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Employee-to-Customer Happiness!from Kraig's 12 Seasons Our "12 Business Seasons" this time points us at dramatically heightening our employees' awareness for making our customers incredibly happy. My experience is that it's easy to achieve a state where significantly more customers come to us, to the extent we "own our market segment." Look at Southwest Airlines: they "own" their market, making a profit and growing every quarter since their inception about 39 years ago, while other airlines lose billions each year. It is not that they are the "low-cost producer" (they are, coincidentally) but rather they make customers happy. Nordtrom does the same, Four Seasons. Starbucks. Disney. And we could go on. Even Nordstrom, whom we believe invented this approach, doesn't do it by being high-price or low-cost, and none of the others do either. Their success in every case comes from ALWAYS striving to make customers happy. Not just satisfied, but HAPPY! How to do it? It's pretty easy: (1) First, we'll assume you know how to make employees happy by assuring they have the eight things they want in their jobs, namely communication, recognition, convenience, personal growth, challenge, fun, security and compensation. These are fully detailed in many places, including my talks, the "CEO Tools" book, and to a good degree at www.ceotools.com. Then, (2) Set up an ongoing coaching system with employees focused on how they should and can interface with the customer in a very positive manner, no matter what. Study how the companies we mentioned do it, and just copy what they do! Many, like Nordstrom and Southwest, have shared their approach in articles and stories you can search out on the internet. Books have been written about these and others. What if you owned your market? I believe you can, and even if you get only part-way there, you will have differentiated yourself so much from your competition that it's doubtful they'll ever get close to you again! With best success wishes, |
