I never cease to get amazed whenever I visit an organisation or a business and walk out feeling unwanted. And yet I had gone to seek a service, meaning that I spent money, since there is no business that offers services for nothing. They are in it for the money.
If you are a business owner or head of an organisation, I can tell you for a fact that I have never returned to a business where I was treated poorly – be it a supermarket, a hair salon or clothing outlet. Even a restaurant. Especially a restaurant.
The only exception has been government-run institutions, and only because they tend to have a monopoly over certain services; therefore, we’re stuck with them, whether we like it or not. It is not as if you can simply pack a suitcase, tie your children on your back and move to another country, having happily divorced your motherland.
You can invest in all the latest tech, spend millions on top-notch interior décor and station your business on the affluent side of town, but if you don’t invest in your employees, your business has collapsed on arrival.
By invest I mean taking your workers through diverse forms of training, during which you will sell them your vision for your company, and then ensure that they have the skills to help you achieve that vision.
It is not enough to simply have someone manning the counter or someone who will open the doors at 8am in the morning and close them at 5pm in the evening. The truth is that your employees will either make or break your company; therefore, it only makes sense to use some of that interior décor money on making them more knowledgeable or simply feeling appreciated.
I don’t know about you, but when I feel appreciated, I feel more inclined to give my best and go out of my way to do my job even better. It is human nature, nothing complicated. Even a simple ‘thank you’ once in a while goes a long way in motivating an employee. And if every customer out there is like me, then people tend to return where they feel valued, where they are treated like they matter.
Where employees have no ‘attitude’, as we Kenyans like to call a nasty disposition. You walk into a business and the first person you come face to face with behaves as if you are bothering them, or have an odour trailing you. Or organisations where an employee promises to follow up on a request but never does, forcing you to keep calling for feedback, as if they’re doing you a favour.
Eventually, you take your business elsewhere. Come to think of it, there are businesses where you are treated like royalty when in the process of spending your money, but once you make the purchase, it is as if you no longer matter.
After-sales services are nonexistent. What such businesses forget is that should you require a similar item in future, you are likely to go elsewhere if you were mistreated.
Businesses aside, something else came to mind as I contemplated this subject - that we are our own employees. We determine how people relate to us and how they treat us. We also determine the extent of our accomplishments.
Whatever stage you are in in life, wherever you work, whatever career you are in or even whether you run your own business, your character influences what you accomplish in your personal life or career. Come to think of it, character, personality and behaviour matter in and away from employment.
These attributes determine how people treat you and how willing they are to be of assistance to you, or even befriend you. In a nutshell, you’re your number one marketer, and your personal attributes can determine your success and the opportunities that come your way.
