with papers. You canโt fix something in the middle of the night. You can only fix it in the morning.โ
Do you aim for perfection?
โAlways. I think everybody should aim for perfection. I always do. Am I perfect every time, heck no. But if you donโt try, you donโt get there.โ
What is your philosophy of having family members work in your business?
โMy feeling about family is they are no better or no worse than anybody else in the company. When they walk through the doors, they better have a smile on their face and love in their hearts and they better sing from the company hymnbook.โ