SvN reader Michelle posted this comment in the best customer experience you’ve had lately thread:
Several weeks ago I ran out of cash at the Farmers’ Market. After sampling some goat cheese I told the vendor I’d definitely buy some the next week because I’d ran out of cash that day. She said “take it home today and pay me next week.”
It’s not surprising that a vendor at a Farmers’ Market would behave that way but it was still so refreshing to just be trusted as a consumer. It seems like so many businesses/vendors think consumers are “trying to get one over” on them. Naturally the goat cheese lady now has a loyal customer for life.
It occurred to me the exact same concept applies to workplaces too. Just swap out the word employee for customer. When employees are trusted and treated like adults, they appreciate it just as much. The result: loyal employees who want to stick around forever.
The secret to Southwest’s success
Southwest Airlines founder Herbert D. Kelleher has a similar theory. He says, “You have to treat your employees like customers.” His final meeting as head of Southwest shows what an employee-centric management style can create…
When Mr. Kelleher, 77, entered the main meeting room, shareholders gave him the kind of standing ovation usually reserved for rock stars. The Southwest pilots union is also in the process of negotiating a new contract with management. But not only did the Southwest pilots not set up a picket line, they took out a full page ad in USA Today thanking Mr. Kelleher for all he had done. “The pilots of Southwest Airlines want to express our sentiment to Herb that it has been an honor and a privilege to be a part of his aviation legacy,” said the union president, Carl Kowitzky, in a statement…
But when he brought up the pilots ad — and when he talked about how much the company’s employees meant to him — he wept. “I’m Lucky Herbie for having all of these years with all of you,” he said. More than a few people in the audience wept right along with him.
No surprise there, either. Over the years, whenever reporters would ask him the secret to Southwest’s success, Mr. Kelleher had a stock response. “You have to treat your employees like customers,” he told Fortune in 2001. “When you treat them right, then they will treat your outside customers right. That has been a powerful competitive weapon for us.” As he stepped away from the company this week, his line didn’t change.
“We’ve never had layoffs,” he told me the day before the annual meeting, sitting on the couch of the single messiest executive office I’ve ever seen. “We could have made more money if we furloughed people. But we don’t do that. And we honor them constantly. Our people know that if they are sick, we will take care of them. If there are occasions or grief or joy, we will be there with them. They know that we value them as people, not just cogs in a machine…”
“There isn’t any customer satisfaction without employee satisfaction,” said Gordon Bethune, the former chief executive of Continental Airlines, and an old friend of Mr. Kelleher’s. “He recognized that good employee relations would affect the bottom line. He knew that having employees who wanted to do a good job would drive revenue and lower costs.”
Matt
on 12 Jun 08FYI—that first link (to Michelle’s comment) goes to the Blog Cabin admin area.
Justin Reese
on 12 Jun 08I love the trust and personal attention of small shops. I work several days a week from a local coffee shop that lets you serve yourself coffee/refills, and trusts you to tell them what you had when you tab out. On one busy day, the owner just left piles of small bills and change on the counter while he made drinks, and people just paid out and made their own change.
The barista not only learns people’s names, but what they drive. Which was borderline creepy when we came in my wife’s car one day, and a bit later I heard him walk to the door and remark “Who’s Civic is that? Oh, I’ll bet Justin drove his wife’s car.”
J Lane
on 12 Jun 08I remember when I was a teenager, I used to do a lot of work for the local Parks & Recreation department in my city. We had some customer service training, and their big thing was “everyone is a customer”. People that came to the parks and used the programs were customers (obviously), but fellow employees, management and people from other departments at the city were also customers.
The big take away was that everyone deserves the same level of consideration and respect. Money should never be the deciding factor as to whether someone is treated like a human being.
Justin Duewel-Zahniser
on 12 Jun 08A few weeks ago my wife went to get lamb from our farmer’s market meat vendor. He was all out of the cut we wanted and had showed us about 6 or 7 different packs of 1-2 lbs. cuts that were the same quality but smaller and less steak-like. They were about $6 or so each, I think.
