Unhappy employees result in unhappy clients.
Every so often we all experience some degree of ineptitude or lack of care by a clerk at a store. If this is blatant, we might complain to a supervisor or owner about the attitude of that employee. Sometimes the employee's attitude indicates greater problems within the business. I've often found that employees treat customers in the same manner that management treats the employees.
A friend of mine who emigrated from Afghanistan more than 20 years ago owns a string of convenience stores in southern California. Most of his employees are members of his extended family. Recently I stopped in one of his stores to make a small purchase. At the counter was one of his young nephews. Since they know me as a customer, I'm always asked how the family is doing. This particular day had been very stressful in dealing with my youngest daughter, a schizophrenic, who was off her medications. So I replied that it had been a tough day and that my daughter had to be hospitalized again.
This young man replied, “I will pray for her and for your family. When one member of the family is sick, everyone is sick.” As I thanked him and departed the store, I was awestruck by the wisdom I had just heard. In its simplicity, it seemed to clarify the old adage about one bad apple spoiling the barrel.
When one person is sick, everyone is sick.
This holds true about a dysfunctional person in any business. Like the ripples of a pebble tossed into a pond, everyone is impacted. People walk around on eggshells for fear of disturbing the “problem child.” You can feel it in the air. It's real — and it affects everyone within the organization.
In Mexico, business owners are father figures who have a paternal duty to care for their family of employees. If someone is “sick,” they honor an obligation to try to help that person back to health. If this “sickness” can't be healed and expands to the other employees, it must be excised like a cancer. Yet many business owners will turn a blind eye to the situation, thinking that it will cure itself and that it's easier to ignore it than to deal with it. As my father used to say, “Your first loss is your best loss.” It's better to deal with a problem employee quickly and fairly, than to let it infect the entire body of employees. If a company isn't willing to do this, there might be some question about the company's ability to serve its customers well — and you might want to consider an alternative resource for your shopping.
A good friend and insurance agency owner recently remarried. His wife is a very caring person who has spent years working with the elderly. Wanting to bring her into the agency, he felt that she had the innate qualities to make a perfect CSR and work partner. He was wrong on both counts. Although she was caring with customers, paperwork and attention to detail were definitely not her strong points. Also, as his wife, she felt that she had authority over employees who had been there for more than 20 years. She even became jealous over his time with other employees and clients. He began to dread going to work. His staff was complaining, his clients were complaining, and his wife was complaining.
He talked to friends and business associates, who all suggested that he fire his wife. He couldn't do it. He even went into therapy and the therapist suggested that he terminate his wife's employment. He couldn't do it. When his wife became adamant about replacing a valued employee with her daughter, he finally came to his senses. As difficult as it was to fire his wife, they now both agree that it was for the best. It turned out that she really didn't like working for him either — but didn't have the courage to quit. Today they once again have a happy marriage.
I don't mean that you should fire every problem employee. But, as a consumer, take a measure of how long a company keeps a problem employee. If the situation continues, the problem might be endemic to the company, not just the employee.
Remember, when one person is sick, everyone is sick. As a consumer, you have the right to choose whether you do business with a healthy company or a sickly one. Chances are that the healthy company will be better positioned to serve your needs effectively over a longer period of time. The sickly company could be extending an invitation for bad service and frustrating dissatisfaction.
Cartoonists and comedians have been enjoying a heyday with the economic meltdown of some major corporations. In fact, the business section of the newspaper seems to contain more greed and violence than the front page. CEOs appear willing to lie, cheat, and steal to protect their stock value and then cry “foul” when they're caught. It's the old case of the end justifying the means — even if the means are fraudulent and illegal.
In pondering what this means for us, as consumers, I came to the conclusion that many businesses are confused in their loyalty to shareholders versus stakeholders. To paraphrase from leadership guru Warren Bennis's book Old Dogs, New Tricks, executive leaders often believe that their primary loyalty is to the shareholders, not the stakeholders (employees, clients, and the community). Even a small business owner can fall prey to this confusion. As a single shareholder, they begin to believe that their loyalty is to themselves, their financial security, and their standard of living. After all it is “their” business. Like a two-year old, the company culture becomes “me, me, me.” And leadership is a strange bedfellow. The thoughts of the leader become contagious. Suddenly, self-interest runs rampant among the staff and the client base as well. The concept of a team is gone! Everyone's in it for themselves and what they can get out of it. The customer becomes the loser.
Which brings us to another part of the question: Who's really on the firing line when it comes to serving the client? An honest leader will admit that the employees are the ones who truly nurture the relationships through their service to the clients. Unhappy employees generate unhappy clients. If employees are unhappy, chances are that management isn't treating them very well. If management doesn't treat the staff well, how well do you think that they'll treat you? Always look to do business at establishments with happy employees.
A good friend is an upper level manager in the claims department of a large Medical Malpractice insurer. Recently I got a couple of calls from him during the course of a single day. The background is that he has been bending my ear for nearly a year about the poor levels of morale within his company.
The first call was reservedly optimistic. He explained that all managers had received a memo from the Glass Tower acknowledging a morale problem with the troops. The memo contained about 20 ideas on how managers could work to improve morale and solicited additional suggestions from them. My friend was happy that the problem was being brought out of the closet, but worried that it might only be rhetoric. He felt that the list looked like someone had copied it off the Internet.
He went on to say that he was going to be doing his part at lunch. One of his staff members had just been promoted and he was throwing a little bit of a party for her.
Later that afternoon he called again, sounding like a man who had just gone 12 rounds on the losing end of a fight. He had just been chewed out by his boss. According to normal practice, he had sent an intra-company e-mail announcing the promotion of his staff member. “Why did you send this to all of the claims offices within the company?” asked his boss with a frown. “The other managers are calling in a fury because now they've got their people on their backs about when they're going to get promoted.” My friend simply threw his hands into the air and said, “I surrender!”
The oxymoron is alive and well in today's corporate culture.
On a somewhat similar note — at least it has to do with managerial attitude — there was a vibrant breakout session at a business conference on Generation Xers. Most of the attendees were excited about learning how they could better understand and manage this somewhat puzzling group. But there's always an exception. As I poured myself a cup of coffee, I asked a small business owner how he liked the session. With fangs bared, he proceeded to tell me that it was a waste of his time. “Who do they think they are to be telling us how to manage them! They need to wake up and get with it!” A firm believer in picking my fights wisely, I quickly determined this wasn't worth the effort and quietly excused myself. The obsolete manager is alive and well in today's corporate culture.
I wonder what level of service is provided by employees of a company where you can get in trouble for congratulating someone on their promotion. As for the employees of my coffee bar buddy, I imagine that both his employees and his customers might soon “wake up and leave.”
Take a look at the various places where you do business. Do they treat you like the stakeholder you are? Do they add to the value of life within your community, or simply take from it? For any business to enjoy long-term success, the interests of the clients must come first. The primary goal of a business is not to make the owner rich or enable an owner to drive the biggest and latest Mercedes. Consider these as the secondary benefits of meeting your primary goal: Serving your clients.