Employees come first and customers come second was the attitude of former Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher. In a July 1995 Reader's Digest article, Kelleher is quoted as saying, "The customer is sometimes wrong. We don't carry those sorts of customers. We write to them and say, 'Fly somebody else. Don't abuse our people.' "
It has been said that Southwest Airlines has the lowest employee turnover rate of all the airlines and now I can understand why. This company treats their employees with care and concern, which in turn produces service that is filled with care and concern. When you work for a company that values your contributions, you are motivated to provide great service from the heart. At Southwest, employees can pick up the phone, talk to any executive, and be received with open arms.
What most companies fail to realize is that their employees are their best customers. Employees are also the best marketers as well. Any employee who loves the company he/she works for will tell everybody they know how much they love their job.
Moral of the story: Love your employees. Positive energy spreads like wildfire.
» Employee Loyalty from CustomersAreAlways
Many companies talk left and right about how to gain customer loyalty but often forget that it was their own loyal employees that created loyal customers in the first place. [Read More]
Tracked on: April 29, 2006 8:02 PM | Permalink to Trackback