Customer second? I am used to saying "customer first", "customer first", "customer is God" and "customer is always right", but I hardly dare to think that customer is second. The title of "customer second" is attractive enough. To tell the truth, it was this title that made me buy it without hesitation. In recent years, competition has made the status of customers rise rapidly and become a strategic resource for enterprise development. The so-called "please pay attention to consumers" has become "please pay attention to consumers". So Wal-Mart's customer service principle ("First, the customer is always right. Article 2. If you have any questions about this, please refer to Article 1. " ) has become one of the most important basic principles in modern marketing management. We see that almost all enterprises regard "pursuing customer satisfaction" as the most fundamental task of enterprises; Almost all enterprises are racking their brains to consider how to provide goods and services at the price that customers are willing to pay, the convenient channel for purchase and the favorite time. Everyone says so, everyone does it, so everyone takes it for granted. Externally, enterprises will always emphasize "pursuing customer satisfaction"; Internally, "pursuing customer satisfaction" has also become an important criterion of enterprise management: when there is a dispute between employees and customers, the judgment basis of managers is always "the customer is always right", no matter whether employees are wronged or not, even some catering enterprises have special contribution awards for employees who swallow the flies found by customers from dishes alive! However, an American enterprise tells us with their management practice that only employees come first and customers come second can we really satisfy customers and create profits. Rosenberg International Group is a privately held company founded by McCarthy Rosenberg on 1892. After more than 80 years of operation, 1974, Rosenberg became the largest and most powerful travel agency in Philadelphia. At this time, Hall Rosenberg, the great-grandson of the founder Rosenberg Sr, joined the company. Hall Rosenberg leads Rosenberg. In the past 25 years, the annual sales revenue has increased from $20 million to $6.2 billion (and the annual growth rate is $65.438+0 billion), and the profit rate has remained above the average level of the same industry. Rosenberg has gradually developed into a global industry leader, with more than 5,300 employees and nearly 1 1,000 branches in 53 countries and 50 States on 6 continents. Hall Rosenberg wrote this book in cooperation with his colleagues, telling the world that he led his colleagues to achieve such amazing achievements only based on an unconventional and counterintuitive management concept: "Employees first, customers second". Rosenberg believes that service comes from the heart, and unhappy people can only provide unhappy services and create declining profits. Natural employees will not put customers first; And employees will not really put customers first because the company requires them to put customers first; Only when employees feel that they should put customers first from their own point of view will they do so. If employees feel that the company doesn't care about themselves, it is meaningless to say "care and take care of your customers". Concern is an emotion, and it is impossible for a leader to authorize or entrust a certain emotion. Companies should first care about employees, and then it is possible to radiate this concern to customers through their own employees. Moreover, it is true that only the employees who are concerned can care more about others. Like that old story about horses and carriages. Suppose employees are horses pulling carts, and enterprises put customers in wagons. Even if champagne and caviar are prepared, if the wagons are in front of the horses, they can't go anywhere. Now we can understand that "employees first" does not put employees above customers; "Customer second" does not mean that customers can be ignored. Rosenberg's achievements tell us that a manager must understand how to achieve customer satisfaction: for the benefit of customers, he must pay attention to employees, which is the real way to win. Employees are indeed the best assets an organization can have. Without employees, everything else is meaningless. Without the loyalty, motivation and unremitting efforts of employees, the best result is mediocrity. These views are not difficult to understand, and such words are also very popular now. However, it is not easy to integrate it into every moment, every place, everyone and everything in work and life-that is why most companies can't really do this. However, once you establish such a belief and have the courage to never stop until you reach your goal, you can do it. Rosenberg did it. Rosenberg is not the only one who takes "employees first, customers second" as the basic creed and has achieved commercial success. Southwest Airlines has also publicized the same view with great fanfare, and has consistently adhered to and succeeded. Keller, president of Southwest Airlines, said: "If you think that customers are always right, that is the most serious betrayal of business owners to employees. In fact, customers are often wrong, and we do not welcome such customers. We would rather write to suggest that such customers change to other airlines than insult our employees. " Perhaps, for an enterprise whose main product is to provide services, the first prerequisite to ensure customer satisfaction is employee satisfaction, and the employee is willing to do everything he can for the customer, not what you stipulate that he must do. If, like Rosenberg, even taxi drivers know that "all people who work in Rosenberg are good people", you can certainly be sure that the services provided by these good people are "elegant services" and "a service experience far beyond expectations". On the other hand, Rosenberg and Southwest Airlines emphasize "employees first" in order to pursue "customer satisfaction" to a greater extent. It is different from our common "customer first" duplicity. Although many companies say that customers come first, the final customer ranking is also a tacit thing. Perhaps it is actually "company first", "shareholder first" and "supervision first", but I dare not publicly say my ranking. As the chairman and CEO of Rosenberg International, Hall Rosenberg won the "Top 50 Best Enterprises" and "Employee Investor Award" from Darvin magazine for his unconventional business philosophy and practice. Rosenberg International was also named "100 the best company to work for in America" by Fortune magazine. Recently, Hall Rosenberg also won the Kyle Poirot Award, which is the highest award awarded to foreign entrepreneurs in China. The first edition of Customer Second was published ten years ago. The ideas and strategies expounded in the book have inspired countless CEOs, entrepreneurs and managers around the world. Just as Hall Rosenberg was about to deliver the revised edition of this book to the publishing house, the 9 1 1 event happened. 9 1 1 almost destroyed American aviation, tourism and related services at that time, and Rosenberg International was the first to recover from this devastating blow. The revised edition of this book has a postscript describing how Hall spent this difficult time with his enterprise and his employees. There are many touching details. Suggest friends to look for it.