J. Schmidt Loyalty Starts at the Top Today's businesses are losing customers and employees in record numbers. Customer loyalty is on the decline but many companies are treating the symptoms, instead of the causes of their customer retention problems. Customer loyalty is the responsibility of everyone within an organization. It must start internally and be a 'top-down' initiative. CEOs, business owners and senior management need to recognize that their employees are their primary customers.
Employees deserve and expect the same caring service that is given to the external customers.
In order to create a loyalty-focused culture, customer service training needs to start at the top. Customer loyalty is earned by consistently exceeding customer and employee expectations with outstanding service. This can only be achieved when managers are held accountable for their internal customer service skills how they deal with their employees and co-workers. Employee attitudes are significantly affected by the way employees are treated by upper management. One of the most important aspects of improving customer retention is a total commitment to loyalty by the CEO or business owner.