Customer-Centric Strategies – 5 Tips for Putting People First in Your Business
Customer-Centric Strategies – 5 Tips for Putting People First in Your Business
When profit is your ultimate goal in business, it’s easy to let everything else fall by the wayside. You just expect your employees to keep making you money without putting any time or money into them.
However, a people-first business is one that can keep your business productive, profitable, and highly regarded in your community. Customer-centric strategies – 5 tips for putting people first in your business.If you need a helping hand with strategies to start putting people first, start with some of the following:
1. Reward Good Performance
We can sometimes take it for granted that our employees will always put their best foot forward and go the extra mile for our businesses. However, their commitment to you can start to wane if they aren’t rewarded or recognised for good performance.
Get into the habit of providing gifts and incentives, such as quality corporate gifts, extra time off, and other perks. Even a free lunch every now and again can be all it takes to make employees feel valued.
2. Listen to Feedback
Your business might operate like a well-oiled machine, but that doesn’t mean employees don’t have issues, frustrations, or grievances. Failure to acknowledge any problems can result in very dissatisfied employees. Dissatisfied employees don’t always provide the best customer service, and your overall business reputation can suffer.
Given that over 70% of Australian workers aren’t happy, it might be time to start listening to employee feedback. Something as simple as addressing their concerns and making a few small workplace changes may make a world of difference.
3. Encourage Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is all about managing competing life and work commitments. When you achieve a balance between the two, you can work hard and still have time for life’s simple pleasures. Business owners also benefit since excellent work-life balance can result in reduced staff turnover, reduced absenteeism, and increased productivity, among other benefits.
If you’re trying to put people first in your business, make sure you’re encouraging your employees to achieve work-life balance. This can involve providing more flexible hours, promoting hybrid and remote work models, and not requiring employees to work late, do overtime, or check emails and phone messages after business hours.
4. Implement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies (DEI)
Diverse and inclusive workplaces make everyone feel welcome, valued, and respected. Business owners with DEI policies often embrace thought and perspective diversity and ensure their everyday working environment is one in which their employees can thrive.
In return, they enjoy many benefits, such as innovation, customer satisfaction, creativity, and employment engagement. If your workplace doesn’t yet have a DEI policy, now might be the right time to implement one. At a minimum, consider hiring a DEI consultant to understand what your business needs to do to become a diverse, people-first business.
5. Invest in Learning and Development
Working in the same job day in and day out can sometimes get tiring. Many employees want their managers to provide learning and development opportunities so they can upskill and put themselves in the running for career-changing promotions.
If you don’t typically provide learning and development opportunities, now might be the right time to start. Employees may be more likely to stay with your company and give you the most productive version of themselves when they believe you appreciate them enough to invest in them.
Despite many businesses being financially successful, that doesn’t mean they’re people-focused. Over time, dissatisfied employees can lead to unhappy customers and a suffering reputation. Don’t let it get to that point. Take some of these people-first approaches above to transform your business into one that values its employees.
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