A lot of businesses focus primarily on serving their clients. While it’s great to take care of your clients, starting with them is going backwards. Great client service actually begins with investing in and giving value to your employees. Why?
The first part of the answer is: it’s the right thing to do from a human perspective. Why wouldn’t we treat our people who make up our company well? Why wouldn’t we want them to love where they work and enjoy the impact that they’re making?
The second part of the answer really impacts your business: you are modeling for your employees how they should treat your clients. Sounds simple, but it’s true.
No matter what your company’s core values are, your mission statement is, or your process for how you treat your clients, the number one way your team is going to learn how to operate is by watching and mimicking you.
If you have kids, you experience this all the time. How often do you see them picking up your phrases and habits more often than anything you tell them?
In the video below, I share how investing in your employees does half the work of investing in your clients
Companies that take good care of their employees have better cultures, better employee and client retention and perform better financially over time. So, the question is, how are you investing in your employees now?
Are you asking questions about more than their work? Are you truly listening to their answers? Are you using their answers to help mentor them and make your interaction with them as a leader truly valuable?
If you are, you’re not just improving their performance, you’re also improving the experience for your clients. Your employees will immediately begin investing in and giving value to your clients in a very similar way, which is an experience that can be your largest competitive advantage.