He says, “what are you making?” We said we were making curry and he informed us that these are actually great stew cuts because you are going to chop them anyway and they’re very tender. So he says “I’ll give you the same deal I give my restaurant guy. I have lots of these cuts because everyone wants slabs. I’ll give you all of them for $10.”
My wife scraped her chin on the sidewalk. That guy is awesome. If you’re ever in the Shepherdstown, WV area, check out Danny Rohrer Meats. His steaks are phenomenal too.
GeeIWonder
on 12 Jun 08“everyone is a customer”.
Straight out of Henry Ford’s handbook.
Jenny
on 12 Jun 08I always think employers should use that airline speech: “We realize you have a choice of employers and we thank you for choosing us.”
Peter Urban
on 12 Jun 08It’s a no brainer: If you don’t treat and respect your employees well they won’t take your business serious. Since your customers are an central and vulnerable part of your business, they won’t treat them well either. Most employees have a choice and if they don’t, then you’re in a terrible business.
David Andersen
on 12 Jun 08“It’s a no brainer: If you don’t treat and respect your employees well they won’t take your business serious.”
It is to some of us, but it isn’t to a vast swath of businesses. I’ve encountered very few managers who think any part of their mission is to treat their employees like customers so that they can do the best work possible. This is one reason why we need as competitive of a marketplace as possible. People need the freedom to be mobile. May the bad companies die a swift death at the hands of their competition.
Benjy
on 12 Jun 08I had the exact same thought Jenny did…
GeeIWonder
on 12 Jun 08May the bad companies die a swift death at the hands of their competition.
Isn’t that a Cat Stevens song?
web design company
on 12 Jun 08That’s what many companies do – treat all of them like shit!
sho'fr
on 12 Jun 08contrary to popular belief in the comments, treating your employees like customers does not always translate into giving stuff away for free. It’s about respect and trust.
The coffee house example is a good one.
Thom Blake
on 12 Jun 08It doesn’t seem like it should be a “no-brainer” to treat employees like customers. Employees are the ones looking to sell their services. It makes more sense intuitively to treat one’s employer like a customer. However, this conceptual muddle clears itself up if you just treat everyone like a customer.
tom
on 12 Jun 08Why does it have to be called “like a customer”, what about “normal”?
Andrew
on 12 Jun 08My current boss uses this approach. When she speaks to us, it’s as peers, not underlings. She keeps us on a long leash and only reels it in when it’s absolutely necessary, which is actually quite rare.
As a result, I have the opportunity to work for someone I admire and respect rather than fear, and the quality of my and my team’s output directly reflects that.
Wil
on 12 Jun 08I’m with Tom on this one—I don’t want my boss to treat me like a customer. I want him/her to treat me like a human being. And treat the customer like a human being, with mutual respect.
I can’t be a “peer” with my boss, because that’s an oxymoron—the very definition of “peer” insinuates someone who is not my boss. But he can still be fair and understanding.
Dave
on 13 Jun 08One day when I was working at a service station, a man told me that he forgot his wallet but had already pumped 5 dollars in gas. (10 years ago back then it was $0.72 a gallon http://everydaynormal.com/?p=1 ) I thought for a second and said to myself, “I will trust him.” So I told him he could go and get his wallet and come right back. He never came back and I had to pay for his gas. So in a way I, as an employee, was being treated like a customer.
Rabbit
on 13 Jun 08I’m with Tom. I wouldn’t use the term “normal” though, I’d say “human”.
Saying we should treat everyone in the workplace like a customer feels like one of those self-help books trying to repackage old (very old!) notions; e.g. do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
I think this stance loses merit by asking its inverse: in what way should you treat a non-customer?
David Andersen
on 13 Jun 08I think the pedantometer is accelerating to the right…
Saying “treat your employees like your customers” is a convenient shorthand that is more likely to resonate with business people who – usually – instinctively understand that customers need to be treated well.
