I just recently released an article, “Marry Your Customer – Creating Trusted, Loyal Relationships,” on our website, www.customerexperiencesinc.com, to share some thinking I have had for quite a while. It also supports what I have been seeing in various client situations and since it is so “simple yet powerful,” I wanted to share my thinking and some additional insights in this area.
What I absolutely find amazing and appalling in organizations is how leadership tells their people to act one way toward their customer that goes against all the principles of building trusted relationships – all for the almighty dollar. This is just plain wrong! The organizations we see that have the greatest success, create linkage between what the leadership stands for and the employees and this is then demonstrated to their customers through their actions.
Let me give you an example. When employees go to work, they bring with them their own set of “ethics” or what I call “Employee Character.” Included in this Employee Character is an underlying component of wanting to build trusted relationships with co-workers, leadership, customers, suppliers, partners, etc. And they know how to do it. They understand how important it is to a successful personal relationship to make and keep your Promises – they do it every day when building their own relationships outside of work. So now, they enter the workplace and one of the first things that happens is they are asked (directly or indirectly) to make Promises that they know they can’t keep – at least not consistently.
For most employees, this doesn’t work. They are at odds with this and whether they recognize it outwardly or not, they are violating their own character to act this way. This conflict between the employer and the organization is one of the greatest frustrations in employees and one of the key reasons for employee defection – or leaving the organization. But when there is great alignment between “Leadership Character” and “Employee Character” and the Promises they are asked to keep are actually supported by leadership – great things happen. The organization has become both “customer-focused” and “employee-focused” instead of “operationally focused.” This is a huge distinction and one that separates the best organizations from all the others.
So I won’t steal the thunder of the article and allow you to read how all this comes together but let me leave you with one parting thought. Promises Made = Promises Kept is one of the most basic concepts an organization can embrace and one that has some of the most profound impacts on short and long-term profitability, Loyalty and ongoing sustainability. It is just interesting so few understand it or have implemented it today.
Take a minute and let me know what you think? Are you seeing the same thing in your organization? Does this make sense to you or not? Do you think this is off base and isn’t the way it works and you have other ideas? Do you agree and would like to see your organization operate like this? Any and all comments are welcome – as we continue to explore this area and write about it, we would love to incorporate others experiences and thoughts. Thanks.
Blaine Millet
