Why Teamwork Is the Key to Customer Satisfaction Yes, the customer should be put first in just about everything, but your team's cohesion is just as important.
By Lucas Miller Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Making a contribution and serving others allow you to receive value just as much. It requires a mindset of service leadership where managers and professionals check their ego and tirelessly serve customers. Jeff Bezos describes it as "customer obsession" but we all know it simply as being a generous person who makes an impact.
Leadership is not a crown. It's a burden — a responsibility to investors, customers, regulators. Global leaders ranked high ethical and moral standards (67 percent) as the top leadership competency out of 74 qualities, according to a 2016 study published by the Harvard Business Review. A leader must also be brutally honest because you can't fix problems by working with bad information.
Teamwork is possible when members help each other
A high-performance culture is possible when everyone in the organization works as a team. That requires focusing on making a contribution to colleagues, customers and stakeholders. Excellence requires sacrifice but there's also a price to pay for mediocrity.
Related: How to Easily Measure Customer Satisfaction
Just think of the consequences if most employees and executives of an organization were greedy, self-centered and apathetic about the larger mission. Sharp elbows would lead to a lack of coordination and demoralization, as well as people protecting their silos. Employees say stress and anxiety impact their work performance (56 percent), relationship with coworkers (51 percent) and quality of work (50 percent), according to Anxiety Disorder Association of America (ADAA). So there's a tremendous incentive for managers to establish a culture of teamwork and emotional support at the office.
In contrast, selfish people are toxic to an organization. They may achieve short-term quotas but in the long-term, they either lose interest (because they don't believe in the mission) or self-destruct, or both. Further, they don't do their best to add value to customers.
Service leadership is essential to building a high-performance organization. Individually, people help each other and collectively everyone achieves more.
A company must do its best to serve customers
Enterprise value comes from profitable relationships. When you do your best for customers, you gain something valuable: their trust. Any economic exchange requires trust and it can only be earned. According to a 2019 Edelman survey, 81 percent of respondents said they "must be able to trust the brand to do what is right" when making a purchase decision. And 75 percent said they value trust more than trendiness.
Related: 11 Tips on How to Handle Customer Complaints
To serve customers well requires truly understanding their needs and wants. That means listening to positive and negative feedback for the purpose of improving products and services. Businesses add value by making things convenient; by eliminating pain and reducing costs; and by creating great experiences.
Happy workplace equals happy customers
The root problem of a dysfunctional workplace is this: People put their petty agendas first. When workers compete for fancy titles and raises, they can be vicious when interests are in conflict or don't align. Covetous managers and professionals scheme to increase personal gain while doing the minimum to get it. They get jealous when peers are promoted for good work. And they falsely take credit for team members' contributions but unjustly blame colleagues, subordinates and contractors for their own mistakes.
Related: 5 Trends That Will Reshape Customer Service Over the Next 5 Years
There's synergy between a giver and an invisible hand that eventually gives back. So contribute as much as you can, whether in sales, leadership training, providing constructive feedback or developing future managers. Entrepreneurs and professionals succeed when they help clients, stakeholders, peers and even random strangers you meet at a conference or networking event.
