SEPTEMBER 04

“You have to treat your employees like your customers. When you treat them right, they will treat your outside customers right.”

—Herb Kelleher, former CEO, Southwest Airlines

TREAT THEM RIGHT

You treat your customers right—right? You’re polite. You make sure they have a good experience at your business. You try to meet their needs. You treat them like they matter.

And that, it turns out, is the same way you should treat your employees.

Contrary to popular belief, treating an employee as a customer doesn’t mean you give him a free ride—it means you respect him and assist him in meeting his goals.

As F.Robert Salerno, Avis president, put it, “At Avis, where we famously ‘try harder’ for customers, we have formalized a way for our managers to recognize and reward their people. We do it because we see a true ‘value chain’ through which motivated employees become more likely to motivate customer loyalty.”

Go ahead, treat employees right. They’ll treat your customers to an amazing level of customer service.