Treat Your Employees or Co-workers Like Customers

When the founder of Southwest Airlines was asked the secret to his company’s success, he simply said the following:

“You have to treat your employees like customers.”

Anyone in a customer-facing job aspires to some level of service. The best at what they do aspire to first class customer service. If you’ve flown Southwest (which I do many times each year), you know what I’m talking about. The employees always seem to be having the best time on the job. I also fly other airlines quite a bit. Not that they seem miserable, but there’s a much different aura coming from them.

The key here is to change the way you think. Whether you’re a CEO of a company or a front-line worker. If you treat your colleagues/employees like they’re customers you will get more collaborative productivity, more respect and will undoubtedly be happier with your job. Be careful though, you probably won’t be in that job for long because the best leaders are those who maintain this mindset, and you will be on your way to a promotion.