Comments on: Fix the Employee Cafeteria and You’ll Fix the Customer Relationship http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/fix-the-employee-cafeteria-and-youll-fix-the-customer-relationship User Experience Strategy, Ruby and Rails Web App Development Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:04:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Mary Schmidt http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/fix-the-employee-cafeteria-and-youll-fix-the-customer-relationship/comment-page-1#comment-26892 Mary Schmidt Wed, 03 Aug 2005 21:44:12 +0000 http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/fix-the-employee-cafeteria-and-youll-fix-the-customer-relationship#comment-26892 As a consultant, I'm constantly amazed at how companies forget the basics - if you don't value the employees, they sure won't value the customer. Instead of investing in making the company a great place to work - the companies spend big bucks on consultants to tell them things like - well - "paint the employee cafeteria" And, they look so puzzled by such common sense. I got in far more trouble during my Corporate America career for trying to treat my people well - than I ever did for anything else (and I'm one to "beg for forgiveness, versus ask for permission", so I broke a lot of rules.) As a consultant, I’m constantly amazed at how companies forget the basics – if you don’t value the employees, they sure won’t value the customer. Instead of investing in making the company a great place to work – the companies spend big bucks on consultants to tell them things like – well – “paint the employee cafeteria” And, they look so puzzled by such common sense. I got in far more trouble during my Corporate America career for trying to treat my people well – than I ever did for anything else (and I’m one to “beg for forgiveness, versus ask for permission”, so I broke a lot of rules.)

]]> By: Jack Vinson http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/fix-the-employee-cafeteria-and-youll-fix-the-customer-relationship/comment-page-1#comment-26891 Jack Vinson Wed, 03 Aug 2005 13:33:39 +0000 http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/fix-the-employee-cafeteria-and-youll-fix-the-customer-relationship#comment-26891 In a related idea, in bicycling I have heard the phrase, "A happy engine is a fast engine." Specifically, I was at a talk about doing 24-hour races (ride as far as you can on a closed course in 24 hours), and the speaker, Tom Bruni, talked about how he did better when he stopped to rest, contravening the prevailing wisdom. Sadly, I've just discovered that Tom died in a car-bike accident this past June. In a related idea, in bicycling I have heard the phrase, “A happy engine is a fast engine.” Specifically, I was at a talk about doing 24-hour races (ride as far as you can on a closed course in 24 hours), and the speaker, Tom Bruni, talked about how he did better when he stopped to rest, contravening the prevailing wisdom. Sadly, I’ve just discovered that Tom died in a car-bike accident this past June.

]]> By: J. H. Shewmaker http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/fix-the-employee-cafeteria-and-youll-fix-the-customer-relationship/comment-page-1#comment-26890 J. H. Shewmaker Tue, 02 Aug 2005 18:21:51 +0000 http://garrickvanburen.com/archive/fix-the-employee-cafeteria-and-youll-fix-the-customer-relationship#comment-26890 Wegman's Food Markets won the Fortune Magazine Best Place To Work ranking. But the customer satisfaction level at Wegman's is not driven by Customer Satisfaction but rather by Mr. Wegman's focus on Employee Satisfaction. I wrote a blog post in January on how success in one objective is frequently only obtainable by obliquely focusing on a different area of the business and used Wegman's desire for happy customers being acheived through happy employess as one of my illustrations. The article is available at: <a href="http://qwerty.us/blog/2005/01/oblique-tactics-frequently-more.htm" rel="nofollow">http://qwerty.us/blog/2005/01/oblique-tactics-frequently-more.htm</a> Wegman’s Food Markets won the Fortune Magazine Best Place To Work ranking. But the customer satisfaction level at Wegman’s is not driven by Customer Satisfaction but rather by Mr. Wegman’s focus on Employee Satisfaction.

I wrote a blog post in January on how success in one objective is frequently only obtainable by obliquely focusing on a different area of the business and used Wegman’s desire for happy customers being acheived through happy employess as one of my illustrations. The article is available at: http://qwerty.us/blog/2005/01/oblique-tactics-frequently-more.htm

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