What’s your initial, gut-level reaction to this question: Are your employees primarily an asset…or an expense…to your business?
A very interesting article recently explored both sides of this concept. Quartz recently reported:
- The average American cashier makes $20,230 a year, which in a single-earner household would leave a family of four living under the poverty line. But if he works the cash registers at QuikTrip, it’s an entirely different story. The convenience store and gas station chain offers entry-level employees an annual salary of around $40,000, plus benefits.
- Those high wages didn’t stop QuikTrip from prospering in a hostile economic climate. While other low-cost retailers spent the recession laying off staff and shuttering stores, QuikTrip expanded to its current 645 locations across 11 states.
The critically important aspect is this: If you see your people as primarily an expense — then, that expenditure becomes something we need to minimize. In other words, we’re taught in business that profit comes from, in part, reducing expenses. The more we keep our expenses in check, this basic theory of business goes, the greater the likelihood we will become more profitable.
However, the more we think about it, that’s simply not the total picture.
Assets are vital points in our business that we seek to amplify and make more valuable. When you see your employees as assets to be cultivated and enhanced — as opposed to expenses you need to reduce and minimize — you discover those assets becoming more productive…and, therefore, more profitable for your business.
As the article says, “Entry-level hires at QuikTrip are trained for two full weeks before they start work, and they learn everything from how to order merchandise to how to clean the bathroom.” Why is that important?
- “As global competition increases and cheap, convenient commerce finds a natural home online, the most successful companies may be those that focus on delivering a better customer experience,” according to the article. (emphasis mine)
Devalue your workers, and you deliver customer service like most of the major airlines. Or, you might end up being Circuit City, Borders, and others in the trash heap.
Treat your colleagues like the assets they are, and they’ll keep your shelves stocked, create Ultimate Customer Experiences ® for your customers and prospects, and maximize sales opportunities.
…and THAT helps you create distinction and grow your business.
Follow up on the patient/customer experience situation…
Yesterday, I received this kind message from the CEO of the hospital where I had the difficult time in the emergency room this past weekend.
I appreciate his response, and — in fairness — wanted to post it in its entirety:
Dear Mr. McKain:
I truly appreciate your above-and-beyond efforts to bring your Emergency Department experience at our Siena Campus to my attention. You are correct: No patient should have to experience what you experienced in our ED. We strive every day to provide excellent care to every patient every time. I am truly sorry we did not provide that level of service and care to you, and that we let you and your family down. Please accept my sincere apologies.
I have asked Allen Marino, M.D., our chief medical officer, to review your experience and to provide a response to the communication and other problems you experienced in our ED. In addition, I will ask Maggie Rafferty, our patient experience officer, to review the breakdown in relaying your online and phone survey comments about the service you received to our administrators.
Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do at this point to ameliorate your Saturday night ED experience entirely, and we are truly sorry for that. However, please know that I personally will see that your comments are responded to thoroughly and promptly. I also will personally ask our staff to do their utmost to ensure this does not happen again to you or anyone else. Thank you, again, for bringing this to my attention in such a prompt manner. I hope we can serve you again in the future, and in a much more prompt and appropriate manner.
Sincerely,
Rod A. Davis
Senior Vice President of Operations Nevada
President/CEO Siena Campus
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Here are the points I liked best about Mr. Davis’ response:
Here is an area that I might suggest all of us should examine and improve:
The letter says, “Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do at this point to ameliorate your…experience…” — and the dictionary defines “ameliorate” as “to make something bad or unsatisfactory better.” Yet, by taking the steps he commits to, Mr. Davis IS doing something to ameliorate my experience.
Strange, isn’t it? It’s like the letter is saying: Here are all the steps that we are going to take internally so this doesn’t happen to anyone else — yet, there’s nothing we’re going to do for the customer who had to sit in an emergency room for seven hours.
I’ve read the research where customers expect a lot less than we would imagine to make things right.
However, could you imagine how much better it would feel, if you were in my position, to get a Starbucks card, for example, with the message, “Let us buy you and your wife a cup of coffee — and prop your leg up, so that knee gets better!” Or, just a little bouquet sent to my wife with the message, “Sorry we kept your husband all day Saturday — hope this makes next weekend better!” Cost to the hospital: just a few bucks.
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By the way…been icing the knee, and after several days, the swelling has gone down quite a bit. I’m still a little slow on my feet…but, doing MUCH better! (And THANK YOU for asking, as so many of you have. I really appreciate it!)
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