Customer-centricity and employer reputation

An article by Alan Mitchell writing in Marketing Week (April 9, 2009 pp.24-25) questions the meaning and value of businesses being customer-centric. He puts forward a number of definitions of customer-centricity and concentrates much of his attention on one of its guiding principles, that happy staff make happy customers. Mitchell takes a quote from Professor James L Heskett from Harvard Business School, who is attributed with originally identifying the direct causational relationship between employee loyalty, productivity and customer satisfaction, stating that "it was never as strong as we hoped". Furthermore, Mitchell suggests that there are staff who have managers who terrify them into 'going the extra mile' meaning happy customers but miserable staff. He also claims that there are sometimes companies who employ staff that have so much fun while they work that they forget the customer - meaning happy staff but miserable customers. He then puts forward the view that new, customer-centric strategies should focus on disloyal, not loyal customers and organisations should forget trying to delight or even satisfy customers but should concentrate on stopping doing dumb things to customers instead.

So, why my interest in this article? Well, firstly it is directly relevant to my current employment situation and secondly, it places a question mark over the foundations on which I have built my view of employer reputation. Let me explain both of these points:

Employment status is an interesting one. Currently, I am full-time employed but soon to be full-time unemployed. My status is officially 'at risk' which I liken to that stage after you've had your house robbed or your car stolen when you are a 'victim'. I am a victim of the economic downturn, a victim of cost-cutting; I am a victim of an organisation that has 'strategised' that it needs to become more customer centric and has in PR speak, decided on a root and branch review of its structure. So, as of the 16th June I will become a statistic, I will be redundant. Am I bitter about this? Not really, I understand the reasons, in fact I'd go so far as to place on record that I support the decision but that doesn't mean I have to like it. For the purposes of managing my own reputation and in the words of Forrest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that"......for the time being.

On first reading of Alan Mitchell's article, I was left feeling like my dreams and beliefs had been shattered. Mr Mitchell was the boy in the playground who had told me that Santa wasn't real or the Eastenders scriptwriter who decided to have Danielle mown down by a car straight after revealing her true identity to Ronnie. Happy employees make happy customers, it has to be true. The Corporate Reputation Chain says so. If you recruit, retain and engage employees then they will deliver the sort of customer service that will attract customers, satisfy them and keep them loyal which in turn will drive sales and profitability. Apparently not, according to Mitchell this is a flawed fairy tale.

Okay, so maybe the slipper doesn't fit Cinderella perfectly or maybe the prince that kissed Snow White wasn't that handsome but there's still a happy ending. And that is the case with the reputation chain and its guiding premise over employer reputation. It's an ideal and doesn't necessarily represent reality. It would take a lot more for Mr Mitchell to convince me otherwise, that if you employ talented and motivated people it is easier and more realistic to stop doing dumb things to customers. Who knows, you may even get a reputation for it.