Christopher Koch brought up a point recently about lessons companies can learn from people such as Steven Slater and Mark Hurd. That point is that people are making it easier and easier to find out what they have to say and what they are doing all the time. And the question for business is simple: Are you listening and responding to what people have to say?
When you don’t listen to what’s being said it creates problems that could’ve been contained if people had just made the effort to find out what the problems actually are. But businesses tend to react to situations, instead of putting some thought into how they can actually get on top of a situation meaningfully. In many ways businesses don’t even care what people are saying or make a lame effort to show they care, when they don’t. While that may sound harsh, it’s worth saying especially when businesses don’t seem to make an effort to address problems conclusively or with respect to the employees or customers that have problems.
A business is only as good as the level of service it provides customers and employees. Businesses that make efforts to listen to employees and to customers will definitely benefit in the long run, especially if we consider that a happy person is much more productive than an unhappy person. Monitoring what people say and making the effort to respond can pay off in the long run, especially if the business makes inroads with the community overall in their communication.
