Earlier this week I was talking with a college student about a job he has to help pay his tuition and expenses. He works part-time in a fulfillment warehouse, sorting packages.
Based on his job description, he stands at the corner of a conveyor belt. As packages roll by he pulls out the packages slated for his “area” of the warehouse and ensures the remaining packages go on to the next area. He quickly takes the packages he’s pulled out for his area and places them all onto another conveyor for other employees to sort and place onto specific pallets to be shipped out.
Then he explained, “But I’ve also started placing similar boxes together and stacking them. It helps make the job easier for the next people down the line.”
*RECORD SCRATCH*
*FREEZE FRAME*
Whoah! What?!
Roll that back a few seconds and listen again to what he just said. “It helps make the job easier for the next people down the line.”
This is a college student working part-time for hourly wages, and he just said that beyond his job description he tries to make his fellow team members’ jobs easier too.
Before he’s even graduated college and started his professional career, he’s already learned and instilled a lesson that I teach to seasoned business leaders:
No matter where you are in your company, you have customers. You have your external customers and you have numerous internal customers.
It’s not a common concept, and it may not even be commonly accepted. But imagine how much more successful, efficient and effective your organization would be if every one of your team members treated each other the way you expect them to treat your end customers.
Your company’s customers expect a simple experience – one that makes their lives easier. Guess what? Everyone you work for, and everyone you work with wants the same thing.
With that in mind, who all are your customers?
Your company’s customers? Of course they’re your customers.
But how about these?
Your leadership chain? Your customer.
Your board? Your customer.
Your team members? Your customer.
Your peers? Your customer.
The other functional areas and teams you collaborate with? Your customer.
Your vendors or agencies or freelancers that you pay? Still your customer.
Now that you’ve identified all of your customers, it’s your job to think through and plan how you can provide a simple experience to each of them.
Good news. The same behaviors that create a SIMPLE experience for your external customers can create a SIMPLE experience for your internal customers.
Simple never stops.
Innovate to stay ahead.
Minimize barriers.
Prune it back.
Lose the jargon.
Empathize with customers.
When you start treating everyone you work with like your customer they’ll remain more loyal to your company. They’ll treat other team members like their customers. They’ll create simpler experiences for your company’s end customers. Then your customers will become even more loyal to you. And your business will thrive.
It’s that SIMPLE.
