1 00:00:06,050 --> 00:00:10,750 I think it’s funny when we are given advice to always put the customer first. 2 00:00:10,750 --> 00:00:15,450 That means employees come second inherently if you’re going to put customer first. 3 00:00:15,450 --> 00:00:16,850 Customers come and go. 4 00:00:16,850 --> 00:00:21,680 Obviously we want to work to keep them loyal but its employees who spend more time at work 5 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:22,680 than they do with their families. 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:27,669 It’s employees who are asking to give their blood and sweat and tears to advance our vision. 7 00:00:27,669 --> 00:00:32,890 And so it’s a leader’s responsibility to take care of the people first and the people 8 00:00:32,890 --> 00:00:35,850 will take care of each other and the customer. 9 00:00:35,850 --> 00:00:42,430 Any leader who prioritizes a customer literally saying I care more about an external constituency 10 00:00:42,430 --> 00:00:45,360 than I do about the people who are actually working here. 11 00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:50,059 The funny thing is a company like Southwest Airlines, a company like Costco that are renowned 12 00:00:50,059 --> 00:00:54,260 for their customer service as matters of policy do not believe the customer is always right. 13 00:00:54,260 --> 00:00:56,600 They do not believe that the customer comes first. 14 00:00:56,600 --> 00:01:02,660 The irony is is these great customer service companies actually care first about their 15 00:01:02,660 --> 00:01:08,390 own people, their employees and they expect their employees to care about their customers. 16 00:01:08,390 --> 00:01:11,690 Let me tell you a story, a true story. 17 00:01:11,690 --> 00:01:15,000 Some months ago I stayed at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas. 18 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:20,520 It is a wonderful hotel and the reason it’s a wonderful hotel is not because of the fancy 19 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:21,520 beds. 20 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:22,720 Any hotel can buy a fancy bed. 21 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:24,440 It’s because of the people who work there. 22 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:28,120 Now when you walk the halls of the Four Seasons and someone says hello to you, you really 23 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,710 get the sense that they wanted to say hello, not that they were told to say hello. 24 00:01:31,710 --> 00:01:38,010 So in the lobby of the Four Seasons they have a coffee bar and one afternoon I went to buy 25 00:01:38,010 --> 00:01:41,780 a cup of coffee and I happened to be served by a barista named Noah. 26 00:01:41,780 --> 00:01:42,780 Noah was wonderful. 27 00:01:42,780 --> 00:01:43,780 He was fantastic. 28 00:01:43,780 --> 00:01:44,780 He was friendly. 29 00:01:44,780 --> 00:01:45,780 He was funny. 30 00:01:45,780 --> 00:01:46,780 He was engaging. 31 00:01:46,780 --> 00:01:48,690 I think I ended up giving a 100 percent tip. 32 00:01:48,690 --> 00:01:53,000 And so as is my way I asked Noah do you like your job here? 33 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,710 And Noah said I love my job here. 34 00:01:55,710 --> 00:01:59,890 So I followed up and said what is it that the Four Seasons is doing that would make 35 00:01:59,890 --> 00:02:01,540 you say to me I love my job? 36 00:02:01,540 --> 00:02:06,110 And without skipping a beat he said throughout the day managers will walk past me and ask 37 00:02:06,110 --> 00:02:07,560 me how I’m doing. 38 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:09,890 They’ll ask me if I need anything to do my job any better. 39 00:02:09,890 --> 00:02:12,770 He said not just my manager, any manager. 40 00:02:12,770 --> 00:02:14,330 And then he said something magical. 41 00:02:14,330 --> 00:02:19,060 He said I also work at Caesar’s Palace and there the managers walk past and make sure 42 00:02:19,060 --> 00:02:20,060 we’re doing everything right. 43 00:02:20,060 --> 00:02:21,840 They catch is if we’re doing anything wrong. 44 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:24,100 There I just try to get through the day. 45 00:02:24,100 --> 00:02:27,890 I keep my head below the radar and I just want to cash my paycheck. 46 00:02:27,890 --> 00:02:29,060 Same person. 47 00:02:29,060 --> 00:02:31,750 And the customer will have a different experience not because of Noah. 48 00:02:31,750 --> 00:02:33,500 Noah is a good guy. 49 00:02:33,500 --> 00:02:39,170 The customer will have a different experience because of how the management regards Noah. 50 00:02:39,170 --> 00:02:42,830 Does management believe Noah is the number one priority or does management believe that 51 00:02:42,830 --> 00:02:44,730 the customer is the number one priority? 52 00:02:44,730 --> 00:02:49,560 And again the irony is is it’s the organization that believes that Noah is more important 53 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,240 that then Noah is better capable of taking care of the customer. 54 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:58,130 It is a linear process and I think so many people in business forget that. 55 00:02:58,130 --> 00:03:01,200 Yes, of course ultimately you want the customer to be happy. 56 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:02,200 Of course. 57 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:07,650 But the methodology is actually to prioritize the wellbeing of our people. 58 00:03:07,650 --> 00:03:12,790 I think the wrong thinking about customers comes from the fact that we look at results 59 00:03:12,790 --> 00:03:14,570 more than we look at process. 60 00:03:14,570 --> 00:03:17,870 Results are much easier to measure and so we talk about profit first. 61 00:03:17,870 --> 00:03:19,910 That’s because it’s easy to measure. 62 00:03:19,910 --> 00:03:24,310 We talk about, we prioritize literally money over trust because how do you measure trust? 63 00:03:24,310 --> 00:03:25,680 It’s more difficult. 64 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:27,900 The same with customer service. 65 00:03:27,900 --> 00:03:32,100 The result would be great customer service but the process is the long, hard work of 66 00:03:32,100 --> 00:03:36,460 building a strong culture in which the people take care of each other so that they can take 67 00:03:36,460 --> 00:03:37,460 care of the customer. 68 00:03:37,460 --> 00:03:40,150 That, it’s more ethereal and harder to measure. 69 00:03:40,150 --> 00:03:44,430 I can measure customer loyalty, customer service and sales and return business and things like 70 00:03:44,430 --> 00:03:45,430 that. 71 00:03:45,430 --> 00:03:49,209 So I think it’s human nature to go to the thing that we can easily see and easily count. 72 00:03:49,209 --> 00:03:54,050 And in the case of customer service that would be the end product, not the process that got 73 00:03:54,050 --> 00:03:54,360 us there.