Leaders, if you want the business to be successful, care sooner about employees and customers to keep them around. This sounds so obvious. Yet many business spend more time trying to get employees and customers back than they do to keep them in the first place. So, how can you as leaders change this?
Image by The Focal Project via Flickr Creative Commons License.
Leadership: Care Sooner to Retain Employees & Customers
Here’s a true story — quite common actually — to illustrate what businesses and leaders do wrong.
The Story
A longtime customer of a well-known home security company was having repeated trouble with her system. She had to reboot it constantly to make it work. Technical support at the company determined that the problem was a glitch in their current system and that an upgrade at her end would fix the problem. Yet, they refused to waive the fee for the upgrade even though it was their problem.
The customer thought at that point it was worth looking at other home security companies and see what they had to offer. She found one with great ratings, reliability, and service, and she took her business there. THEN, she received more than one call from her original security company offering her the free upgrade to bring her back as a customer. She said no and told them to stop calling her.
Why Do Leaders & Businesses Do This?
Why not care sooner? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to offer this longtime customer the free upgrade to fix their current system that was causing the trouble?
Reasons They Don’t Care Sooner
Greed. They want to squeeze every dollar they can out of a customer. When they realize that didn’t work, they back pedal.
Arrogance. They think they are the best product/service in the business and that everyone will stay.
Mistrust. They think people are trying to cheat them.
Shortage thinking. They believe that if you give an inch, they will lose. Maybe this is also part of a legacy of that old myth that nice guys finish last. By the way, they don’t!
Care Sooner About Employees or They Will Leave!
Now let’s look at why leaders and businesses don’t care sooner about their employees. Interestingly enough, the list is quite similar. It’s greed that drives them not to invest in employee development and of course, employees leave.
Arrogance brings them to think that employees should be grateful just to have a job. If an employee asks for more, they label them as whiny or entitled. When underrepresented employees raise the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion, many leaders tell them why things are the way they are. These are horrible mistakes and now employers are struggling to attract and keep the best talent.
Summary
If you wait until employees or customers leave before you care, then you’re not leading for greatness. Be more aware of what employees and customers experience. Awareness, empathy, and proactive steps retain employees and customers!
From my professional experience to your success,Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Related Posts:Courageously Care For Employees, Teammates, and Customers!Use Leadership Gratitude to Engage & Retain Employees & Lead Morale!
©2022 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email [email protected] for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
Get more inspiration and actionable tips for high engagement results!
Buy Kate Nasser’s new book Leading Morale (Amazon.com).
Tags: business, care, culture, customer experience, emotional intelligence, empathy, employee experience, Growth, inspiration, interpersonal skills, Leadership, leading morale, Mindset, people skills, Soft Skills, sooner, success, vision
