At a time when retaining employees has become incredibly challenging for most businesses, you might think that my statement to Take Care of Your People is to focus on employee retention. Although, what I’m about to share will help with employee retention, the focus here is on customer retention.

Your business won’t thrive without investing in your people. As Sir Richard Branson has been quoted, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

What does “taking care of your employees” look like?

There are numerous important attributes to taking care of your employees, and the one I’m about to focus on is their professional and personal development.

I had a recent experience with my heating/air conditioning company. I’ve been waiting for a new thermostat for over 10 months. I was patient for a long time, understanding the issues with supply chain and the inability for many companies to get needed products. My challenge was not being patient for the product to arrive, but rather the inability for the employees to communicate, listen, and follow-through with their commitments. Each time I called to check the status of my needed thermostat (which was likely 10 or more calls over the course of 10 months), the representative had no idea of the status and promised to get back to me with an answer that day. I never heard back. And, when I asked to speak with someone who could find answers, I was told they were unavailable but would get back to me. You guessed it, no return calls. When I called, they sometimes had a record of my last call, many times they did not. This week, I told them this was no longer acceptable, and I needed to find a new company to work with. I received a call back that day letting me know they have the thermostat and can schedule the service call this week!

As you can imagine, my experience with them broke down any trust I had in them since they didn’t follow through with any of their commitments. As a result, I sit and wonder how long they have had access to this part which they could have installed in my home…I’ll never know.

Had these representatives that I spoke with month after month had the opportunity to develop communication skills, active listening skills, follow-up skills, and other tools to develop and build trust, my experience would have been better. If they provided me with updates, even if that meant the part was still delayed, I would have accepted that reality. But the fact that they didn’t have these necessary skills caused me to lose trust in them as an organization. And, I imagine if those employees had better tools, their own work experience would be better. This could be a win-win; happy employee, happy customer.

So, what are you and your organization doing to take care of your employees? If you don’t know where to start, asking them what they need is a great first step. If I can be of any help to you or your organization, let’s connect.

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” – Sir Richard Branson