I've been a customer champion for most of my career. But with the likes of Richard Branson saying it's employees first, customers second, my confidence was beginning to slide a little.

Thank goodness, therefore, for some new research from Global RepTrak® that has finally confirmed what I have always believed. Customers care about themselves first and foremost!

It was a chart I first saw on MarketingCharts.com that alerted me to this work by RepTrak™. I wanted to take a look behind these numbers and try to understand why some influencers have been pushing employee centricity.

Products And Services Are Key

The first four factors of reputation are all product related. Therefore it's clear that customers think about themselves first.

Great customer service won't make up for a terrible product or service offer. So every organisation needs to ensure that what they propose is the very best they possibly can.

However, it is also true that the quality and value you offer depend to a large extent on the quality of your employees in delivering it. If employees are not motivated to give their best, then what they deliver will be sub-optimal.

This is why it is essential that everyone within a company understands their role in satisfying the customer. One of the quickest ways I have found to achieve this is by providing regular access to the customer. Once an employee sees and understands what they can do to increase satisfaction, they are much more likely to do it.

Employees Are An Important Touchpoint

It was P&G who coined the phrase "the first moment of truth" in referring to the shopping experience. I would add employees, at least in retail and other consumer-facing industries, as a close second. However, the vast majority of products are made by companies that rarely, if ever, come into direct contact with their customers.

Now it's true that in the service industry employees matter to the customers, but I am still not convinced they come first. I think customers will judge a hotel, a restaurant or an airline based primarily on the product and value, just like in any other industry. However, it is obvious that loyalty is impacted by and depends upon the service offered.

Shep Hyken wrote a great piece last week on this topic called "Customer Service Means Never Saying Never (But If You Must, Say It In A Different Way)". In it, he talks about the customer NOT always being right.

As he says "You really can’t win an argument with a customer. If you “win,” it means the customer has “lost,” and you could end up losing the customer."

Companies Should Be Ethical

Going back to the RepTrack report, it is interesting to see that ethical and fair practices score above average, yet treating employees fairly and rewarding them appropriately score well below average. Again this confirms that it is what directly impacts the customer that matters most to them.

An organisation's impact on society matters more to customers than their fairness to their employees. In other words, it's the higher order practices of corporate social responsibility that enable the customer to feel good about spending their money with the company.

Employees Are Still Important

Coming back to Branson's position about the importance of employees, there is one of his comments that I do support. He said in an Inc interview that

“Unhappy employees can ruin the brand experience for numerous customers.”

Clearly, this is an extreme situation and management should do everything to treat their employees well; that just makes good business sense. Unhappy employees will impact your product quality and the motivation of others, not just that of your customers.

However, why don't employees ever ask the question about the impact of their behaviour on the customers? And if that customer was their wife, daughter, family member or friend, would that make a difference? Perhaps, but it shouldn't; as human beings, we should want to treat every other person fairly. At least that's what I think.