A business is only as good as its employees, a fact that most business owners don’t seem to understand. We already know that the key to a successful business is an ongoing relationship with happy customers who keep coming back for more. However, in order to achieve customer happiness, a business needs to achieve employee happiness first. Essentially, it’s the employees that bring happiness to those customers. According to The State of the American Workplace, engaged employees are highly likely to increase business sales by up to 20% by improving customer relationships.
Employees Can Make or Break Your Business
Employees are the face of your business, and it only takes one bad experience to turn a customer away for good. What’s worse than that is the fact that negative word of mouth spreads very fast, so disgruntled customers will discourage others from doing business with you. Considering how fast it takes to ruin a perfectly good business reputation, hiring and maintaining great employees should be a top priority.
Employees that interact with customers especially are very vital to a business. A wise business person will treat them as an asset because they can easily identify common problems, product defects, customer complaints, and any broken experiences. All the information they collect can help the business owner fix those problems before they spread. Employees feel valued when the leader welcomes their insight and uses it to grow the business. They become very engaged then go above and beyond to please customers and report back.
The Benefits of Happy Employees
Happy and motivated people sell more – Happy employees make happy customers, boosts productivity, and grows the business significantly. They are more engaged, more willing to work, and are always ready to assist customers with anything needed. Business leaders should take advantage of positive emotions because they can be a very effective bargaining tool.
Sound decision-making abilities – Everyone is better at making good decisions when they are in a happy. Employees who are not happy about their job, however, are constantly nervous, especially when management reprimands mistakes negatively. They always have a degree of fear that they’ll make the wrong decision and possibly face the consequences for it. Satisfied customers, on the other hand, are better equipped at facing adversity.
Maximum productivity – Happy employees will take sick leaves only when absolutely necessary, which means that you will rarely lose productivity.
Impeccable customer service – Naturally, people like dealing with happy and cheerful people. Customer service is very sensitive, and employees need to have high morale, be polite, and be willing to please. Happy people are perfect at pleasing, and happy customers are always good for business.
The Importance of Hiring Right
All businesses have standards when it comes to hiring new employees. The screening process, interviews, and analysis are not always easy and can be quite time-consuming. Regardless, it is vital for the business to make the right choice. These are several ways to ensure you get it right. First, you can use your star employees and let them do the interviews. After all, they have already proven that they are valuable, and they know your business well enough. Besides, they’ll be working together on a daily basis.
Second, you can use the SWAN method and employ people who are Smart, who Work hard, are Ambitious and Nice. Third, you can use a recruitment agency that will employ one of the best hiring methods known as Recruitment Research. The agency will research the employees that fit your positions perfectly and save you the time and trouble of multiple interviews.
Saying that employees are the most valuable investment your business has would be an understatement. Choose talent wisely, treat them well during their employment, then reap the benefits.
