Ed C.
Global Talent Management Leader - specialist in learning and leadership strategies
Employees are more important than customers...Do you agree? Share your thoughts.
Clarification added June 28, 2010:
Many want to know if this is a trick question or state the answer is so obvious. If that is case why is there so much debate about it? I am of the belief that all people should be treated as the most important one interaction, one relationship at a time. One cannot exist without the other.
Answers (84)
Frank F.
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No.
Satisfied customers come first, without
which there is no need for employees.
Then employees come next, whose task
it is to satisfy customers.
Then shareholders come last, as they can
only be satisfied if customers are satisfied.
I suggest the Credo of Johnson & Johnson.
http://www.jnj.com/connect/about-jnj/jnj-credo/
Links:
Subir S.
Head of Sales & Solutions @ TCS Analytics & Insights
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Its a paradox Ed - if a business does not have customers it will never be able to afford employees. But if the business wishes to have happy customers, they better have happier employees. I dunno which side of the argument that makes me!!
But when the going gets tough your customers may desert you faster than your employees would and only in such times its mostly the grit of a few employees who dig their heels and stay on to navigate out of the crisis, enduring countless hardships, make you survive as a business.
So in final analysis, you need engaged employees if you dream to have better engaged customers, but the customer is still the king and reason for you to be in business.
Shefali L.
student in software engineering
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employees can only serve you when there is customers with you to give you business if customers will not be there then whom will employees serve?
you wont keep employees on your own expenses rite?
u obviously need customers to satisy to give you business then only youl keep employees to work for you.
Customers are definitely more important in my own opinion.
Without a customer you won't need employees. Having said that, if you have customers and don't have great employees, you might as well not have customers!! Chicken and Egg comes to mind.
Bryan C W.
Seeking a new opportunity in B2B technology; global experience
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Ed...
Without customers there is no need for employees. They are important to keep customers happy but customers are the highest priority - period.
Clarification added July 29, 2010:
Your clarification states there is a lot of debate but I only see it coming from you - nobody else.
Give it a rest already...
Rakesh O.
CEO, SocialMedia69 - Digital Interactive Marketing Agency for SEM, SMM, Mobile Apps, 360 degree marketing communication
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When you start out your business you have employees and then you start getting customers.
So, employees are more important but customers are even more important for without them there would be no business and ultimately no employees.
Rakesh
Customer is always a king and employees are subjects of different Kings!!!
Gail S.
Strategy Execution and Change Management
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I see employees and customers as 2 sides of the same coin. Businesses cannot thrive without both. Both are important tho for different reasons and purposes. Trying to prioritize them creates a lose / lose.
So while I 'get' the Johnson and Johnson credo, and have never seen a better representation - I do think it somehow falls short.
We all seem to want simple answers - the challenge is that then the answer becomes simplistic and we lose the complexity required to really make sense of a situation.
If the question were, who is more important to income / cashflow / growth even basic business model justification then my answer would be customers - a business must exist to serve a need for which it can be compensated in an attractive manner.
However, if the question were who is more important to delivery / effectiveness / ROI even organizational survival I would say employees - a business cannot run at a profit over an extended period of time (and thereby attract and serve capital / shareholders) without great employees.
And even all of these fall short of the bigger picture, longer term requirements of serving (or at least not harming) the communities in which businesses operate.
If I am forced to choose between either employees or customers then I say - neither.
A source of inspiration for me in thinking about these kinds of questions is "The Opposable Mind" by Roger Martin:
"The ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and, instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each."
Great question - I am sure that I did not get to a superior idea but the journey is intriguing. Very interested to hear others points of view.
Links:
I would agree.
Unless and until you have satisfied employees, you will not be able to serve customers. Congruence of the expectations of employees, customers and shareholders, is the success of business.
However, employess are the organization, and without them it is not possible to serve the customers, and consequently that will destroy the shareholder value.
Ed,
One of the best books ever written on customer service is "The Customer Comes Second"by Alan Rosenbluth. His philosopy is "your employees treat your customers the way you treat them"....and his company has been extremely successful.
I'm sure that you have done business with companies whose employees treat you like dirt. I believe they are just a reflection of the management/ownership of the company.
The sorry state of customer service in our country is a direct reflection (in my opinion) of the arrogance of the management of those companies....they take their customers for granted and you can bet they treat their employees the same way.
So, the bottom line is that employees are more important but only if their bosses treat them right.
Guy B.
Technical writer
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Hi Ed, Your question may be answered in a general way as former responders did very worthily or in a more accurate manner which requires two further pieces of information:
- IMPORTANT FOR WHOM?
(HR MANAGER, Salesman, Financier...)
- IN WHICH OCCASION?
(customer service, employee workload, customer-employee conflict)
For instance, if your point of view is a financial one and that a customer complains of an employee, who will you support? It will depend on the comparative whole cost (direct and indirect) of the loss and -replacement- of the employee and of the customer.
Wallace J.
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No. Both are Needed. Without one there is no other. Two different sides of the same coin.
Ed - nice question and its similar to another which is "customer or employee, which comes first?"
In answer to your specific question, less than 5% of all businesses across the world in positive commercial operation today are lucky enough to be a single-person business. Therefore if we assume that the company is a multi-person company and it "needs" those people to deliver their product or service then the employees are more important - naturally. Without them there is no product/service to sell.
