Employees Need Gratitude Marketing Too

We have previously discussed why Gratitude Marketing must be part of our relationships with our prospects and customers. We have discussed how karma plays a major part of our business success. We have also discussed how asking our customers, both current and former, to discuss how our business rates with them and discussed how we should listen with an open mind to their comments. There is another group of people who we must ask about our operation and our performance as a business. That is our employees.

Every business that has employees must consider them as a valuable asset to the business, one of the most valuable. These people are not mindless drones, but can be the portion of our business which makes it a wild success. Readers of The Costco Connection magazine have an excellent article in the October, 2019 edition, All Aboard by Fiona Jamison. In her article Fiona discusses that business owners must gain the engagement of their employees in order to increase profits and productivity. A disengaged workforce results in high turnover, absenteeism, and low morale.

How do we determine that our employees are disengaged? Well, since we are basically clueless if we do not know that answer, we must ask them. Asking for this information must be with an open mind with no repercussions for their honesty. If our employees fear your backlash, they will not be honest and we have bigger problems. Perhaps they can trust us better if they see similar information gathering from our customers.

Don’t get upset or take it action against the employee. After all we asked for honesty. Fix the problems, one at a time, and afterwards ask for feedback again. Maybe allowing our employees to have a part in the problem fixing process can result in better relations and more success. Fixing one problem completely is better than halfway fixing many. The more complicated problems will require more time and effort, but some progress, with employee input, will improve morale.

There is one employee we must never ignore, ourselves. If our morale is bad, nothing good will result. After all, we became business owners to be happier. If we are not, what happened? We must take stock every now and then and be honest with ourselves. If you have engaged employees, maybe they can help fix ourselves.

Of course, spreading some Gratitude Marketing to our employees, and to ourselves, can result in a great success level in our business. Celebrating success, even at small accomplishments, can make a big difference in morale, self-confidence, and spirit. Employees who feel good about what they accomplish make better business partners, and that is what our employees should be.

So how is the morale in our businesses? Are our employees our business partners or are they just biding their time until they leave for happier and greener pastures? What about the employee that is closest to us, ourselves? Can we say that we treat everyone with Gratitude Marketing, and we mean everyone? Please leave me your comments, or email me at Jim@JimTeasley.com, or call me at 360-314-8691.