Prioritizing Employees versus Customers
The key for success with innovation is people. You need to have a process that enables you to match the right people with the right ideas and projects at the right time in the right context. For this to happen, it is not enough to just have strong project pools and ways of managing this. You also need people pools and a process for bringing the two together. The responsibility of a company is to serve the customer. The responsibility of leadership is to serve their people so that their people may better serve the customer. If leaders fail to serve their people first, customer and company will suffer.
The common perception across organizations and businesses in many countries is that the Customer is always right. This perception has led most employers today to put greater emphasis on customer satisfaction than they do their employees; a situation that continues to drive an unhappy workforce. But is this right? Is having little regard for the value employees bring to a company beneficial in any way?
Reasons to Always Put Your Employees First
Happy employees lead to happy customers and a strong brand
- Once you focus on the state of your employees and provide them with necessary tools to keep them happy and engaged, you can expect them to reciprocate that treatment to the customers. On the other hand, if employees don’t feel appreciated and are not happy working for the company, then this attitude could rub off on clients.
- Employees interact with customers directly. What employees say about your business is very important. Happy employees will always have something good to say, leading to happy customers and a strong brand.
- Thinking about your employees in real life terms, how many interactions do your people have during and outside of work concerning their job? An employee can be your best promoter or your most notorious detractor.
You cannot control everything your employees do
- Engaged and motivated employees will do the ‘right ‘ thing without the need for constant supervision.
- (Employee) Micromanagement is a cost (in time and resources) to managers, it can be cost attributed and definitely affects your bottom line.
The customer is not always right
The traditional attitude is ‘the customer is king’ or ‘the customer is always right’.
- Putting customers first before employees will be putting your business at risk. Employees need to feel appreciated and respected if they are to deliver on what you want, and in return contribute to the growth of the business. This then mirrors on the customers and the results thereafter are everything you have always envisioned for your business.
- Customers come in all different shapes; there is the unreasonable type that is never pleased no matter what and those who are just plain wrong. If as an employer you always side with customers instead of your employees, you risk having an unhappy workforce and even worse customer service.
Happy employees will solve problems without being prompted
Every business experiences issues in its daily operations and when this happens, employers will need employees to help fix the problems. When you have a happy workforce, your employees will always take the initiative to solve problems before they get worse. When employees are put first before customers, they feel a sense of ownership to the business and feel responsible for every little thing. They feel the need to be part of the business and happy enough to do everything they can to propel its growth.
Do not make an assumption when it comes to the engagement of employees.
Instead of an employee measuring their output against their pay, they’ll want to fix things and feel the need to be apart of the business and help its growth because they know they are highly valued by you and your business.
So, how can you keep employees happy?
Keeping employees happy can be difficult for most businesses as it requires that you understand what they want and their individual motivations. It can also be challenging to tell if your employees are happy, which is why you may want to use an employee satisfaction survey to know for sure.
Pay your employees the market rate (write approx. 100 words to this subject)
(Paying fair employee compensations and benefits)
Employees are adults and you should treat them as such
A business that is built on open communication will do better. Employees want to know the truth and be addressed in a straightforward manner. If the business is not doing so well, the employees want to know. If the company is going through a merger or any other important issue that could affect employees, they will want to know. Being open with employees promotes an engaged workforce. Threats and intimidation only yield temporary results.
