What do they teach in business school?

By Neal Woodson

What do they teach in business school? I ask because it seems they don’t teach the simplest, most obvious things. Here’s what I mean.

1.      There seems to be a huge misunderstanding of the purpose of business. As I see it, the fundamental purpose of business is to help people, there’s no other reason for it. It’s not to make money or create shareholder value, those are outcomes. No, every business is here to help people do things they can’t or don’t want to do or help them get access to things they need or want but can’t access alone. Do that and you profit. Do that really well and you profit a lot. You see, without customers - those people you are supposed to be helping - your business ceases to exist. Read that again, out loud, WITHOUT CUSTOMERS YOUR BUSINESS CEASES TO EXIST! Yet leaders in business at every turn focus on everything but customers. This, it would seem, would be the definition of missing the forest for the trees.

2.      There’s a need for proof that investing in customer experience is worthwhile. Really!? I know they teach students that everything needs to be measured and have a return on the investment, but really? This would seem to be a no brainer, but for those struggling, I’ll lend a hand here, the ROI is this, a great customer experience results in customers spending money and continuing to spend money.

Yeah, I know, “show me numbers.” Again, really!? I don’t need numbers, consider this.

·      Do you return to a business where the people are unkind and incompetent?

·      Do you return to a business where it’s difficult to do business?

·      Do you return to a business where the products are inconsistent and hard to use?

·      Do you return to a business that’s uncomfortable and unwelcoming?

No, you don’t, and your customers don’t either. It’s quite simple actually, poor experiences result in customers leaving, and no customers means no business. There’s your ROI. Did you really need a number to see that?

3.      There’s little understanding of the link between customer experience, employee experience, and financial success. Imagine a parent who constantly yells at their kids. Would it surprise you to see those same kids yelling at their friends on the playground? Of course not and I am sure you see that connection pretty clearly. Why then do business leaders not make that same connection in the workplace? What happens inside the house has a direct impact on what happens outside the house whether that house is home or work. I’ll make this as crystal clear as I can. Unhappy employees can never, and I mean never, create truly happy customers. And unhappy customers go elsewhere looking for friendlier playgrounds on which to play (i.e. spend their money). By the way, great employee experiences aren’t about ping-pong tables in the break room or additional benefits. Although those things are nice, employees really want to feel they’ve made a contribution. They want to have a voice, some autonomy, and be valued. That’s what engages.

If all of this seems like it should be common sense, you’re right, in fact, all of it should leave you scratching your head saying, “duh, no kidding.” Yet business people everywhere believe making money or creating shareholder value is their purpose and that their customers and employees are indeed content and happy. However, those numbers everyone is always looking for tell a different tale. Over and over we see that less than 10% of customers say their experiences are great, and upwards of 80% of employees are unhappy at work. This accounts for over $75B in lost revenue and something in the range of $500B in lost productivity. It would seem that B-school training has missed the boat, in fact, it would seem it can’t even find the pier.

Here’s the thing. I’m not suggesting that everything in B-school training is wrong, far from it, there is a lot to learn there that is worthwhile. What I am suggesting though is that there is too much focus on the score rather than those who put the points on the scoreboard, namely customers and employees. Imagine if coaches worried more about ticket sales than player performance, would teams win? I doubt it. Would fans watch? I doubt it. Yet leaders everywhere continue to focus on the score at the expense of the players and fans. We need that to change. We need better business and better business in my estimation is where people are put first. As I heard Tom Peters say in a recent podcast, “I said it over 35 years ago in my book In Search of Excellence and they still don’t get it. So I’ll just keep repeating it, ‘PEOPLE FIRST DAMN IT!’”

So, where does your business stand? Is it about people or numbers? Is it invested in the human side or something else? Take a stab at these questions and you should get a better idea.

PURPOSE

·      What is talked about most in your workplace, customer and employee needs or numbers?

