Who Is More Important to Your Organization: The Customer or the Employee?

So, what do you think their answer was?!

Who should be more important to your organization: the customer or the employee?

This is an endless question, and it has bothered many chairmen, leaders and businesspeople for a long time.

The answer becomes much easier once you ask yourself what is most integral to helping your organization reach its mission and achieve its vision. Most leaders end up favoring customers because, in the end, they are the ones who bring in the money. At the same time, employees take money through their salaries and benefits and their use of the organization's assets and resources.

However, it is not that simple!

Because you know that profits will not be achieved unless your employees do their jobs well. Your bottom line is important, and you rely on your customers' money to help you stay away from the dangerous red zone that you do not want to find yourself in. But how do you get your customers to deal with you without employees who help keep your organization going?

Now we are back to the problem posed, the same question, are we not?

This is exactly why I firmly believe that a leader should not ask himself this question, because both are important, the customer and the employee at the same time. With that in mind, and since most already value their customers, we should discuss why you must do the same with your employees too.

Why are employees as important as customers?!

When customers are unhappy with your service, they will spread the word, especially with so many people having access to the internet and social media, which lets anyone have a platform to express their opinions. Yet organizations forget that their employees can do the same!

If they are very unhappy with their jobs, they will complain too. And their complaints can be as influential and far-reaching as customers' complaints, and sometimes more so.

Customer satisfaction is important, but unless your employees are equally satisfied, they will not do their best to ensure the same customer satisfaction. When customers dislike a service or hate the brand altogether, it is rarely because of the product or service itself. The usual culprit is how your employees treat them. Unless you value your employees, you cannot expect them to value your customers or your company.

Employees are important, and so is their work environment. A toxic environment has far-reaching negative effects on the way your brand and your workplace are perceived.

You can lose countless of the best professional and talented employees if you have a workplace that does not promote collaboration, productivity, transparency and safety. They will simply go and work for your competitors.

Happy and loyal employees can serve your company in countless innovative ways. They can create breakthrough solutions that will drive your organization forward. Unless you value your employees, they are unlikely to value your organization enough to work on improving it. They will only get their basic tasks done, and nothing more.

Employees are the only real link between leadership and customers. If this link is weak, the whole chain collapses, and the entire organization will suffer.

In bold

The next time you ask a question about who is most important to your organization, stop! What matters most is your own way of thinking and your own strategies as an owner, manager or leader of people. Start treating your employees the way you treat your customers, with equal respect and appreciation. You will quickly realize the major positive impact of this on your whole organization.

This raises the natural question: how do you ensure your employees are engaged and focused on the right work?

The answer may not seem intuitive, but it is extremely important. You must know that employee engagement begins and ends with the employee's direct manager, and that the manager also has a manager above him. Good management leadership drives positive employee engagement, and higher levels of employee engagement are directly linked to improved performance. Whether you are the owner, CEO, general manager or a front-line manager, you need effective management!

And if you need more help or advice, do not hesitate to contact managers, business owners and management consultants who have management experience in this field.