Garbage In, Garbage Out

Gallup, Mercer, and Right Management surveyed employees and found 84% intend to search for new employment in 2012. Wow. That is crazy huge.

What that means to you as an employer is expense. When you lose employees you incur an expense. Pick whatever figure you like, but between 30-50% of their annual salary is your cost in losing and then replacing them.

More bad news: I think the number is much, much higher though because when you lose them (and some of your walking-around employees are mentally already gone/lost) your customers are suffering and that computes to your profits.

If your employees were Completely Satisfied/Engaged/Happy with their employment, then exceptional customer service would be the rule, rather than the exception. There is no way you can deliver high levels of customer service with a workforce that has one foot out the door. Read: exceptional customer service comes from exceptional employees. And you don’t hire already-totally-exceptional employees, you create an environment where they flourish.

Here are 3 things you’ve gotta get your head and heart around to retain valuable employees and create loyal customers:

We can’t afford to pay people what they are worth. Actually, you can’t afford not to pay people what they are worth. As the economy shifts, those who haven’t had pay raises in years will find employers who will compensate them for the value they bring to the organization. You can pay your employees a little bit more, otherwise prepare to hand them over to your competitors.

Everyone is replaceable. The belief is that jobs are simple to fill in this market. Skilled workers are almost impossible to find. What do you think might happen if you began to treat your people as if they were irreplaceable? Would they feel more valued? Would they be more committed to your organization? Would you be better able to grow your business knowing you had people who could handle the new business you brought in?

Workers should be grateful they have a job. Yes, they should be. But they don’t need you reminding them. What if instead, you took the position you were grateful to have these people working for you? This small shift in thinking can create a huge change in your culture. Workers would feel appreciated and you would feel proud knowing you were associated with the best in the business. In other words, reframe the thought. You can control your thought process and your approach. You cannot control another person’s thoughts, but what you say and how you act will influence their behavior.

The time to make changes in your organization is now. There is money to be made, there are customers with money to spend, they are yours to capture with staff who really want to be doing what they’re doing.

Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions



Feedback is a gift. You have to say thank you for feedback. Especially the bad stuff.


Dissatisfied AND vocal customers are your best friend. Really.

Because when we invest our energy and our emotion enough to tell you what’s bad, to relive and tell the story, we are begging you to save us. We are saying, “I want to do business with you, so fix this thing.”

It is difficult and painful to hear bad things. But it is necessary to keep the best customers. When you recover us, we will become disciples for you. And a disciple is the best kind of loyalty ever.

After you read that crummy survey, take a deep breath, pick up the phone and ask how you can recover their business. Be big. Throw us the lifeline and we will reward you.

Being Uncommonly Good

I gave that guy a piece of my mind in the car as I drove away…

That’s the thing that happens most. Customers are unhappy with their experiences. AND we are not making a big deal of it.

Being treated badly is the common, the accepted, the expected.

Making a fuss, arguing, demanding better is not what we do. (An outspoken customer sticks out in your mind, but it is not the rule, it is a real exception.)

Instead we put up with the crap until we find someplace that is just a little less crappy.

Occasionally we find a place that is extraordinary and we become their fans.

So the questions worth asking AND ACTING ON, are:

• What can we do to be Extraordinary?
• What specifically will make us stand out?
• What will make ours, a place where customers drive away Completely Satisfied?
• How can we create fans?

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

Asking your customers to “Like” you on Facebook is so yesterday!

The kind of bad thing about this is that if they do, you have to be sure and do regular, engaging, updates to your page.

A better strategy, is to:

1. Beef up your website, a place that your customers are already going to check out your service specials, phone number, and inventory with valuable content. Content can be articles, advice, photos, or videos.

2. THEN, at the bottom of those interesting, helpful, fun pieces of content, put a Thumbs Up/Like/Share button.

What this does is place a link on that person’s Facebook page. Now all their friends see what they like and are only a click away from your website.

The more people you get coming to your website, the more people buy from you!

Alright, now get busy putting Thumbs Up/Like/Share buttons on all your site pages!