Great Customer Service is Delivered by Happy Employees

I do believe that how I treat my employees is how they will treat my customers.

Many of us say that we should …treat others as we would want to be treated. Well what about our employees, how do we treat them? Does that change when we mix in the dynamic of position power? Do we treat our employees the same as we do the others in our lives – our friends, family, those in our churches and synagogues?

It is interesting that many companies do not understand this. We are all consumers and in a normal day we are exposed to many different levels of customer service. However, we know great customer service when we experience it.

In the world today a few things are evident. Essentially all companies will have many competitors and one has to decide how they will differentiate themselves from the competition. Also the rate of change that occurs in every facet of business is getting faster; some would say it is at breakneck speed.

The Golden Rule Still Applies

At ExactHire and all the other companies in which I am involved, we embrace the belief that how we treat our employees is how they will treat our customers. This is really a simple but powerful concept. We believe in treating employees with respect. We trust them to do the right things…including working from home without any monitoring systems of time spent or productivity. We keep them informed of how the company is performing. We increase their responsibility and challenge them to reach their potential.

Have you ever been on the phone with someone and could tell if he or she was smiling or in a good mood; how can you do that over the phone? Well, it is a state of mind. We have all had great managers that changed the way we felt about our jobs. Likewise, many of us have worked for very deficient and ill guided managers and know the effect that has on our lives, our attitude and our performance.

How Are Employees Paying It Forward?

How can someone give outstanding customer service when he/she is not treated that way on a daily basis? If someone is worrying about being criticized then he/she is not going to be a risk taker. This pertains to bringing forth new ideas (fear of acceptance) or taking chances to satisfy customer needs and to “do whatever it takes.” When an employee’s phone rings at the end of the day will he/she take the call to make sure a customer is satisfied or will he/she worry about having to work beyond the end of the day? The employee that feels comfortable in this situation knows that if the extra work is done it will be rewarded.

While you can micro manage employee actions, I prefer to guide employees by telling them that if they act like an adult I will treat them like an adult.

At the end of the day companies really need to make sure they are objectively evaluating the people that they are considering for hire or promotion. At ExactHire, we suggest that you use employee assessments to better match a person’s behavioral characteristics to the requirements of the job to assess potential job fit. There is only so much you can do to change a person once you hire him/her. Make sure he/she has what it takes and is a good match for your job and your culture. If you do, your employee will flourish.

This will give you the best chance to treat your employees like you want them to treat your customers.

For more information about pre-employment testing available from ExactHire, please visit our employee assessment features page or contact us.

Image credit: They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”~Tom Bodett by Kate Ter Haar (contact)