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We write about how to use marketing to affect customer relationships a lot but there is another way to influence customer loyalty: your employees. Employees are on the front line with customers and how they feel about your company, about the work they are doing, has a profound impact on the message they deliver to customers.
In difficult economic times it is even more important that employee relationships not be taken for granted. All employees and especially front-line employees should be treated with respect. Be clear with them about what’s going on. Don’t sugar coat the facts. Make them part of the solution. When you do this, you demonstrate your respect in a way that words alone can never accomplish. Through knowledge, they feel the challenges being faced by the company are their challenges.
After all, if they aren’t happy, if they don’t trust the company they work for, if they don’t believe in the strategy how can you expect them to put forth the extra effort required to get the message across to customers, how will they know how to or want to plus up their effort.
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- Treat your employees like grown ups. They can handle the truth. In fact they already suspect. Give them the facts and they can move on to helping find the solution.
- Just like customers, surprise them, delight them, acknowledge them for the contribution they make. This isn’t about “everyone gets a ribbon.” Identify your top performers and be sure they, and the rest of the company, know who they are.
- Provide feedback channels and make them two-way. Use Social Media technology, blogs, Instant Message, to get your message out and to provide a conduit for your employees to get the message to you.
- Management by wandering around is an idea popularized by Tom Peters in his book In Search of Excellence. It isn’t talked about much any more, which is too bad, as it’s a powerful employee relations tool. It has the added advantage of forcing management to the front lines, a place where you should be spending more time than you are.
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It’s a sad commentary on the majority of management practices that this even needs to be said. But thanks for saying it.
Christopher Simpson´s last blog post..i before e — or whatev