“Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right.”
Henry Ford

Everything about the economy is bad these days. Unemployment is rising rapidly. The housing industry is in free fall. The automotive industry is collapsing. Experts believe that GDP may actually shrink this year. At the same time, consumers are being squeezed by rising credit card rates and dramatic losses in retirement fund accounts. For any business, these are uncertain times.

For many companies, the knee-jerk reaction to this situation is to slash budgets, lay off workers, and batten down the hatches. Too much risk. Way too much uncertainty. Unfortunately, these decisions are often misplaced or mistimed because they are made outside the context of a strategic plan. This is critical: in the absence of a defining strategy, any decision is potentially a good one – or a bad one. How can you really tell? The point is that many businesses tend to flounder in uncertain times because they lack any semblance of a plan to guide their decision-making.

The question, however, is whether or not there is opportunity in this current economic uncertainty. Invariably, the answer is yes, and the savvy business owner will seek to identify and capitalize on those opportunities. Case in point: when auto dealerships began to suffer from declining new car sales, some immediately revised their market strategies to capitalize on used car sales. Auto Data Corporation reports that, while new car sales were down 30 percent in January 2009, sales of pre-owned cars increased 10 percent. Some dealerships are revising their business models to initiate programs to aggressively acquire used cars, provide longer-term used-car warranties, and improve repair and maintenance services for customers.

Those businesses that see opportunity in uncertainty will invariably flourish.

Success, however, always begins with a plan.

As a manager, what would you say is the ultimate objective of your employees? If you answer is “to do his/her job well” or “reach their performance objectives” you would be consistent with the answer given by most managers. However, while job performance is certainly essential to success, it is all too easy to overlook the point that, ultimately, every employee’s objective is to to serve the customer!

Stephen Covey has said that management is “efficiency in climbing the ladder of success”, while leadership “determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.” In this case, the good leader makes sure that his/her employees understand that their primary responsibility is to delight the customer – internal and/or external. This small, but critical, detail is often completely overlooked!

I had the opportunity to experience recently what happens when companies forget this key concept (read the painful details here). “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”

Mahatma Gandhi In “doing their job”, two employees that I encountered completely forgot that customers are the reason they have a job function to perform. I made a special trip to a doctor’s office to pay an amount due for an office visit made by my son the day before. When I presented payment, I was informed that the office couldn’t take my money because “the invoice hasn’t been built yet.” I suggested that they might take the money and then apply the payment when said invoice was ready. No dice, they said.

No, seriously.

A company works very, very hard to create customers that pay for the products and services that, in turn, pay salaries and create a profit for the stakeholders. Does it make sense that employees receive little, if any, direction on how best to serve those customers?

In some cases, the “customer” is an internal one. For example, the payroll department serves the company’s employees by providing an accurate paycheck with all of the appropriate bonuses, deductions, withdrawals, etc. How effectively this job is done directly affects the morale of all of the company’s employees. Those in payroll should be instructed to see these internal “customers” as their first and foremost responsibility.

Internal or external customer; it doesn’t matter – every job should be connected to a customer in some way. Here are some keys to keeping your employees “customer-focused”:

1. Identify each employee’s internal and external customer(s)
2. Create expectations for serving those customers
3. Train your employees to serve those customers effectively
4. Discuss the importance of attitude in serving customers