Entering the stock market from the incremental market requires enterprises to pay more attention to service and aftermarket, because strong sales of complete machines are no longer the same as before. Enterprises must focus on retaining old customers through better service, shifting from flow thinking to viscosity thinking.
In this difficult time, it is very important to establish a customer-centric corporate culture. Only in this way can we win the trust of customers, increase customer return rates, wallet share, and word-of-mouth recommendations. However, many companies have not realized that the key to establishing a customer-centric approach is employees. When the market declines, many companies begin to lay off employees, which can seriously damage the customer-centric corporate culture.
Some people believe that layoffs directly affect employees without affecting customers. Don't forget, the establishment of corporate culture requires two important pillars: economic benefits and employee morale. Good economic benefits can enable enterprises to recruit and retain excellent employees, providing customers with outstanding experiences; The customer-centric culture is achieved by employees, who positively influence the lives of customers. Loyal employees generate loyal customers, and their love and attention can earn their trust.
However, layoffs can undermine employee morale and trust, forcing wise survivors to take risks and fight to protect themselves, seriously affecting team collaboration. Without a sense of security, employees will not be willing to work tirelessly to serve customers, and the inspiration for creatively solving customer problems will disappear. The culture of not making mistakes as a principle and putting customers at the center will dissipate in a mirage and be replaced by the culture of "less is better than more".
A few weeks ago, Musk announced a large-scale layoff at Tesla, and departing executive Ritchie Otto criticized the layoffs on social media for shaking the company's morale. He wrote on LinkedIn, "A great company is made up of great employees and great products, which can only be achieved when employees are thriving. The cultural shock caused by layoffs has caused this harmony to lose balance, making it difficult to see long-term values, and it is time to make changes."
Not all layoffs can be avoided, and some companies have to lay off employees in order to survive the downturn. But some layoffs are caused by companies lacking crisis awareness and blindly expanding during good market times, while others are made to reduce costs and increase efficiency, appease shareholders and investors, and achieve short-term profit goals.
Some companies prioritize cutting off service personnel with low revenue contributions, which has even greater side effects. Firstly, without employees believing in the values of the management team, employee loyalty will become a childish idea. Without employee loyalty, how can we talk about customer loyalty? Secondly, customers will leave with excellent employees, leading to customer churn; Thirdly, employee morale is affected, as one person has to do the work of two people, and the next layoff may be their own turn. So, employees with strong abilities take the initiative to leave, leaving behind those with poor abilities, and the company enters a vicious cycle from then on.
It would be better to achieve a certain reduction in staff through performance management and natural personnel turnover. Reducing service personnel to increase stock prices will inevitably affect service efficiency and customer satisfaction. Employees will also feel that the management prioritizes investor interests over customers, and the mission and vision of the enterprise will become a lie.
So, layoffs should always be the last resort for businesses. When layoffs are unavoidable, some management teams in companies give up some of their personal salaries and bonuses, help laid-off employees introduce their jobs, promise to return to the company first when the market recovers, and provide them with generous compensation. These practices reflect the management's sense of responsibility towards employees and maintain corporate culture.
On the contrary, some companies use various excuses to lay off employees in order to avoid paying compensation, which seems to save money. All the remaining employees are seen, and the company has lost the trust of its employees. Recently, Qu Jing, Vice President of Baidu Public Relations, said, "What does it have to do with me? Why should I consider the family of employees?", turning corporate culture into a slogan hanging on the wall.
