If You Want Happy Customers, You Need Happy Employees How high is your employee satisfaction?
Most companies don’t view employee satisfaction as a marketing tactic, but in reality, it’s the most important tactic in existence. Happy employees will provide better service, which will lead to higher customer satisfaction, and as every business owner knows, satisfied customers turn into repeat buyers, as well as referral sources. Let’s look at an example, shall we?
A Very Brief Work History
I wasn’t always in the marketing business. In fact, for a long time I was a residential service electrician, and then a biomedical technician fixing hospital equipment. I’ve also worked for Home Depot, as well as Nordstrom and a small toy store. I’ve been paid everything from minimum wage to $65,000 a year. One thing was constant throughout all of my jobs; the happier I was, the happier my customers were. And my happiness had very little do with my pay. In fact, the happiest I have ever been at a job was at the toy store, where I only made minimum wage.
It All Starts With The Employees
That toy store (it was called Imaginarium, and it was eventually bought out by Toys R Us), or rather the manager of the toy store, had a very simple policy. Keep the employee satisfaction high and the rest would fall into place. Since he had very little control over the pay scale, he had to find other methods of keeping employee satisfaction high, and he succeeded. He would do small things like treat the employees to lunch, or thanking them for their hard work. He made the job fun and treated his employees like coworkers instead of subordinates. The most important tactic he used however, was he operated with the understanding that his job was not to make sure his employees did their job; it was very simply to make sure that his employees had what they needed in order to do their job.
Happy Employees Make Happy Customers
What was the result? Employee satisfaction skyrocketed. The turnover rate was almost non-existent. The company as a whole saved all of the money that they would have had to spend by training new employees. Most importantly, though, was their customer satisfaction was higher than any other company’s that I have worked for since. Customers made us their go-to toy store, and they spread the word to their friends. Our store was the most profitable store in the region month after month. And we weren’t a cheap toy store either.
Conclusion
How happy are your employees? If you can’t answer that simple question, I would suggest an annual or semi-annual employee satisfaction survey. Survey Monkey has great templates where you can create all kinds of surveys, and a good consultant can help you determine employee satisfaction techniques that will lower turnover rate, boost customer satisfaction and skyrocket your profits.