·      What leads the majority of agendas in meetings, customer and employee needs or numbers?

·      When decisions are made, how many times does impact on the customer and employee come up?

What dominates here will give you good clues about what is viewed as the purpose of your organization.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

·      Is customer experience a part of your organization? NOTE: If you say no, there’s no point in answering the next four, just jump to the next section on the experience connection.

·      When customer experience is brought up, is it given due respect and time for discussion?

·      Is customer service seen as everyone’s job or a department?

·      Is customer experience seen as a cost center or a revenue driver?

·      Is your customers’ experience considered in decision making and are mitigating or correcting any negative impacts critical to moving forward on decisions?

Now think about your answers. Can you honestly say your business is invested in your customers’ experience? 

THE EXPERIENCE CONNECTION

·      How would you describe the engagement levels of your employees? How many would you say literally don’t care? How many are phoning in their work and doing the minimum necessary? How many are proactively ahead of the game most of the time and go above and beyond?

·      How much do managers engage with team members in decision-making, strategy, and improvement efforts?

·      How much policy and procedure just comes downhill without employee input?

·      How empowered are your employees to do what they know to do and what happens when mistakes occur?

·      How does your business recognize and show appreciation to employees? Is this kind of thing a once-a-year event or does it happen on a regular basis both formally and informally?

What did you learn? Is your workplace honestly one of happy employees who are inspired to create happy customers?

If your answers to these questions trouble you, good. Now is your chance to nip that numbers-focused B-school nonsense in the bud and make some positive change. And if you are a mid-level manager and think any efforts to move the dial here are futile, think again. As Martin Luther King, Jr. put it so eloquently, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

PURPOSE

·      In your conversations with team members, bring up customers and their needs. Don’t just talk about hitting numbers.

·      When you are in a meeting, ask how decisions will impact customers and/or employees. Make sure no one forgets that customers are why the business exists and that employees are critical to making things happen.

·      When you hold your own meetings, make customers the first point on the agenda. Make it clear that serving them is why your business is in business.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

·      If you’re a sales leader, ensure your team’s efforts are consultative rather than hard sell.

·      If you’re a front line manager, ensure your team members practice hospitality behaviors like welcoming, expressing empathy, being courteous and patient, asking questions and listening, explaining things clearly, and showing appreciation.

·      If you’re a manager of an internal department, ensure your team members are providing good lateral service and not silo-ing their efforts to satisfy goals that only benefit them or the department. Make it clear that every internal department has an impact on the end-user customer and that helping each other instead of competing with each other is critical to the success of the customer.

·      Get to know your customers, call a few of them and ask them what they think of your business and the experience. And if calling isn’t possible, read through a bunch of surveys to find out whatever you can. Make improvements to your sphere of influence based on what you learn.

THE EXPERIENCE CONNECTION

·      Engage your team members by asking them how they see things and what they would improve and how.

·      Get to know strengths and weaknesses and extend trust by letting your people do their work without a lot of supervision. Remember, it’s about results, not number of hours, how they got there or anything else. If the work is done to standard, celebrate it.

·      Encourage team members by recognizing great work – it doesn’t have to be an awards ceremony, it can simply be a kind word, just make sure you do it often.

·      Always support your team members, help them to remove obstacles whenever you can, and provide any tools or training they need.

These lists could go on and on, but my little stab here will give you a place to start and the things suggested don’t require you to get approval or to move big corporate rocks, just do what you can and make small changes that make things better for you, your team, your customers, and ultimately, your organization.

I wrote this article out of frustration at so often hearing friends of mine who are either customer experience or HR professionals and how they are always struggling so hard to get any human-centered initiatives to happen in their workplaces. I hear so much about how little support their leaders show for the human side of business all the while not fathoming how people, the only reason for business, get sidelined. To summarize succinctly, in the words of Simon Sinek, “100% of your customers are people and 100% of your employees are people, if you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.” Business schools take note.