The BIGG Successs Show
If You Want to Increase Your Profit , Don't Put Your Customers First
A little-known concept that many business owners don't understand. Read our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll discuss why you should not put your customers first if you want to increase your profit year after year. The Big Success Show, with George and Mary Lynn. There's a concept that was developed at Harvard Business School a little over ten years ago. It's still a relatively unknown concept, though, and there's actually a book out on it called The Service Profit Chain. We do have a link to that book on our blog today at BigSuccess.com. This concept is designed to increase your profits year after year, and isn't that what we all want? I think it is, Mary Lynn, don't you? I've never heard somebody say my goal is to have my profits decrease. Well, the thing is, this concept basically says this. Employee satisfaction leads the customer satisfaction, which leads to revenue growth, and then that leads to profit growth. Now, if you take a portion of those profits and reinvest them back into things that will make your employees even more satisfied, the chain never breaks. So your profits keep going up year after year, so it starts with satisfying your employees. And I think most business owners focus on satisfying their customers first. Well, absolutely, Mary Lynn, and that's why we said don't put your customers first, right? This concept says that's putting the cart before the horse, because if you don't have satisfied employees, you won't be able to satisfy your customers. So you've got to work from the inside out, because your product or service is built around those who create or deliver it. That's right, and so if you want to increase your profits, first find out what will make your employees happy. Happy employees do stick around longer, they know what they're doing, and they know your customers. So the bottom line is they're golden. Yeah, because it's really expensive, right, to try to find and train new people. New people cost you money while they get up the learning curve, they also cost you money because your established employees have to help train them. So they're not as productive as they would be if they weren't faced with that burden. And then another thing about experienced employees is that they know your customers personally. All those little things like their likes and dislikes, they have relationships with these customers, and we all do business with people we like. Absolutely, and so seek first to satisfy your employees. Coming up, we're going to complete the chain and discuss the three things that satisfied customers do when they're dealing with your satisfied employees. Today we're talking about how to keep your profits growing year after year, and we've said that first you need to satisfy your employees. That's because satisfied employees satisfy your customers. And satisfied customers do three things. They buy more, they buy more often, and they tell others. Boy, Marylin, those are three good points. Let's list them again. They buy more, they buy more often, and they tell others. Now, isn't that a great way to increase your sales? Think about it. You don't have to spend a boatload of money chasing new customers. That's right. You just have to focus on making your employees happy so they make your customers happy. And if you do that, your sales will grow. If you just keep your costs under control, then your profits will grow. Reinvest a portion of those profits to find even more ways to satisfy your employees. And as we promised in the title, your profits will grow year after year. You'll find a link to the book we mentioned earlier on our blog at Big Success. That's BigWit2GSuccess.com. And that's also where we have a written summary of today's show. Let's get our big quote for the day, George. Our big quote today is our paraphrase of a Walt Disney quote. It goes like this. If I treat my employees the way I want my employees to treat my customers, I'll never have to worry about how my employees treat my customers. So take care of your employees and watch your business turn into a Magic Kingdom. Into a Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, I'd be goofy. Yeah, and I'd be Tinkerbone. Next time, we'll talk about what to do if you made a commitment you no longer feel you can honor. You become Pinocchio. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at BIGGSuccess.com. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]