The customer (DOES NOT) come 1st

     

We have all heard the quote, "Do not put the cart before the horse." 
The basic meaning behind this quote is that a person should put first things first.

Today, I was reading through a book titled, "The Customer comes Second" by H. Rosenbluth. 
His basic premise is that when a company emphasizes that the customer has first priority, that company has indeed put the "cart before the horse."

Rosenbluth goes on to write that when a company overlooks its workers and focuses solely on the customer, work is done in a sub-par manner.

-I think he is right-

Think back to a time in your life (maybe it is now) when your boss/company treated you like you didn't count. 
-They never listened to your ideas.
-You were never communicated with in a respectable manner.
-Etc...

    ---Now think about how you performed?

For the vast majority of us, when we are treated poorly at work by our leaders, it reflects in our lives and in our work environment.  Soon, resentment sets in and the attitude of, "If they don't care about me...then why should I care about them" creeps in and things start to get ugly.

No doubt, if you reverse the scenario, I'd bet the family horse that if you can actually think of a place where you were treated like gold, your attitude at work was much healthier.

For leaders:

- Please understand that the better you treat your employees, the better they will treat YOUR customers.

You can accomplish this by doing some very creative yet inexpensive things:

Here are some you can try!
1.  Start "town hall meetings" This is an actual time you have built into your work week where you clear your schedule and have the team get together to touch base.  You will be surprised at how much you can learn from the workers that actually are on the floor performing.

2.  Have a monthly lunch with 1 or 2 of your workers.  Building personal relationships with your group will go miles for you.

3.  Get your workers to give you a wish list of 5-6 things that they would like to see happen at work.  Then, sit with them and the team and work on implementing their idea(s).

Start putting your workers first & watch them florish! 
                                                      Implement some of the above ideas today!

What about you?

Do you have any more creative,

yet inexpensive ideas to share with us??