YOUR EMPLOYEES SHOULD COME BEFORE YOUR CLIENTS

In any industry, at any level, the customer-employee relationship is apparent and straightforward, right? The customer comes before the employee. No brainer! Because customer-facing professionals only exist to serve the customer. It is their reason for existence, it is why they are there. But you are WRONG!

When it comes to employees, you typically hear things like “what makes us different is our team” or “we are proud of our incredibly loyal employees,” so on and so forth. Those sentiments are meaningful and accurate, but they don’t quite reach the core of what most organizations should have baked into their culture. Which is to say, if customer service is essential -- and it is -- the service to your employees is even more so. If your business objectives include being customer-oriented, then your organizational goals should consist of being employee-oriented.

1.   Your internal culture is the same thing as your brand.

While you can try to control how your brand is perceived through positioning, customers will always believe what insiders say about a company's culture. "You wouldn't believe how many projects we've won purely because people have gone on Glassdoor and seen what actual employees say about the business," McDonald says. "Companies can fake testimonials, they can get Facebook likes but the one thing they can't fake is how happy their employees are with the business, and that's a huge thing."

2.   Embrace the fact that employees are the most important customers of your business

Sure, they may not be your primary target in terms of who is buying your products and services. The truth is that your employees are the audience for your strategy. They are the people if treated right and armed correctly, who will authentically translate your message, your vision, and your brand to the paying customers you’re after.

Managers play a crucial role in making this happen, as they are the link between leadership and the front line. They can be most effective at bringing your vision and strategy to life in a fun, emotive way that will help your people come to their own conclusions about why it makes sense. This is the key to enabling employees to live your brand in every interaction with customers.

3.   Start with the WHY

Before asking your employees to take on something new or deliver a certain kind of customer experience, you must explain WHY it is so important. Show them why it will help themselves, the customer, and the company, and why they are so instrumental in driving the business outcome, you want to achieve. Too often leaders try to engage people from the point of view of the company. Instead, we must shift our thinking to center around the point of view of the employee. How can we communicate in ways that are relevant and motivating to them? If you engage your front line the right direction, the experience they deliver to customers will shine. So, start with the WHY, and then follow with the WHAT and the HOW.

4.   Make sure your internal training doesn’t end up in the garbage

Traditional classroom training is not the answer for front-line workers today. So, what is? Some companies attempt to find out through lengthy surveys that promise anonymity, thinking they’re going to get the truth. But what you really need to do before designing training is to go into the field and literally observe what’s happening. Go watch your people in action. Talk to them. Hear what they have to say! Where do they excel? Where is there room to improve? How do they interact with one another? User-centered training is designed with all of this data in mind, rather than what’s on the mind of the training developer or even of company leaders. Connecting practice with the company strategy and designing it with the end-user and desired outcomes in mind is the most effective way to empower people to execute your brand promise at the front line. Investing time, effort, and money into this process will yield a much more effective training development effort, more engaged employees, and much better customer interactions.

5.   Happy employees will proactively solve problems.

With rapid growth comes an amount of chaos. "No matter how experienced your executives, no matter how great your team is, there are going to be issues. Things happen," McDonald says. "If you have a strong employee-centric community as well as culture, you notice employees actually take the initiative to go and fix problems before they get escalated."

6.   Here are a few easy-to-implement and not so intensive approaches to consider:

? Develop a constant feedback system, where people can lift each other up with notes or regular short surveys with easy-to-use tools like SurveyMonkey or Typeform.

? Offer catered lunches -- not just pizza. Set your goal and standards something out of the ordinary. Consider a brunch bar or relevant keto-friendly desserts.

? Open a Q&A with leadership with tools like the interactive Slido or Polls Everywhere.

? Do rounds, talk to your team members individually or in a group depending on the size of your organization or team. Try to say hello to all or a bulk of your team once a day. Ask what they are up to and if you can help with anything.

Other popular articles by Mert Damlapinar:

WHY MICROMANAGEMENT IS BAD MANAGEMENT

6 WAYS TO CARE LESS ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK 

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR GROWTH 

CHANGE YOUR CAREER, CHANGE YOUR INDUSTRY

EMPLOYEE TRAINING IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT

HOW SALES OPERATIONS WORK

GUIDE FOR START-UPS TO BUILD A POWERFUL SALES TEAM

Credits: Luis Rodriguez – Forbes, Forbes Technology Council, Adam Toporek, Christina DesMarais – Inc., Phil Hamburg