Happy employees make for happy customers, right?
Quite apart from the research, it just seems to make sense.
And of course, it runs a little deeper than that. If we hold a mirror up to our organisations - most managers are what you would call "transactional leaders" - as noted by Shaun Smith:
"They believe that employees are hired labour and see their relationship as a transactional arrangement at best with little loyalty on either side. Tranactional leadership tends to deliver compliance but not commitment. If you want people to stay you have to bribe them through increased pay and perks.
By contrast, Robert Stephens, founder of the Geek Squad, believes that a company today is like a social network that has 'temporary custody of talent', and that you have to build in social links to help unite talent around a common purpose. In other words you have to create an environment of learning and fun if you want people to stay with you.
In Robert's view, it is absolutely fine if your people leave to advance themselves, but not for any other reason. He also believes that 'recruitment is the most authentic form of advertising' and so goes out of his way not to 'sell' the Geek Squad to candidates but to tell it like it is as part of the recruitment process - the need for dedication, devotion to duty, hard work and obsessive attention to speed and quality.
If we look at how market places evolve and companies compete over time, the centrality of belief shaping reality becomes clear. A good example is MP3 players. If you believe that they are purely functional, then that is how you will compete and your culture will mirror that, focusing on costs and features primarily. You will tend to manage by the numbers.
If you believe that you can add value through service, as Apple did with iTunes, then marketing assumes greater importance and brand loyalty and market share will be your focus. If you believe that customer experience is greatest differentiator, as Robert Stephens does, then the culture you need is likely to be more engaging and emotional (EQ rather than IQ) and experiential itself. This is where Apple is heading with its retail stores."
Food for thought indeed.
As Winston Churchill said, "First we create our Structures and then they create us".
If the leaders of your organisation do not believe that the customer experience is a critical differentiator then don't be surprised if customer-facing employees are also unenthused - and hard to hang on to.
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