Employee engagement sparks customer loyalty

This story is simply one of the basic lessons in life – and in business even more so.

People have long memories, they move from company to company. Some of the lessons I learnt 20 years ago as a young marketer I keep with me today.
This story is one I want to share with my children. If we get this right… then really the world is a great place to be every day. We live in a fantastic country – have you ever heard of the concept “Play it forward”?
The story concerns a father and son (thanks to Richard Sauerman for the inspiration on this one).

A dad and his son were walking in a forest. Suddenly the son tripped, and feeling a sharp pain he screamed out “Arrrghhhhhh!” Then he heard a voice coming back from the mountain: “Arrrghhhhhh!”
Filled with curiosity, he screamed out again: “Who are you?” And the voice screamed back again: “Who are you?”
This got him a little frustrated, so he hollered out “You are a coward!” Again the voice hollered back: “You are a coward!”
He looked at his father and asked, “Dad what is going on?” His Dad smiled, and said “Listen to this”. Then he screamed out, “I admire you!”. The voice screamed back: “I admire you!”
“You are wonderful!” The voice shouted back: “You are wonderful!”
The son still looked confused. So his dad explained.
“People call this an ‘echo’, but what it really is, is ‘life’. Life always gives you back what you give out. If you want love, if you want to be happy, then make others happy. If you want kindness, be kind to others. If you want respect and understanding, be understanding and show respect.”
“Life is a mirror of your actions.”

                    Author unknown.

The satisfaction mirror in organisations is so similar. (That is, companies that have high employee engagement will also have much higher customer loyalty.)

If you love your employees, listen to them, respect them, and value their contribution – they will deliver it back in bucket loads, not just to the business, but to customers. And customers of course are the source of our success.
Employees are the new customers.
We have never needed our employees more than we need them now in challenging times.

Naomi is the 2008 National Telstra Women’s Business Award winner for Innovation. Naomi was also a finalist for the Australian HR Awards and a finalist for the BRW Most Admired Business Owner Award in 2008. Also in 2008 RedBalloon achieved a 97% Hewitt employee engagement score. One of Australia’s outstanding female entrepreneurs, Naomi regularly entertains as a professional speaker inspiring middle to high-level leaders on employer branding, engagement and reward and recognition. Naomi writes a blog and has written a book sharing the lessons from her first five years.

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