How Employees Are Your Greatest Asset in Building Loyal Customers
In the book Good to Great, Tom Peters talks about having the right people in the right seats in the bus. To have a high performance organization where the gears (employees) are moving in synchronous harmony is the desire of many companies.
Additionally, retention and development of human capital talent are part of the equation to build customer loyalty. Ferdinand Peich realized the importance of employees as a primary competitive strategy when he said: "if you fire people, you fire customers."
Maybe that is part of the reason for Toyota's recent decision to retain and not fire existing employees. The other part was rehiring and retraining was more expensive than retaining. With the economy slowing, this proactive response was truly innovative.
To create a high performance culture, it must be reflected on those pesky financials that are read each week, month and year. Somewhere, human capital talent must be shown as an investment and not a liability. The first step would be having a Chief People Officer sitting at the senior executive and management team with the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Technology Officer, the Chief Operations Officer and The Chief Executive Officer.
The failure to efficiently and effectively manage internal customers will probably be the quickest way for any company to find itself lagging far behind their competition. As goes the rule, those who truly wish to stay ahead of their competitors will do what they have never done before because they understand that the world is in a state of constant change now more than ever before.
Nationally, companies like Southwest Airlines set the example for maximizing their employees or their internal customers. Southwest Airlines continues to thrive in an industry where others are just surviving.
When many national to local Northwest Indiana companies are ignoring their greatest asset, Family Express of Valparaiso, IN understands the importance and value their employees bring to the bottom line. At Family Express, each new hire goes through an internal Family Express learning and development university.
Gus Olympidis, CEO, also understands that employees are responsible for those moments of truth (interactions between internal customers and external paying customers) that help to create customer loyalty. In a recent press release, Olympidis said "Family Express is about 'building relationships' with our customers."
Without highly trained and developed employees, building relationships becomes an arduous task and ultimately drains the bottom line. By investing up front, this company is saving fixed costs, increasing sales and improving profitability. His actions reaffirm the importance of human capital talent development and management.
So if you think that your firm is too small or is not "prestigious" enough such as Southwest Airlines, then look Family Express, a regional fuel and convenience store, where exceeding the customers' needs are first and foremost. All you are required to do is to change the way you think about your greatest asset – your employees.
How Employees Are Your Greatest Asset in Building Loyal Customers - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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