How does your employee turnover affect your customers?
There are many ways your employee turnover affects your customers. We will focus on just one today.
My second job after college had the same general job duties as my first job. However, I inherited an extra job duty due to a copier which was literally right outside my door. Whenever the copier broke down most people would come to me for help. Over a period of time I learned enough to help them about half the time. If I could not fix the issue then we called the copier technician who had left his card in the door of the copier.
I noticed there was a stack of cards – for the same technician. Each card had a different company who he worked for but it was always the same technician. As he moved companies, we stuck with him because he knew how to fix our copier and there was never a hassle. We did not care who he worked for and when he moved employers all we had to do was change the Purchase Order in the accounting system. If the technician left his employer, not only did they lose an employee but they also lost business/revenue.
How many of your employees fall into this situation either directly or indirectly? This is not limited to your sales people or service technicians – though they are good examples. The issue can be in just about any position. I have heard stories about families moving school districts so their kids could have a certain person as a teacher. Many times the employer may not even know they have lost a customer unless they perform an audit after the fact. You may need help in identifying when this issue happens to you.
Why do these type of employees leave? Is it money driven? If the employee was asking for more money and the employer said no – would the analysis change if they factored in the loss of revenue/profits also? My experience is yes the answer would change; but, the loss of a customer is virtually NEVER reviewed in such a way. They don’t just lose an employee – they also lose revenues, profits and customers. I have also seen where they don’t just lose the copier servicing revenue but they end up losing all the associated business in the long run. This can be a huge drain for some companies.
As we all know a lot of employees do not leave for money – they leave for lots of other reasons. Many times these other reasons cost little to nothing to solve; however they can cost the employer millions in lost revenue, profits and customers.
How many ex-employees take your customers with them when they leave?
