Business magnate Sir Richard Branson was once quoted, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”
Almost all businesses are built on the backs of their workforce. It is their talents and skills that make your business run like a well-oiled machine. Not a single successful business owner or CEO can say that they single-handedly built an empire. It takes people — a team — to build a successful business.
Now that we’ve established that, we also need to take a look at why business owners should give more value to their workers.
- Internal Customer Experience
- 1. Every person on your team impacts a business’s customer relationships.
- 2. Toxicity in culture leaks out into the public.
- 3. Employees have a lot of potentials to make a business soar.
- 4. Employees stand as the middleman between the higher-ups and clients.
- 5. Everything a business hopes to accomplish is powered by its people.
Internal Customer Experience
Much time and attention have been devoted to studies and researches about customer experience and how it affects your business. However, most of these studies fail to recognize that all businesses have two types of customers: external and internal.
Obviously, when we talk about external customers, we’re referring to those outside the organization. Most employers and entrepreneurs have been too consumed with making sure their external customers get the best shopping experience or service ever. They fail to look at their internal customer experience — their own staff.
If you lose a customer, that’s okay. There are plenty of other people out there in need of your goods and services. You may even recover an unsatisfied customer by winning them over with apologies and offering something valuable to them.
However, if you have disgruntled employees, your business’ output will be negatively affected. Your customer service, assembly line, and other departments will not be at optimum performance and in the end, your company will suffer.
You cannot build a successful business apart from a happy and content workforce.
5 Important Reasons Why Employees Should Come First
1. Every person on your team impacts a business’s customer relationships.
An unhappy employee is very easy to spot. They’re usually the ones who show very little interest and concern for your customers and clients. They’re the ones that are just enduring their time at work and not enjoying it.
In most cases, a disgruntled employee rubs off the wrong way on customers making their experience in your store a miserable one.
2. Toxicity in culture leaks out into the public.
No one wants to work for a company known for its toxic environment. Rest assured, if a business’ turnover rate is high, chances are there’s something wrong with how things are being run. The bad news for such establishments and companies is they have lost valuable helpmates that could have made them grow more.
3. Employees have a lot of potentials to make a business soar.
Each and every employee has a particular skill set that, if nurtured well enough, will flourish and benefit the company. Business owners and managers just need to trust their people by entrusting them with certain responsibilities within their own spheres of expertise.
4. Employees stand as the middleman between the higher-ups and clients.
In a bigger corporate setting, it is very unlikely that the higher-ups and the managerial staff get to regularly come in contact and interact with customers. The ones who are serving on the frontlines are the ones who know the customers and what’s in their minds. The sales clerks, hospitality marketing consultants, customer service representatives, technical support, and others like them are the ones who often hear from clients and customers and are usually the first ones to receive negative reactions and feedback.
If a manager fails to recognize the connection employees provide between them and the real world, they will lose their customers to the competition.
5. Everything a business hopes to accomplish is powered by its people.
Anything that a company hopes to accomplish can only be done by the energy provided by its workers. However, employees who are not happy and content aren’t as willing to exert energy, especially when they don’t feel valued.
A lot of employers and managers today believe that customers are their key to success. The truth is, a business can only go so far if its employees are unhappy. For a business to thrive and soar, it needs to first and foremost look after the employees and make their overall internal customer experience a pleasant one. If you take care of them, they will take care of you.