However picking up on Gail's fantastic point. If one is already attempting to differentiate and place these two groups in a hierarchy then I would suggest that the business in question is already in trouble. Never should a successful business ever need to differentiate. In fact, successful companies will often use the same techniques and tools to manage both groups.
What's the purpose of the question? Employees are the most important. Customers are the most important. A child isn't more important than the parent(s). The parent(s) are not more important than the child. This is like saying night is more important than day.
Clarification added June 27, 2010:
Investors are ALSO most important, and never come last.
Both are equally important since employees can not survive for long without the cutomers and customers can not be served effectively without the proper employees. In opinion both are important for a Healthy Growth of any business.
Chris W.
National Elevator Pitch Champion | Keynote Speaker | Business Coach
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Success starts at home. If you can't take care of your people, how can you really take care of your customers?
Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines created a culture around honoring the employees. Treating employees well, he reasoned, would create happy customers, and in turn - happy shareholders. I have often focused on the customer - as many posters here have done - but perhaps a contrarian approach is the best one. To satisfy the others in this thread, perhaps a better way to state my point of view: consider your employees as internal customers first, because then (and only then) can you expand your culture and service to your external ones.
In your experience, with "Riding the Tiger", I believe you saw firsthand what happens to morale, profits, and the very fiber of a company when employees are put in second place - or worse.
Take care of your people, or they will "take care" of you - your profits - and your customers (and not in a good way!) Southwest's track record of profitability speaks for itself. You have to be good to the company and its people first. If a company can really "win" with internal customers, it will win in the market as well.
Dan S.
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Ed,
I agree 100%.
In the "Glassdoor top 50 Companies List", there was a quote from a Southwest Flight Attendant who was quoted as saying "Southwest has figured out that treating their employees right is as important as treating their customer's right".
I also worked with several of the lower companies. One may change their motto to "We hate our jobs, and it shows". If you treat your employees like crap, then they will pass the same to your customers, and you will have neither.
Dan
Equal footing for both. Customers pay the bills through revenue. Employees are equally important as brand ambassadors (something which is often neglected). Without developing and empowering the people within an organisation first, the sustainability and integrity of the organisation will be questionable down the road.
So I'd say both are equally important and both must be made happy.
Dave M.
Professional trade show booth traffic builder and party entertainer. Corporate and private sector events.
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Without customers, you can't afford to hire and pay employees...
Therefore, the customer is the more important aspect of this debate...
Mike M.
LTE Project Manager at WesTower Communications
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Ultimately you need both and each are more scarce at different times...thus the focus on the importance of one over the other. Ultimately customers pay the bills so they must come first. Also excellent employees are worth much more than other employees and tend to bring in or keep business that more than covers their cost.
Just need to keep it all in perspective.
In my opinion, there is no difference between the two, but when faced with a choice, you should choose your employee because they will help you replace the potential lost customer many times over.
Peter G.
Operations Management, Sales Management, International, welcome to my profile..
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Great question Ed,
The problem starts when businesses give a different weight of importance to any stake holder.....
In principal one cannot do business without the other.
Both are Customers to the company ..so hence CUSTOMER COMES FIRST:-)
Toby B.
Global Head of Sourcing at Rolls-Royce
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There are probably two different responses here - those organisations whose employees would never be customers and those whose employees are all customers.
For a company whose employees are also its customers (many more than you would initially realise), the employee wears two hats and is therefore a more influential part of the equation. The important thing here is context: if an employee is well engaged in a well managed environment, their experience as a customer will make a very positive contribution to company success. Things that are wrong are communicated and a balanced perspective of 'perfect solution' and the 'art of the possible' will emerge. Things that work well will reinforce the employees' loyalty and respect for their colleagues and build new success.
If the dynamic changes though, and the employee/customer is working in a poorly engaged environment, mistakes will only exacerbate ill-feeling and a vicious circle will be the output. Unhappy employees = unhappy customers. Worse still, you'll find it very difficult to attract good new employees to effect change.
Keep your employees engaged and there's a good chance your customers will feel that way. Not an absolute, but if employees are disengaged, you can put good money on the customers being disengaged or absent.
Joseph J.
Advisor - Technology, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India
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Its the folly of simple minds to search for 'black-or-white' answers. Unfortunately many such are in leadership positions - as CEOs and Presidents. One needs to engage with both sides to be a Leader - inspiring the workforce as well as leading the marketplace.
1. Are we looking at 'Employees are to be USED' &/or 'Customers are to be EXPLOITED' kind of a logic..??
2. To me human behavior and value system has to be consistant...
3. In the instant case, both entities are essential components of an eco system; with their own significance, albeit variable - as a function of time & the situational context.
4. The 'either/or' scenario may not be valid here....
To me this looks like a trivial question. It is self-evident that both employees and customers have to be looked for and to be looked after. Without customers employees would not have jobs, without employees customers would not have products or services. Investing in both groups is necessary. Taking care of both too.
Manuela F.
Owner at Manuela Furtado Unipessoal, Lda.
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Customers come first naturally, but are closely connected,
A company/society will not live without clients, I would perhaps say that in small companies employees may even be reduced or banished,
owners may deal with the involving tasks....
Here customer is more important.....
However,generally speaking, all the medium/big companies have to counter-balance both, equally important in my point of view !
Rich D.
Superhero, RECESSitator, Chief Cook & Bottle Washer, Risk Taker, Problem Solver
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No matter how great your product is if your employees are disengaged and not happy it's going to reflect on your customer base. This is a close one......but I'm gonna go with take care of your employees and they'll provide a great customer experience.
