Your employees come first, not your customers.

An employee's motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager. - Bob Nelson

The Customer May Be Wrong

The customer is always right is one of the most worn out cliches. Whenever a customer throws a fit, the customer is always right? Whenever the customer berates an employee, a customer is always right? Whenever a customer says bigoted, slanderous, or degrading remarks, the customer is always right? Of course not.

The customer has been taught that they are always right, not matter what, and the customer takes advantage of this fact to walk all over your employees to get whatever they want. Too often employers are so worried about negative backlash from customers on facebook, yelp, twitter, or other social media outlets that they would rather keep the customer happy then protect their employees, regardless of the circumstances.

How do your employees feel?

If the first time a customer is dissatisfied your employee has to worry that their their boss will blame them and let them go, how can the boss expect loyalty and motivation from his/her employee. If an employee does not feel that his/her boss has his/her back, then why should the employee work anything beyond the bare minimum? They are going to get fired soon anyways right?

Watch your front and your back

Not only do employees have to worry about keeping customers happy, all too often they have to watch their back as their boss works them to death. Many companies have the philosophy that there is an acceptable amount of turnover, so work your employees to their breaking point, wait until they start quitting, and then back off a bit.

Again, why do employers expect their employees to work hard and best represent the company when they worry about the customers getting them fired and their boss working them to their breaking point?

The rewards of putting employees first

"It should go without saying, if the person who works at your company is 100 percent proud of the brand and you give them the tools to do a good job and they are treated well, they're going to be happy." - Richard Branson (Virgin Inc.)

As employers put their employees first, the employees with put the customer first and a business will thrive and succeed. The key to success is great customer service, and the key to great customer service is happy and loyal employees.

Forbes agrees

The CEO of HCL Technologies (Vineet Nayar), one of the largest I.T. outsourcing firms in the world, argues that HCL got to be one of the world's largest IT firms is by putting employees first and customers second.

Short term gain v. long term success

Churning and burning through employees may generate short term gains for a company. It may temporarily boost sales or get a few extra billable hours, but for long term success putting employees first will create loyal hard working employees that will build the business and turn it into a success.