Customer-centric or employee-centric?
22 February 2021
What do you choose: putting the customer first or the employee first?
It is a question I have been hearing very often in recent months. Among other things, the war on talent, which is causing a shortage in the labor market, means that we increasingly hear 'customer-centric' being replaced by 'employee-centric'. If you look at the vision of some major entrepreneurs, you also see two camps becoming increasingly clear: the customer camp and the employee camp. (sorry Tom, no Waes camp here)
Clients don't come first, employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.
So says Richard Branson, who claims that you must always place your employees first and in doing so transform into a customer-oriented organization almost automatically. A fine Belgian example of this conviction is Het Poetsbureau, owned by entrepreneur Jo Mellemans. At this company, they refer to their employees as their stars and focus heavily on the employee experience.
You've got to start with the customer experience and work your way back from there.
Steve Jobs said this back in the 1990s. Another example of putting the customer first is Coolblue, among others. These companies tend to assume that when you deliver a great customer experience, your employees will automatically become delighted as well, and you are therefore immediately working on your employee experience too.
But what is the ultimate truth? Before I try to convince you of my vision, I would like to briefly explain exactly what employee experience is.
Putting the employee first? Long live employee experience management!
Let us start at the beginning, with the definition. Employee experience is the sum of all experiences and emotions an employee acquires within an organization, throughout the entire employee journey and across all channels.
Quite a mouthful, you think? Allow me to clarify the above with some examples:
- An applicant enters your company for the first time. How does the greeting go? How do you start the conversation? Do you give a tour right away? Does that person have to wait a long time? All these factors have an impact on how the applicant views your company and linger long after a potential hiring.
- Your onboarding process. Do your new employees receive extra support? Do you ensure they integrate quickly, or do you prefer the 'throw them in the water, they'll learn to swim or drown' approach?
- What is the atmosphere like between teams and departments? Is there room for ad hoc collaboration across all levels within your company? Or do you prefer a hierarchical model?
- At a certain point, the collaboration comes to an end. How do you handle this? What is the last impression your former colleague takes away from your company?
- But also: who are your recruitment partners and how do they treat candidates? Does that align with your mission, vision, and values?
All these factors (and many more) determine how an employee experiences your company. By now, you understand that, just as with customer experience or customer experience management , it is best not to leave this to chance. But that is fodder for another article. The question we are trying to answer today is primarily whether a thorough EX approach also places the customer at the center of your organization. I will tell you what I think about it.
Putting the customer first always takes priority.
For me, the customer always comes first. And no, that has nothing to do with the fact that I have made a profession out of the above statement. It is rather the result of sound common sense reasoning. For what constitutes an organization's right to exist? That is right: your customers. Without your customers, there is simply no business anymore, and therefore no employees either.
But there is a second reason to always put the customer first. And that *does* lie at the foundation of my professional activities. We have already seen that an organization without customers is not viable. But the ultimate goal is, of course, highly satisfied customers who act as ambassadors for your company and, in doing so, send other customers your way. You can only achieve this if you know well who you are as a company and what you solve for your customers. This is exactly what customer experience management is all about. Moreover, customer-centric ambitions, if properly developed, also have a positive effect on your employees. Here, too, a simple truth underlies this: every person becomes genuinely happy when he or she can make someone else happy.
Does that mean you shouldn't pay attention to your employee experience? Of course not. May I therefore briefly take you through my dream scenario where both the employee and the customer take center stage?
The Customerry vision: we are all people
Both CX and EX are about people. For me, therefore, it is never a choice between one or the other. When I speak about my dream of the ultimate organization, you can imagine the following characteristics:
- The customer comes first. Not in a 'window-dressing' way, but truly doing everything you do out of genuine love for your customer and to make their world a little better, more beautiful, and easier. An endless interest in that customer and their goals, lifestyle, and thought patterns. As a result, customers feel welcome and even 'at home' at your company and recommend you to others of their own accord.
- As a direct result of this: happy employees who do not think in terms of processes and strict procedures, but are allowed to be human. This means, among other things, that there is attention to (work) happiness, the development of talents, and initiative. Employees who actively contribute ideas about your organization based on their own abilities and talents, and who are also encouraged to test, play, try, and learn. For me, this also includes being given the space to make mistakes.
- Clear core values that serve as a guideline to realize the above. Who are you as an organization? What do you stand for? What do you want to contribute to the world? Concrete values, in other words, against which you can test new ideas to determine whether they effectively fit your company. It is already a classic, but if you are looking for inspiration on this, Zappos remains the prime example. You can find their values online, and in their latest book, 'The Power of WOW', they specifically discuss how they apply this to every minute detail of their business operations.
Customer focus: some practical tips for closing the deal.
If, after reading this article, you think you are doing poorly because you do not have any of these matters perfectly in order today, I want to reassure you in two ways.
- You are not alone. Both CX and EX are young professions that are still gaining importance every day. Therefore, only a minority of companies are already handling this in a mature way and achieving real results. So, do not be discouraged by the potentially major mountain climb you are facing.
- It is not rocket science, and you can start today. The only thing you really need is the courage to look at your business from the outside, and then, with curiosity and an open mindset, examine what you can optimize.
That is why the tip I love giving the most is also one of my favorite quotes by Simon Sinek. (whose reading material, by the way, is only recommended for clarifying your values)
Dream big
Start small
but most of all… Start!
Putting the customer first is neither a sprint nor a marathon, but a continuous process. Therefore: start small. For example, take a look today at what you can find about your company on social media. Or give a customer a call, just because, to hear what's on their mind. Do you have multiple locations? Then drop by a department you rarely visit and ask about the most common complaint or frustration. Or complete the Customerry self-test in less than 5 minutes and know within 2 days how customer-oriented your business already is. Good luck!
Shall we put the customer at the center of your business together?
Great! I'm already looking forward to supporting you with inspiration, thinking and doing exercises, and plenty of practical tips and tricks. But shall we get to know each other first?
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