Having Happy Employees Impacts Your Bottom Line

There’s a famous scene in ‘Office Space’ in which Jennifer Aniston gets fired by her strict boss for “only wearing the minimum amount of flair” as a waitress at her local uber-happy bar & grill. The scene was obviously written to be hilarious and over-the-top, but I imagine a number of waiters, waitresses, and regular employees around the US connected with it. When I think about it, I actually wonder seriously: “was it only ‘flair’ that was meant to make customers feel happy?” A few smiley-face buttons and colorful suspenders?!

Customers’ happiness should stem from employees’ happiness, and not just because of the “happiness is contagious” adage — ever notice how much more generous you are when you’re happy? Everyone’s had a bubbly waitress once in their life it seems. I remember the few truly bubbly waitresses I had; her bubbliness made us ask her for desert recommendations just for fun (after which we joked that she was most likely just upselling us, “but that’s okay because she’s nice”). I imagine (hope, really) that her manager treated the employees of that business well, and it shows in her happiness. As a result, we left a large tip and ordered loads of food in exchange for good times and the extra dollars. The days when businesses paid their employees minimum wage should really be over — because it simply isn’t economically or socially sustainable. Continue reading Having Happy Employees Impacts Your Bottom Line

Guests, Not Customers

I recently came back from a conference, the Franchise Consumer Marketing Conference, and at the conference listened to a panel of franchise marketing executives speak on successful marketing and customer loyalty tactics. One of the panelists, a CMO of a Fortune 1000 company addressed the importance of customer experience and brought up the notion of treating your customers as guests. Whether this means literally addressing your customers as guests or maintaining the underlying philosophy throughout your company culture, the bottom-line is understanding this mentality and championing it throughout your entire organization in the direction of building a better brand, increased customer loyalty, and ultimately a better customer experience.

The Disney Customer

Walt Disney made this famous with Disneyland’s iconic customer service and transformable customer experience. Disney called all the employees “cast members” and called all customers/visitor “guests.” Walt Disney may epitomize this philosophy and have taken it to an extreme extent, but if applied to a fraction of the degree as Disneyland, your customer service and experience will translate to a better interaction with your brand for your guests. This is not to say you need to turn your franchise or business into Disneyland, but understand that details matter and every single customer’s experience may be a new one. Continue reading Guests, Not Customers