Employees Are Your Most Important Customers

I recently read “The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win” by Jeffrey Hollender and Bill Breen. The premise of the book is that companies are starting to (and should be) focused on the social aspect of their business rather than just selling more products.  The social aspect includes doing good for your community as well as the environment.  Throughout the book, case studies are given on companies such as Seventh Generation, Threadless.com, Southwest Airlines and Marks & Spencer to name a few. 

I found the book very interesting and it made me realize how important it is for companies (of all sizes) to be good to its employees, customers, community and environment.  So often companies are too worried about their bottom line.  Although it’s absolutely understandable, especially when you’re a public company and Wall Street is breathing down your neck, it’s still our responsibility to be good to all.

My favorite (and most relevant based on my customer reference and loyalty background) part of the book was chapter three which is called “Not a Company, but a Community – a Blueprint for Summoning People’s Potential”.  Former Southwest Airlines chairman Herb Kelleher is quoted saying “When you treat [your employees] right, they will treat your customers right. This has been a powerful competitive weapon for us.”  How powerful and true of a quote is that?!  If you have happy employees, it’ll be passed on to your customers.  Happy customers also lead to repeat business and increased referrals which then leads to increased profits and a reduced amount of spending on gaining new customers. 

Another section of the chapter refers to a 2008 Towers Perrin study which stated “71 percent of the respondents said they were ‘disengaged’ or ‘disenchanted’ at work.  The study reported that employees ‘care a lot about their work’ and they want to ‘learn and grow.’”  Eye opening huh?  What if we actually treated employees like our customers?  Not a bad idea.

Customers Reference Tactics When Companies are Acquired and Acquiring

We all know that customer retention is more cost effective and easier than customer acquisition right?  Well, we should know that.  It takes less money to keep a customer happy and have them tell others about how great your company is than it is to convince a brand new prospect that your product/company is fabulous.  Less time, money and manpower is needed when you’ve kept a customer happy.  You also get the benefit of a customer talking positively about you.  Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is priceless.

But what happens when a company is acquired?  What happens to the customers?  In this case, the dynamics change a bit. 

I have worked with companies that have been acquired and ones that have acquired others.  It’s a difficult and very touchy subject – at least in a B2B scenario. In the case where I was working at a company that was acquired, the customers were very worried about their future.  The product roadmap was a concern for them because they wanted to know if the investment they had made in the acquired company would all be gone.  Will they have to buy new products?  And what about the support they were receiving.  Sometimes they were afraid that they’d turn into a little fish in a big pond rather than being a big fish in a little pond.

And for the times when I was working at a company that acquired others, the acquired customers felt the same but they were very hesitant to talk to me – the reference person.  They had thoughts like who is this new person from a bigger company asking for things?  What does she want? How soon will she forget about me? What’s in it for me?

In both cases, it is extremely important to talk to the customers.  Let them know what’s going on and if and how things will change.  Treat customers on both sides of the scenario with respect and let them know that they are still important. 

In some cases, you may find that newly acquired customers will be very happy initially but then realize that they are being fogotten. In other cases they’ll be upset, nervous and unsure and then become very loyal.  If you measure customer loyalty/satisfaction by your own means or via Net Promoter Score  (NPS) do you see a difference before the acquisition and then after? Keep a pulse on your customers and don’t forget about them.

We, as reference professionals, have a great opportunity at a time like this to be support for customers.  Take advantage of the opportunity and connect with customers if you’re getting acquired and touch base as soon as you can with customers when you have acquired.  Reach out, say hi and introduce yourself.   Let them know that you’re there for them.

Another aspect of a merger or acquisition is the employee loyalty level.  If employees speak negatively about the acquisition, it’ll be passed on to customers.  If employees speak positively about the acquisition, it’ll be passed on to the customers. Internal stakeholders are equally as important as external.  It’s a lot harder than it sounds, but keep all employees along the customer corridor happy.

Remember that customers are people first, then customers!  How would you want to be treated?

Pixar Knows Employee Loyalty

As a follow-up to one of my recent posts, I thought I’d give a good example of how a company is keeping its employees loyal.  We all know that you’re never going to have 100% employee satisfied, happy and loyal, but you can come close.

 

A few weeks ago my brother-in-law invited me up to Pixar. He has been working there for about two years (he’s still considered the new kid) and has always spoken highly of the company.  And, to reinforce what a cool company it is, my nieces are very very very proud to tell their friends and anyone who listens that their daddy works for Pixar.

 

Let me back up for a minute.  If you don’t know what/who Pixar is, think Steve Jobs, Toy Story, Cars, Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles…you get the picture (literally!) Okay, so now you’re with me.

 

My brother-in-law started his career at Pixar in the on campus theater. He was told to sit in the 6^th row because that’s where all the directors sit.  He was told that he was a film maker (he’s in IT) along with everyone else at the company.  That’s everyone from the producer to the cafeteria person to the janitor to the graphics person. Everyone at the company is a film maker.  If that didn’t get him pumped up enough about his first day, Janeane Garofalo (the voice of Colette in Rataouille) was at the office. 

 

Sure, almost everyone likes their first day at the office, but Pixar has been able to keep employees happy and loyal for a lot longer than their first day.  As my brother-in-law was showing me around the office, I was surprised at the “un-office” feeling the company has.  Employees were zipping around on scooters, there were statues of characters from multiple films throughout the hallways, pictures of employees in the company dance, music, screen writing, fly fishing (yes, fly fishing) and art classes adorned one corner of the building.

 

In one section of the building I felt like I was back in college because some of the offices had a very dorm room feeling to them with two people per brightly painted, couch furnished room with the required lava lamp.

 

Three of my favorite aspects of Pixar are:

1) The conference rooms are almost like fish bowls with glass on at least two walls.  When you walk in the main door, look up and you’ll see conference rooms with the glass wall looking down to the “town hall” like square where people meet up and eat. This allows employees to literally see who they are making films for – talking about voice of the customer!

 

2) Being a movie production company, Pixar has access to lots of movies.  Their in house theater previews movies for employees and not always Pixar movies.  The day I visited, I was able to watch one of the movies up for an Oscar.  On a Friday night at 6pm, the theater was crowded!

 

3) Probably my favorite thing about Pixar is that children born during the production of a movie are listed at the end of the movie credits under “Production Babies”.  How cool is that? My youngest niece will be listed at the end of the next Pixar movie. 

 

There are so many different ways to make employees happy and loyal and Pixar seems to have captured it all.  From calling all employees film makers, to recognizing new babies born during production to offering free classes from movie writing to soccer to providing free cereal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Pixar has captured the market on happiness. My brother-in-law being there two years is still one of the new kids.  That alone says a lot!

 

You can find Pixar jobs here but if you think you’ll have one interview and be hired, think again.  They carefully select only the top notch candidates to join their creative, talented, fun and energetic team.