Another group of customers

A widely accepted definition of a customer is “someone who uses any product or service you produce.” The advantage of using this definition, of course, is that it includes internal as well as external customers. But it also includes another customer group, one often neglected by managers.

What are the products and services you produce as a manager? You allocate resources, make decisions, provide information, give directions, and train, just to mention a few. And who uses? That’s right, your staff.

Your staff are your customers and you should treat them accordingly. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, once said: “There is a three week delay between the time you start treating you staff as they want to be treated and the time they start treating your customers as you would like them to be treated.”

I have long argued that business success comes not from providing good customer service, or even from satisfying customers. Rather it comes from making your customers successful. Think about it. If every morning, each of your staff came to work thinking, “my objective today is to make my customers successful,” would that change the way they behave? Would that change the experience your customers would have? Would that affect whether they came back?

It is the same with you. What if you came to work every morning intending to make your staff successful?” Would that change how you behaved? Would that change how your staff felt and then, in turn, how they behaved towards your customers?

To make someone successful you need to know what they are trying to achieve. I suggest that at least once a year you sit down with each of your staff and ask them questions such as:

1. Why are you working?
   This may sound like a silly question but in actual fact people work for a variety of different motives, not just to earn money.
   
2. What would you like to be doing in five years time?
   Try to understand what they would like to ultimately achieve. You might have to work hard to bring this out because if it doesn’t involve working in your company, they may be reluctant to tell you.
   
3. What would you have to do to achieve that goal?
   Here, you are trying to understand such things as the steps they would have to take, the changes they would have to make in their lives and the skills they would have to learn.
   
4. Which obstacles are in your way?
   Any problems they have are opportunities for you to help them be successful.
   
5. What could I (or the company) do to help you achieve your goal?
   Whatever they suggest is likely to be a departure from current practice and, human nature being what it is, you’ll likely focus on all the reasons why you cannot do what they suggest. Keep an open mind. Ask yourself the question,“ What would we have to do to be able to help them?”

It is probably best not to do this at performance review time since people need to feel relaxed if they are going to open up and give you the information you need to hear.

Next, because as Sam Walton discovered, happy employees lead to happy customers, ask them how they feel they are being treated. Questions such as:

1. What makes for a good place to work in your opinion?
2. What is the best thing about working here?
3. What could we change to make this a better place to work for you?
4. What makes for a good boss in your opinion?

These questions are a good place to start. Again, it is important to listen which means accepting what your staff tell you. You don’t have to like what they are saying, or agree with them, or even know what to do. You just need to accept that this is how they see the world. If you aren’t prepared to accept the answer, don’t ask the question!

I know this sounds like a lot of effort, but another principle of business success is that your customers will tell you everything you need to do to be successful.

And your staff are your customers.

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