How Do You Make Your Employees and Customers Feel?

Jean Hanson

This week I'm sharing tips from lessons I learned from Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, after seeing his presentation at a conference we attended. Here is a statement he shared that I believe should resonate with all business owners:

"People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel."

This is called delivering happiness and can be applied to both customers AND employees. In order to create a customer experience that they'll remember, you must start with your employees, and this means creating a company culture. Your company culture should start with stating your company's core values.

The Number One core value for Zappos is "Deliver WOW Through Customer Service". In order to create a WOW moment for customers, the employees must be committed to the company's values. It starts by hiring the right people and asking them questions that directly relate to the company's core values. For example, one of their interview questions is "On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?" No, it's not your typical interview question, but the question is aligned with Core Value #3 - Create Fun and a Little Weirdness. The answer to questions like these give great insight to whether the potential employee will be a good fit for the company.

In order to figure out your company's core values, you must first ask yourself what are YOUR core values? Once you know that, you can start working on the list for your company. Start early, because this is harder than you think. Once you've committed to your company's core values, DO NOT set them aside in a file somewhere. The most important thing is to start living your brand and keep your core values in mind with everything you do.

If you want to own a cleaning company that has happy employees and customers who like how you make them feel, take time to give serious thought to your company's culture and core values.

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Jean Hanson helps owners of small cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through her online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for weekly cleaning tips at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com.