Happy Employees, Healthy Profits

If you are a business owner in the unenviable position of dealing with unhappy customers you are likely working hard to find out why your customers feeling are this way. One place you might not be looking to as the source of your customer satisfaction issues—but should be—is the happiness level of your employees.

According to several studies, businesses whose employees are happy, motivated and engaged have almost twice the amount of revenues as those whose employees are unhappy, unmotivated and disengaged. It is not hard to understand why. After all, when was the last time you were motivated to do business with someone who seemed miserable?
So how can you make sure that your employees are happy and engaged? Many business owners believe higher salaries and better benefits will do the trick, but this is rarely the case. Instead, making sure employees understand the important role they play in customer satisfaction is often the key.

The happiest employees know their customers well because they have a great deal of information about their customers. This helps them to better understand their customers and feel more in control. They also are able to better relate to them. It makes sense. Helping someone you feel as if you know is much more satisfying than trying to please someone you know almost nothing about.

It is also important that specific customers are always directed to the employees that specialize in what these customers need and have a specific knowledge of the products and services they require. This allows employees to better do their job which leads to a satisfied customer. And satisfied customers are more likely to provide positive feedback. Positive feedback is a great motivator so employees who receive such feedback will work even harder. When this cycle continues to repeat itself, everyone wins—the customer, the employee and the business owner.

If you still aren’t convinced that happy employees are the key to increased profits, consider this: Profits at companies that were recognized by Forbes Magazine in 2014 as one of the top 100 companies to work for saw an increase in profits of over 22 percent from 2014 to 2015.

Investing in the happiness of your employees can send your employees’ spirits—and your revenues—through the roof. And that gives everyone something to smile about!