‘Can treating employees like customers increase job satisfaction?’
The Satisfied Employee
Here’s my initial response to Brenda’s question (with edits):
It is crucial that we treat employees as ‘internal customers‘. Making that differentiation can make a lot of difference to how they perceive their jobs/roles and contribution to the company. Job satisfaction will equate to retaining of talents and knowledge assets, which is something a lot of managers are grappling with (especially in a positive economy).
Peter Drucker said ‘management’s duty is to preserve the assets of the institution in its care’*. In that respect, all employees must be equally treated with the same care typically reserved for customers. In today’s information-producing workplaces, even more importance and care must be given to increasingly-mobile employees. Unlike the manual worker (who peddles his strength and energy), today’s information-driven employees retain their practice’s knowledge and developed skills and sought to bring them along to the next employer (and, in some cases, including knowledge of the ex-employer’s strategic and operational secrets).
My favourite shoe folks, Zappos, (disclosure: never bought anything from them, but maybe that should change soon) has launched a no-brainer.
They’ve called it the Internet Vendor Mentor program. Rolled out by the Customer Loyalty team, they had vendor folks from Birkenstock and Munro over in Zappos to sit in with the employees who are actually selling their products. What better way to know how your sales are are being managed than to sit right in, butt-to-butt, with your salesperson!
Two major benefits of doing this:
1. For vendors: Other than being able to meet Zappos up close and providing guidance, the sessions allowed them to listen in to customers’ experience of buying their products online. The kind of questions they ask, the type or make of products they like. Any concerns that might. Very meaningful insights by really listening to your customers.
2. Zappos get to show off Zappos and what they stand for. I am sure the vendors go away knowing that their shoe-buying customers are in good hands and very well taken care of.
Absolutely Amazing Bonus: Listen closely, at 0:55, the Zappos customer consultant is giving directions to a Clarks store to a caller on the line! That is ZERO revenue and accidental COST incurred for Zappos! Can anyone else claim to such ‘shenanigans’?
I am sure all of these ‘live’ Zappos customer service goodness are rubbing off on these vendors. I had earlier posted on Zappos’ culture, watch the video if you are still unconvinced that this is the best company to work for :)
Still unconvinced? Read actual CEO’s email to employees (on acquisition by Amazon), can’t get any more open and transparent than this.
I love companies with an overtly human side. Zappos is one. Any business has its core 2 important elements: employees AND customers. Zappos has plenty of both. And very happy ones. I hope they stay this way now that they’ve grown up a little.
I’m beginning to see where I can go with this blog and where my convictions lie in the face of social media engulfing the world. Quite simply: Your audience and your customers.
Let’s chat more later and now for that Zappos video. I’ll sell my soul to this company.
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