Of course, no business can exist without customers, that goes without saying.  But how did we get the idea that customers are more important than employees? And why do we treat employees as disposable and treat customers as if they can do no wrong?

Lee Iacocca said:  

Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.”

Makes sense.  If you do all of that, the customers you attract will stay.  If you miss any of those steps, your top talent leaves taking with them knowledge and all the investment you made in them goes with them out the door.  Or maybe they stay and are disgruntled and unmotivated which affects morale and performance.

Yet I continue to see leaders who bend over backwards for their clients, turn themselves inside out to please a customer and treat them like royalty while ignoring the people who serve that customer…the employee.

I started my career in manufacturing.  I was head of quality control for a very successful food manufacturing firm.  The owner was likable and affable and customers lined up at the door to buy from the company.  It amazed me as we as a company did so many things wrong.

Here’s what I learned though.  He treated his customers differently than he treated everyone else.  They were wined and dined. Gifts were sent quarterly, and expensive gifts.  He learned each of his customers ‘personal needs and desires’ and supplied them what they wanted. If they were gamblers he flew them to Las Vegas for days of gambling and who knows what else.  A lot of what he provided is too racy to include in this article. Bottom line is he did whatever he thought was necessary to make a customer happy.

Compare this with how he treated others.  He’d call me on the phone and say “Finkle, get your a_ _ to my office” and when I would arrive he’d literally yell about something he was unhappy about, a customer who complained and how I needed to fix it.  He’d walk through the plant and pull employees aside constantly chastising them for something he thought they should have done and didn’t, or something that was wrong he assumed was their fault. I witnessed him firing someone who was on the production line because their uniform was not pristine and heard him yelling profanities at a vendor about poor packaging they supplied.  

Yet this same man kept poor performers because in his words “they may be the sole support of their family” or “it’s not their fault they aren’t smart enough to do the job’.  I’d hear conversations in the breakroom about how awful these people were, how others carried their workload and how high their frustration was. I watched as key people on the production lines, those that made the recipes for the products we packaged, left in droves…and the cost to the company was enormous.  And selfishly them leaving made my job harder.

I tried talking to the owner about the cost of losing good people…how many 500 gallon vats of product we had dumped down the drain due to quality problems because the experienced people had left.  I put together a document outlining how much product was returned by customers because of product performance problems and the cost of replacing…and he’d nod his head and tell me it didn’t matter because there were more customers he could get and he knew how to keep the ones he had anyhow.

If we go back to the quote above by Lee Iacocca he has a simple formula for success:

1. Hire good people

2. Lay out the rules

3. Communicate with your employees

4. Motivate and reward your employees

That all starts with how we perceive the value of the people who work for us.  When we see them as an asset, as key to the company’s success rather than disposable and replaceable, success is the natural outcome.  

Are customers important?  That’s a silly question, of course, they are!  They aren’t more important though than your employees, nor should they be treated better than those that keep your doors open and the lights on every day.  Employees are your most important asset. Take care of them and they will take care of you.