As employers, we often look for success by focusing on measurable metrics, like clicks, shares, and conversion rates. We analyze our programs based by how much they move the needle on sales. We consider improvements based on whether or not they'll save us money over the long term. We focus on numbers, because numbers are easy to see, measure, and manipulate.
Moving the numbers is definitely necessary to create a successful business. After all, if customers aren't buying, a business won't have the necessary funds to keep the doors open for long. But what we sometimes forget, as business owners and marketers, is that we can only move the numbers so far by brute force approaches like SEO, paid ads, and newsletters. At some point, we need to acknowledge that happy employees create happy customers, and vice versa. By focusing on creating positive relationships with both our customers and our employees, we'll see our business numbers improve organically. Let's talk about how it happens.
Employee culture feeds into positive engagement
Which employee would you prefer to speak to as a customer, the one who is eager to come to work and take on the projects in front of them, or the one who feels overworked, ignored, and is just collecting a paycheck until they can find something better? Most people, both customers and co-workers, would prefer to work with the former.
As employers, we often tell employees to leave their personal lives at the door and focus on professionalism in the workplace, and people have different abilities to do that. This request, however, is something of a cop-out. It places the onus of professionalism solely on employees and disregards the culture of the workplace itself.
Take a look around your office. Do employees feel able to leave the office when the work day is done? Are the primary technology and mechanical resources in the office functioning properly? Are your employees adequately trained to do the work you're paying them to do? Is adaptive equipment available for office use, like sensory seats, noise-canceling headphones, or fine motor fidgets at meetings?
While there are many benefits to office perks like free breakfasts or gym memberships, if these more basic issues aren't addressed, you're just papering over problems.
Engaged employees support customers and create repeat customers
When your employees are happy, they're happier to work with your customers and clients. They're more open to working with clients who are struggling, and are more likely to go the extra mile to create satisfied customers.
When customers are unhappy, employees who are basically satisfied with their jobs are less likely to carry their frustrations into the next interaction or beyond. They're more likely to be able to move on, and treat the next customer with fresh enthusiasm. Having a real time customer feedback program in place is crucial as it serves as a tool to examine management effectiveness.
This also means that they will more easily de-escalate conflicts and concerns with customers. Customers and clients who feel valued and respected are more likely to recommend your services and return for them on their own.
Repeat customers build long term business success
Remember that approximately 8% of your customers make up 40% of your profit. That small segment of your customer base is what really drives your business. These are the people who recommend you to their friends, talk about you on social media, and come back to you over and over again for your services or products. They trust that you're going to do the work right and support them just like they've supported you.
Repeat customers are your number one advantage against your competition in your niche. Investing in your employees means that you are investing in your workplace culture, which direct translates into job satisfaction and helps you create repeat customers.
So that covers why you need to focus on your employees. But how does focusing on your customers help business? After all, you're already focusing on them, right? They're why you're in business.
Probably...but which do you pay more attention to, your customers, or those numbers we talked about in the beginning?
Giving customers realistic expectations smooths employee interactions
One of the key ways that companies can create positive relationships with customers is by giving them realistic expectations. What does this mean? Well, it can become tempting to use marketing that pushes a product or service so hard that it seems as though the product is going to go right out and create world peace, solve all interpersonal struggles, and press your laundry all at the same time. When customers expect the world and are given a small box of old dirt, they're going to be frustrated.
One way to focus on your customers is to give them realistic expectations, but still be positive about those expectations. For example, a company that sells a product at a variety of price points should be honest about the difference between the different levels. Perhaps the least expensive is ideal for entry level or portability, while the most expensive is useful for those who need a premium experience.
Because customers have more reasonable and managed expectations, they're less likely to be frustrated, or press those frustrations onto your employees, which also helps your positive culture.
Satisfied customers spread the word of your business, which builds your customer base
As marketers and business owners, we spend both time and dollars on getting our name and services out into the public eye. We sometimes forget that the most important method of spreading word about business is word of mouth. Positive customer interactions spread from one person to the next, especially in the age of digital connection and social media platforms.
As business owners and marketing professionals, it's important to watch the metrics. It's important to move the needles, to approach our work from an analytical and fact based point of view. After all, we're often talking to people who aren't as immersed in the long-view work of marketing, and for our work to be successful, it's crucial that we communicate in concrete and solid examples.
But in your focus on that work, you remember that without satisfied employees and customers, you will never have a chance at long term success.
What do you do to help make sure that your company stays focused on the needs of both its employees and its customers?