We all have heard that to survive in this competitive world companies, big or small, have to put “customer first” in their everyday’s life. The existence of every business depends on its customers. Thats why rule number one is customer first.

Even when the customers are fussy beyond reasons, we need to still listen to them. Being able to satisfy these fussiness make us persistence and resilience beyond reasons…which at the end make us stronger as organization in this competitive world.

But what if, when listening and entertaining these customers, organization put too much pressure to their employees?. What if instead make them resilience, they fractured? There is a saying “when you hold a glass tighter, it won’t get any stronger. Instead it will crack”. What goods will it bring in such a case?

So it makes me wonder : should we put customer first or employee first?. Which one is harder to get?. Which onr define your success?

That reminds me of Richard Branson, the founder of virgin air. If I remember correctly, he said “treat your employee well, then they will treat your customer well”. He even added that “we should train your employee well so that they actually can leave you. But treat them so they dont want to leave you”. Nice isn’t it?.

What is interesting is,  Richard Branson line of business is not in premium segment. If I am not mistaken, his line of business is more to affordable segment. This segment typically has low margin and hence relies heavily on effectiveness and efficiency.

Thats actually the silver lining of his philosophy. Because margin is low and it is important to be effective and efficient, employees must come first. Only by having a great employees and team your customers can be satisfied and won over.

Selling an affordable products also mean the employee most probably will not get paid much as well. Thats mean we need to recruit employees who dont put “money” as their first motivation. So instead we need to trigger other motivation elements, such as “acknowledgement”, “power”, “nice environments/friends” or others.

Is that mean we should always put customer after employee?. Well i guess the answer is no. When your product is premium one, you can sell  it at high margin, getting customers is harder than recruiting employees. In this case we need to prioritize customers first. Employee will come later naturally. Higher margin mean you can afford to pay higher salary, and hence finding employees will be easier.

But when you sell low margin products, finding smart but affordable employees is necessity but not that easy. This is when we better put employee first and become Richard Branson.