The Growth Pyramid – Easiest Path to Maximizing Profitable Growth
All businesses are competing to achieve profitable growth in today’s competitive
marketplace. In order to achieve profitable growth a business must have strong
customer retention. This in turn, comes from customer satisfaction. Customer
satisfaction directly relates to employee satisfaction – if employees are pleased and
fulfilled this will translate to satisfied customers. In order for employee satisfaction to
occur the proper foundation must be built. This can be easiest to represent through a
pyramid.
All successful companies know the value of profitable growth. All growth is not created
equal-not all growth is profitable. Profitable growth enables companies to retain good
employees, reward performance and invest in the future. Profitable growth is key to all
things good in the business world.
Once it is understood and established that profitable growth is important, the next step is
to explore how to achieve this growth. The foundation of profitable growth is customer
retention. It is impossible to achieve profitable growth without retaining current customers. New customer acquisition requires investing a tremendous amount of
precious resources including time, merchandise and funds. According to Leading on the
Edge of Chaos, acquiring new customers can cost five times more than satisfying and
retaining current customers. Maintaining existing customers does not require that same
level of investment. A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits
as cutting costs by 10%.* To learn more about the four steps to improving customer
retention and growing your market share
click here.
Satisfied customers are customers that forge a long lasting relationship with a company
because they have no reason to explore other options. Finding the solution to customer
satisfaction can be tricky. The keys to customer satisfaction are not game day tickets or
the gift of a fancy dinner. Customer Appreciation Days and cookouts are thoughtful, but
at best these drive customer appreciation (not to be confused with customer loyalty).
The best way to achieve customer satisfaction is to provide your customer with a high
quality customer service represenative that is satisfied, cares about his company and his
committed to delivering value to his customers. There is a direct connection between
satisfied employees and satisfied customers. Satisfied employees will be a customer
advocate, have a more positive attitude and generally provide a better overall customer
experience.
The next step in The Growth Pyramid is discovering the key to making an employee
happy. The most productive and satisfied employees have achieved a balance of time,
income and employer respect. An employee who makes great money but works 70
hours a week does not have the time to enjoy his income with his family. There is great
value in rounding out the employee experience by inviting their feedback and opinions
on an on-going basis. This is showing your employees respect. No amount of Christmas
bonus or holiday turkey can compete with the value of feeling empowered and respected
in the workplace.
Successful companies understand they should focus the majority of their attention on
employee satisfaction. This may sound counterintuitive because it may seem on the
surface that employee satisfaction is not responsible for profitable growth. Happy
employees contribute to the type of organization that pulls employees and customers
where they want them to go instead of pushing them in that direction. Employees
support achievement that leads to being a part of a winning a team. Employee
accountability in conjunction with a positive work environment and fair compensation will
lead a company to success.
Owners that want to improve overall profitable growth should not focus on growth. Yes,
you read that correctly. Conversely, focus on giving your employees a fair balance of
income, time and respect. From this The Growth Pyramid is born. From well-rounded,
happy employees comes that satisfied customer detailed above. Satisfied customers
equal retained customers which equals profitable growth. It may seem backwards not to
focus on growth to grow your business. Focus your time, energy and money on the
people and your business will respond favorably.
It can be difficult but the key here is to change points of view from output to in-put. At the
end of the day, focus on the people. Empower and trust your employees. Employers
should harness the power of the employees and give them a defined vision. To learn
more about steps your company can take to creating a vision
click here to read our article,
Four Steps to Drive and Measure Success for Textile Rentals Employees respond to and respect
a vision and will deliver results yielding success for the entire organization.
* "Leading on the Edge of Chaos"
,Emmett C. Murphy & Mark A. Murphy
Click here to download the PDF
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