Meg
on 13 Jun 08Seldom in my life have I been treated respectfully as an employee. I work for a major outsourcing agency that does customer service jobs for big corporations and if you ever wonder why when you call people at call centers they sound so miserable, it’s because they are! There aren’t enough seats for everyone so a quite a few of us stand around waiting in line for a seat and then get yelled at and also have our jobs threatened because we don’t spend enough time taking calls. This is one of many examples of how giant corporations like the one I work for fails to treat their employees like customers. They don’t even treat their employees like employees. They treat their employees as an expendable never-ending resource. The economy in my town is so poor though, that there is no where else to work that will pay enough to make ends meet. I was sent this link by a friend of mine suggesting I show it to my boss. ... I’m afraid that she’d fire me.
David Andersen
on 13 Jun 08In my experience Meg, things like that don’t change – you have to change.
Josh
on 13 Jun 08When I left my old job to start my own business, one of the hardest things for me to leave behind were the good people that I hired. I brought them on board because I knew that they would have the same drive, passion and exhilaration for creating industry-changing software as I had. These people continually impressed, surprised and amazed me, and although I was their boss, I thought of each of them as friends (I still do…).
When people are treated as humans something extraordinary happens—they work harder and better because they feel an emotional tie to their employer. I posted something similar on my blog (http://www.hinutech.com/web/josh/home/blogs/17466) about this stuff after reading “Three Signs of a Miserable Job.” Great reading for those who are leaders in a company of any size.
Josh
on 13 Jun 08...And Meg, my advice for you would be to run away…fast. Find a place that respects you and your contributions. Life is too short to spend working in an environment like that. Work can, and should, be an extension of you. If you put yourself in an environment like that, you will slowly and surely change into something you don’t want to be. Get out.
FWIW, that’s part of why I left a previous job and began my own gig. There was too much negativity, and I was starting to change for the worse.
Dempsey
on 13 Jun 08Meg,
Look into this http://liveops.com/index.html and being a agent-over-the-web, but definitely look into getting out of that situation. I haven’t check on the liveops for a while (so “buyer beware”), but your workplace will never get better.
(Dear editor, please send to Meg’s email. She didn’t seem like a regular SvN reader).
CJ Curtis
on 13 Jun 08I would go so far to say that employees are the most important customer.
If a customer is happy with you over and over again, that reputation will spread over time. If a customer is unhappy with you, it spreads like a brush fire.
That goes double for your employees for two reasons:
1) Just like paying customers, if you don’t have dedicated employees, you have nothing; and
2) I would argue that we talk much more about our own jobs (like it or hate it) on a day-to-day basis with friends, family, colleagues, etc.. It doesn’t take much to get a bad reputation as an employer, but once you do…see #1 above.
Darrel
on 13 Jun 08“You have to treat your employees like customers”
You forgot the asterisk:
Provided that you are a company that actually CARES about customers.(Yes, I’ve had to deal with Qwest and Microsoft support this week…)
Sudhanshu
on 14 Jun 08One of my friends who had stayed for quite a long time in Tokyo talks often about his experience as a customer there.
He once went to watch the semi-finals of the soccer world cup, a number of years back, and he bought a ticket in black worth $1000 by just giving his visiting card. He went back and paid the next day.
I doubt if anybody trust is even that prevalant in other parts of the world :)
Alix
on 15 Jun 08I’m currently in a sticky situation at work. If any employee expresses his or her opinion about any aspect of the business, immediately the bosses begin to suspect you of being subversive, needling other employees for information about you, looking for reasons to fire you. Your job is used as a weapon against you, to keep you in line. If you show signs of individuality, you are not a “team player.” If you show signs of being human (such as exhaustion or fatigue), you are viewed as being insubordinate. Unquestioning, undying loyalty is demanded of employees at all costs, personal health, family, whatever the costs. The company is first. All else is second… or you’re fired.
This discussion is closed.