There’s a growing disconnect in our world and I will call it people vs numbers. When you work in a service industry, whether that’s financial services, retail, food or another type, the bills are paid by the customers, or clientele that come in the door and part with their hard-earned.
The business of doing business is about people, interacting in a pleasant way and providing a great experience. Public-facing staff know this, they are the ones with the shining eyes and smiles that encourage spending.
Above the coalface there are the direct managers, middle managers, senior management and in bigger companies, the C-Suite. Layers upon layers of managers that rely on the people at the coalface to provide them with a living, unless they have a hands-on role that generates direct income. You would think it’s incumbent on them to keep their staff happy and also talk to bigger clients, to make sure they are content and have communication.
When management think of both their staff and their clients as numbers instead of people it dehumanises us, people like you, me, your Mum. Does she deserve to be called customer 1273, or Employee number 0142 instead of Julie?
People can be represented by numbers on a page, very true. I used to provide stats on the number of business visits and people seen. While it’s a gauge to measure activity, it doesn’t capture the value added by an employee who is passionate about a company they work for or the product being sold.
In our increasingly online world, it’s common to desire an experience, an interaction, with a person who is genuinely interested in us, in creating great outcomes and garnering trust. That’s what makes people sticky, creating brand loyalty. It’s not about numbers sold, turnover and the bottom line.
For internal staff and managers, there’s value in being helpful, working together and understanding that everyone is in the same boat, on the same side. Internal competition unravels teams as everyone guards their clients, intellectual property and budgets. Keep the goal in mind, and build; teams, businesses, and people.