Give Your Employees A Reason To Take Care Of Your Customers

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Give Your Employees A Reason To Take Care Of Your Customers.

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Have you ever tried juggling a paper ball and a heavy cast-iron weight at the same time? That’s what business leaders have to do these days.

On the one hand, we must treat every employee as an individual. We should take their traits into account and help them grow and develop.

On the other hand, now more than ever, we need them to work together, like musicians in an orchestra. Competition is severe, and we don’t want to waste time on interpersonal conflicts. 

And one tool is more efficient for accomplishing this task than any other one. 

An unfortunate flight

A few months ago, I was coming back from a strategic retreat I conducted. My first flight was delayed, so I missed the connecting flight. At the connecting airport, I approached the airline counters. As an airline platinum card holder, I had the privilege of using the one with the red carpet in front of it. 

The red carpet was the only privilege I had that day. 

A young woman at the desk was indifferently chewing gum and energetically texting on her phone. When I approached, she reluctantly put her phone down, clicked on the keyboard for a couple of minutes, and offered me a flight 14 hours away.

It was unacceptable. The flight delay wasn’t my fault, after all. So, I asked her to look for another option. She shrugged, said she couldn’t help me and got back to her phone. Then, I asked if I could talk to her manager. It had a magical effect. She sighed and began to click again. A few minutes later, she found a connecting flight two hours away. 

A few weeks later, I met one of the airline’s executives by chance at a business conference. I told him this story, and he was sincerely upset. “It contradicts our policies,” he said. “We spend so much money on training programs! We want them to be polite and helpful. What else can we do?” 

I believe I know the answer.

Reason to be

What exactly is an ‘organisation’? 

It is a group of individuals, sometimes often quite large, expected to work together. But what compels them to collaborate? What can incline them to ‘be polite and helpful’ to customers? 

We may use hard and soft tools to manage direct reports. 

But before we even start using those tools, we need to give our team a reason to come to the office every morning. And if receiving a paycheck is the only reason, our employees will never be considerate and polite.  

We often believe that bold vision and inspiring goals are of much help. But meet Bob, a bank teller at a major bank. He joined the team six months ago. During his orientation programme, a HR employee briefed Bob on the bank’s strategy, vision, and long-term goals.

Do you think the bank’s ambitions of becoming ‘the #1 national bank’ or ‘reaching a market capitalisation of X million dollars’ will inspire Bob to be more courteous and attentive to customers?

I don’t think so. Large organisations employ thousands of workers. For most of them, it isn’t their dream job. Many view working at a bank as merely a transitional phase in their career, not intending to spend their entire life there.

They are not beneficiaries of the bank’s success. They don’t own any shares of the bank. 

We may hope that our staff training program will enable us to teach hundreds of middle managers to become effective leaders. And we may believe that these leaders will, in turn, teach the frontline workers to be customer-centric.

But do you see such things often in your life? 

You might have a bold vision and a fantastic strategy. But if your frontline workers are disengaged and demotivated, they can wreck your customer relationships in just a few seconds. And the customers? They’ll walk away – forever.

And here, a purpose statement may be of much help.

We are all natural helpers

There is an old joke.

When you’re twenty, you worry a lot about what other people think of you. When you’re forty, you don’t care what others think of you. And only when you’re sixty you realise that nobody has ever thought of you. 

Humans are pretty egotistic beings. We often prioritise our own problems and those of our loved ones over the issues of society or the company we work for.  

In this, we can blame evolution. Our ancient ancestors lived in small groups – up to 150 people. 

But there is some good news. Some studies prove that we are also natural helpers. Evolution taught us to help those who ask for help.

Quote:

“The study finds that, in everyday life, someone will signal a need for assistance (e.g., to pass a utensil) once every 2 minutes and 17 seconds on average. Across cultures, these small requests for assistance are complied with seven times more often than they are declined … This human tendency to help others when needed … transcends other cultural differences.” 

So, the willingness to help is a natural human trait. And we may leverage it for business purposes.

Whatever an employee does at work, they help someone. And the company as a whole helps its clients or customers solve their essential tasks. 

And this help may become a basis for the Purpose Statement.

Purpose Statement

Every organisation changes someone’s life for the better.

An online marketplace helps us save time and energy for shopping.

A hospital takes care of our health.

A bank helps us store, send, and receive money.

A magazine entertains us or helps us learn something new.

Any business works to provide some help for its customers, not only to ensure profits for shareholders. And every employee, even a janitor, contributes to this help.

But most workers don’t realise it, and we forget to remind them. 

But if our company has a clear Purpose Statement, it may fix the problem. 

We must tirelessly remind our employees that their work benefits people inside and outside our organisation. And it may motivate them to work better. We have to leverage their natural willingness to help others. 

But we must not lie. We shouldn’t invent or fabricate the type of assistance our company offers clients. We have to be sincere. 

A bank doesn’t care about customers’ well-being. But it helps them quickly and securely store, send, and receive money. 

A Sunday magazine doesn’t enlighten its readers – but entertains them. But if it does it well, it’s why the employees will be proud of it. 

It is easier for small companies to articulate their purpose statements, though they rarely put them on paper. But it is not necessary – this information is virtually hanging in the air.

However, medium-sized and large enterprises must put some effort into articulating it and making it part of the corporate culture.

If that young lady in the airport believed that she was helping customers get home faster and conveniently, I wouldn’t be telling her story here. 

A decent Purpose Statement gives employees a reason to work harder, to go the extra mile, and to take good care of customers. 

A Purpose Statement answers three simple questions:

  • Who are our customers? 
  • What are their needs?
  • How do we all help them satisfy their needs?

Give your employees a reason to help your customers; it’ll pay off.