Employee Satisfaction is Job #1

If you Google customer satisfaction is job #1 these days you’ll get around 300 hits but the phrase is arguably misleading. In NBRI BLOG’s 10 Factors That Affect Customer Satisfaction, they point out that it’s not really customers who should come first, but employees:

…the jumping off point for customer satisfaction doesn’t start with the customer at all. It actually starts in-house, with the employee.

“The single most important factor that affects customer satisfaction is employee satisfaction,” says Howard J. Ross, president of a Maryland-based consulting firm. “Employees who feel satisfied and happy at their jobs naturally tend to be more helpful and considerate toward customers. It’s simple logic. If I like my job and the company I work for, I’m going to communicate to customers that we have a good product.”

Reading this reminded me of last year’s HR.com interview with Dr. David Sirota:

I want to say a few things about X and Y generations and other generations, but first with regard to loyalty, it’s quite true. The evidence is clear. Employees are less loyal today. But does that mean that the basic psychology of people has changed? Of course not. What has happened is that companies have changed. They are less loyal to employees.

By the way, that “Maryland-based consulting firm” in the NBRI post is cook ross.