Add Value

Do you know how much I love the warm cookies they serve at the Doubletree?  I think about them when I am at other hotels.

We often focus on adding value with your customers, that’s easy… get to know your customers and their business better than they do.  But what about the value within your own company?

As mentioned in an article by Fast Company, research shows that the more leaders achieve, the more we tend to want to “be right”.  Suggestions at the CEO level can come off as an order to your employees, even if you don’t want them to.

If you want to add value to your customers’ experience, then make sure to add value within your own company first.

• Spend time with your employees asking them questions.  You will turn your employees into your customers’ associates.  They will all start working to improve your bottom line
• Involve everyone in every aspect of the business.  I believe in complete transparency and making everyone feel like they are involved in the big picture (something you cannot do in many big businesses)
• Chart progress. Set clear goals and follow budgets – but don’t pick out the small mistakes.  Trust your people enough to make small mistakes that won’t cost you much, but are of great value for them to learn from.
• Reward good behavior. Remember to keep your company’s mood positive.

If you create brand ambassadors within the company, then it will expand to outside the company.  Running through a gauntlet is a lot easier when you have a stampede to run it with you.