How an Employee-Centric Culture Can Grow Your Business | SVC

For years, customer service savvys have been revolutionizing the concept of customer-centricity. Traditionally, it is believed that customers will always come first. All efforts must be dedicated to putting the needs of the customers on a pedestal.

However, this idea doesn't hold much truth nowadays. Yes, it is crucial to keep your customers satisfied but there's another side of the story that we need to pay attention to.

Jan Carlzon, president of Scandinavian Airlines, presented a fresh new take on organizational structures. He introduced the idea of the "upside down triangle."

A common organizational structure would have the CEO on top of the triangle and the subordinates are found below. However, Carlzon's idea is literally turning the hierarchy upside down—thus placing the employees or subordinates on top.

He argues that employee-centricity actually equates to customer-centricity. And after a couple of years, business gurus have been subscribing to this concept as well.

Why should you put the employees first? Well, for starters, you will be amazed by the benefits of keeping an employee-centric culture in the workplace. Here are two compelling reasons:

1. Keeps employees engaged

Warning: Your employees may be working and complying with their daily tasks, but they may be doing them at substandard levels of commitment and satisfaction.

According to Tim Rutledge, author of Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty, truly engaged employees think along the lines of "I love doing this" and "I'm committed to succeeding in this job."

Understanding your employees' pain points, struggles, concerns and strengths is the first step in breaking the chains of disengagement. And as a result, having engaged employees on board can immediately spell out success for your company.

2. Improves the customer experience

How does an employee centric culture relate to improving the customer experience? The answer is: A WHOLE LOT!

You may not know this, but your customers are not just those who seek for your services. That's right—customer service actually starts within the company. You may ask, 'how is this possible?' Shep Hyken coined this concept as "Internal Customer Service".

As defined by Hyken, an internal customer is "anyone within an organization who at any time is dependent on anyone else within the organization." In this context, your frontliners are your internal customers.

When customer service becomes more of an inside job, it will subsequently ripple to your outside customers. In short, your employees can only give what they receive.

The advantages are convincing enough to start subscribing to 'employees come first' philosophy.  At this juncture, I would like to share a few tips on how you can take care of your employees:

• Maintain the life/work balance. Give a reasonable amount of leeway for employees to engage in activities that are outside of work. Keeping the balance of work and play can significantly improve work performance.

• Be generous with recognition. Don't ignore the efforts of your employees no matter how small or big. Recognition will fuel their motivation to work and will boost their morale.

• Be involved with their performance. Keeping yourself at arm's length will only give you a distant impression on how your employees are coping. Be actively involved with their work pace to make them feel valued in the company.

Conclusion

In the end, the quality of your customer service will reflect in how you treat your employees. Shep Hyken once quoted:

"So, which comes first, customer centricity or employee centricity? I believe you first choose to be customer centric, but must first execute on the inside of your company and be employee centric."

Take care of your employees and they will take care of your customers.