Tom Feltenstein

I’m constantly amazed at what I’ve seen and heard over the years. Several years ago, I read a story about a woman who broke her thumb trying to bang a nail into the wall with her high heeled shoe. A hammer would seem the better choice in hindsight but it points out the fact that we often do what’s easiest instead of what’s best. Why is it that we waste our time looking for the quick fix or that elusive “something” to make our business better when the answer is right in front of our eyes? So many businesses search for the newest methods to find and keep customers without realizing that their best avenue is standing right in front of them – their employees.

Your employees, or internal customers, are an integral part of your business. I saw a sign one time in a restaurant that said “If mamma ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy” and I remember thinking to myself the same can be said for employees. If you want your external customers to have an exceptional experience, you have to meet the needs of your internal customers. Your employees have to be happy and satisfied with all aspects of their job otherwise you’ll experience high turnover and a potential loss of revenue as a result.

Don’t fall into the trap of taking the attitude that you are doing your employees a favor by giving them a paycheck. We as business owners and managers need employees just as much as they need us. When your internal customers don’t feel you appreciate them, they’re going to find an employer that does. Making an internal customer feel valued and a part of the company doesn’t have to cost money. One of the best ways I’ve found to show a new employee your appreciation is to stick a congratulatory note in with their first paycheck thanking them for all of their hard work. Recognizing the contribution of all your employees is a simple as saying thank you on a regular basis.

Your Front Line is Your Bottom Line

Overlook your front line employees at your own peril.  They’re the face of your business.  After all they are the men and women who interact directly with your customers, either in person or on the phone.  Your customers will remember the individuals who serve them long after they forget your latest advertising campaign.  It’s your job to make sure that the face of your business has a big smile on it.  Following are some simple, inexpensive tactics you can use to help keep your internal customers happy, so they’ll pass those smiles onto your customers.

Give every employee that works for you his or her own personal business cards. Now all the bosses seem to have them, but why, why doesn’t the person making an hourly wage have his or her own personal business cards?  I never understood that.  If you have a product that you would like for your internal customers to promote, put a stamp on the back so that the employees can give away one of the product. Let them give away, say, five free products a month to whomever they want. It builds their self-esteem, and it makes them part of the organization.  It’s little stuff like that that is so huge, more powerful than a TV spot when we can do that.

Make the first day on the job or the first paycheck really special. What about sending them out for dinner that first day with their family?  What about making it special so they’ll always remember?  Or what about a paycheck, that first paycheck that says, “Congratulations, Joanne, you did it,” and you put a Payday candy bar in there with it.  Why wouldn’t we do that?  Or the second paycheck: “Congratulations Joanne, two more weeks until the next one.”  Market to our internal customers.

Celebrating retention. After they’re with you for 90 days, give employees some type of really cool celebration and send the family out for dinner.  Or give them some little gift.  And do that over a period of time.  If you own a restaurant chain or you have a mom and pop coffee shop or a similar business model, let them bring in their entire family.  We need to start rewarding our folks more.  Or, if you happen to be in the retail business where you’re meeting customers all the time, one of my favorite tactics is to have a button that says, “I’m in training; thanks for understanding.”  Put it on your most experienced people. I love it when customers say, “My God, you’re in training and you’re really this great?  How did that happen?”  It’s a lot of fun, and it really works.

A few simple, inexpensive rewards will let your employees know that you care about them.  You’ll be amazed at how quickly they’ll show their appreciation by treating your customers like gold.  It’s a win-win situation for everyone!

Service is so awful, customers expect to be abused. Cold food in restaurants, dirty public washrooms, late deliveries, rejected parts, lost orders, lazy staff — it’s all normal. Bottom line, people expect bad and rude service. Give ‘em junk and they’re not surprised. Just what they expected. As long as the abuse isn’t any worse than they expected, they’ll be back for more. Your customers are a revolt waiting to happen. They’re only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing any better. Let’s start a change. I always say change what needs changing, not what’s easy.It’s not even about service anymore, because service is a mechanical skill, but hospitality is a heartfelt relationship that you have between two people.

I want to really move over and create a hospitality revolution. The key is to treat your internal customers as your most important customer. Once you have really have this process down, you can watch sales and profitability grow as your employees grow in terms of how they feel about working in your business.  Remember  your front line is your bottom line and many companies are using innovative and creative ways to show employees how much they’re valued. So, I really want to what are you doing to show that you value your employees?

I always say if you treated your external customers the way you treat your internal customers (or employees), you wouldn’t have any customers.

That is the key.  All great companies depend on great employees who will support products and services, and validate the brand.   Employees who are enthusiastic and gracious service providers make the greatest brand impression on consumers and are most effective and enduring, and ensuring repeat visits.

For successful companies, the most truly effective marketing starts with employees.  It has to.

Companies can do all the clever marketing in the world, but if your internal customers aren’t on board, engaged, and enthusiastic, the results will be unsatisfying for the brand.  And any executive who understands this aspect of four walls marketing tends to reap tremendous rewards.

What kind of marketing plan do you have for your internal customers?

Marketing is the message, but human beings with hearts and souls are the messengers.   We’re in the feeling business; everyone is.  We need to focus on the experience your customers and your employees have with you and your company.  Respect authenticity, empathy, being vulnerable.

So, I recommend a plan for everyone that I work with to always start with an internal customer survey.  You have a two-point prong here.  First, it’s recruiting, and I have lots to share about this subject later, and the other is all of those internal customers you have on board now.  How are they feeling about themselves?  We do all this external research, but we do not seem to do the internal research as we should.  Our role isn’t to measure employee satisfaction; it’s to create employee excitement.  So, the survey really gauges the self-esteem of the employees that becomes the litmus test for what happens next in the sales-growth plan.

Many clients are surprised when they find out that only 35 percent of their employees   would recommend their product, service, or business to their friends and families.

Look at the revolutionary power of employees Zappos has created!

You can unleash THE SECRET POWER of your internal customers – your employees – with proper recruiting, training, and motivation. Do this, and you’ll turn them into an amazing sales force that will work for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, virtually FREE.

The importance of the internal customer is not new. In fact, Henry Ford struggled with the issue of high turnover resulting in delivering poor quality and service to Ford’s customers as long ago as 1914. Ford found it necessary to hire at least 60,000 workers each year just to keep 10,000 people on the line. He paid them 80 cents per day.

Ford decided to gamble—he raised the pay from 80 cents per day to 5 dollars per day. Was he crazy? Maybe just a maverick and an innovator.

Here’s what happened. No longer did the plant have to recruit and train 50,000 replacement workers.

Henry had a waiting list of eager applicants, service and quality improved and profits quickly doubled.