Over the past few decades, well-intentioned business leaders have tried to create customer-centric workplaces to gain an advantage over their competitors. The real key to success, however, starts with an employee-oriented company culture.
Although organizations should deliver good customer service, leaders who ignore employee experience are putting the cart before the horse. A truly amazing customer experience is always built on the foundation of employees who genuinely enjoy their work and are excited to help their organizations meet their sales and business goals. The less engaged your employees are, the harder it will be to get them to deliver amazing customer service. It is unrealistic to expect disgruntled, disillusioned, or disengaged employees to deliver the kind of service that will turn regular customers into loyal fans of your business.
If you want to build a strong brand and a strong business, you need to prioritize your priorities and design an engaging workplace where employees want to be the best versions of their profession, they want to be compelling brand ambassadors for your organization, and I want to offer customers a continuous series of amazing experiences.
Creating an employee-oriented company culture
Here are 10 quotes that will ensure you put employees (not customers) first:
1. “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first!”-Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why.
Many business leaders don’t use emotional language or speak passionately about the organization they work for—but they should. Liking the organization you work for or buy products and services from is the ultimate form of brand loyalty. In just a dozen words, Sinek identifies both the cause of poor customer loyalty and the solution to the problem. The question is, are you brave enough, as a business leader, to move away from the “best practices” of trying to develop a customer-centric organization and into the “next steps” of developing an employee-centric organization?
2. “The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel important, your customers won’t either.”— Sybil F. Stershic, author of Caring for the Most Important People.
I can almost hear traditional CEOs talking to themselves! “I don’t care about the feelings of the workers! I only care about the end!” Even if you, as a business leader, don’t care about the feelings of your employees (and you really, indeed should), at least, you should care customers‘feelings. If customers don’t feel valued, they won’t buy your products and services. And, if your customers don’t feel important, it’s probably because your employees don’t!
Sir Richard Branson on employee focus
3. “Consumers don’t come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers.”-Richard Branson, founder, The Virgin Group.
It is very hard to argue with this position when it is made by a young man who built a billion dollar empire using this idea as a guiding principle. With this quote, Branson is clearly saying what many employees would like to say to their bosses, but can’t. Anyone who needs to be told this clearly does not put employees first, and may respond violently to an employee who says this to their face. It’s one of those statements that if you say it to your boss, it’s considered silly, but if Branson says it, it’s smart advice!
4. “The way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers.”–Richard Branson.
It’s a pretty straightforward idea. Treat your employees well, and they will treat your customers well. Treat your employees badly and they will certainly treat your customers badly. This quote will bring comfort to business leaders who are doing their best to treat their employees properly. But it may cause shivers down the spine of business leaders who mistreat their employees! At the end of the day, the way your employees treat your customers leads directly to your door as a business leader.
Winning the workplace
5. “To win in the markets, you must first win at work.”-Doug Conant, author of Diagram: 6 Practical Steps to Elevate Your Leadership to New Heights.
Everyone loves a winner! But, to be a winner in a competitive business environment, you need to get your priorities straight! If you want to win the hearts and minds of your customers, you must first win the hearts and minds of your employees.
6. “You can’t sell it unless you can sell it internally.”— Stan Slap, author of Under the Hood: Awaken and Adjust Your Employee Culture.
If your employees don’t buy into your product proposition, chances are, neither will your customers. Give your customers credit! They can hear when even your employees aren’t buying the story you’re selling! And if your employees don’t buy it, why should customers?
7. “Employees work hard to create a customer experience. The fired workers are breaking it.”—Timothy R. Clark, author of 4 Stages of Mental Safety.
Trying to get your organization to deliver an amazing customer experience while not taking care of your organization’s employee engagement needs is as productive as trying to squeeze water out of a rock. “Employees work hard to create a customer experience. The fired workers are breaking it.” It sounds straightforward. Unfortunately, many business leaders allow a toxic culture to replace an employee-centered company culture. Employees are laid off but still expected to deliver the highest levels of customer experience.
The power of work experience
8. “Brands are built from the inside out. The way the company conducts itself internally will find its way externally.”–Ginger Hardage, fmr. SVP of culture and communications, Southwest Airlines.
How many brands can you think of that talked a good talk, but were shaken scandals when the way people behave inside comes out. I can name a few. If you mistreat your employees internally, your actions will eventually be discovered by the public—especially in our hyper-connected digital world. Retired employees can hurt your brand by hitting the “publish” button on social media.
9. “Your customer experience can’t trump your work experience.”– unknown.
No matter how hard you try, and no matter how much money you throw at the problem, your customer experience will never skip your work experience. It is not clear who said it first but it doesn’t matter. It puts things into perspective for business leaders who want to improve their customer experience levels. If you want to improve your customer experience, you must first improve your work experience.
10. “If we consistently exceed the expectations of our employees, they will exceed the expectations of our customers.” -Shep Hyken, author of The Amazement Revolution.
And, a unique customer experience starts with a unique work experience. It’s as simple as that! If you want to exceed your customers’ expectations, you must exceed your employees’ expectations!
If you’re having trouble getting your leadership team to commit to developing an employee-centered company culture, take this list to your next leadership meeting and read each quote one by one. If these 10 quotes don’t change their mind, I’m not sure what will.
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