OOBE

So yesterday we took a look at The Harvard Business Review’s Service-Profit Chain. If you didn’t get a chance to read that. Check it out now.

What can we conclude from all of this data? It is loyal and productive employees that are the key element in the formula for creating customer loyalty. Our employees serve as the link between our products and services, and our customers. So we want pleasant, satisfied employees interacting with and creating value for our customers. But do we, really? Have we considered that what we ask, or make, our employees wear on the job either helps or hurts employee morale and affects their willingness and desire to create and deliver customer value? Have we acknowledged that a sub-standard uniform program compromises our ability to construct and sustain a work force of loyal and productive employees? Not to mention how it negatively affects our brand’s identity, impression, image, and impact? The fact is that nobody wants to be embarrassed by how they look, yet every day many of us put our employees in that position by asking or mandating that they wear uniforms of marginal quality, style, and taste.

A world-class uniform is just one ingredient in the recipe for creating happy, loyal employees, but it is an essential ingredient. Employees that feel good about how they look generally have a more positive attitude about what they do. And when employees feel good about what they do, they stick with you. Employees that stick with you have a way of engaging customers that stick with you, too. The uniform, employee satisfaction and loyalty, customer loyalty, growth and profit, they all go together. Let’s help keep it that way.

We’ve written a document, entitled “What’s the big deal about Uniforms?”. Check out point #4 to learn more about how the uniform affects your employee.