Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?

Do you live to work, or work to live?

Perhaps most important, is your organization customer first and employee second, or employee first and customer second?

Disney is a firm believer in the Cast-Guest-Business model.  That is, leadership should spend most of its time working with the Cast Members (employees).  By doing this, the Cast will be empowered and motivated to provide exceptional Guest (customer) Service, and this is turn will provide for positive Business (financial) Results.  In fact, Disney's Magic Kingdom even promoted itself internally with the following tagline...

Disney's Magic Kingdom - A "Cast First" community!

Southwest Airlines is another organization that continues to always put the employee ahead of the customer.  It is a sentiment/policy laid out by their founder and former CEO, Herb Kelleher.  In the book titled NUTS! he states:

"[Customers] are not always right!  And I think that's one of the biggest betrayals of employees a boss can possible commit.  The customer is sometimes wrong.  We don't carry those sorts of customers.  We write to them and say, "Fly someone else.  Don't abuse our people."

Another book that validates this statement is titled The Customer Comes Second.  In it, author Hal Rosenbluth also validates this "employee first" mentality.

I had the pleasure of spending two evenings this week with about 60 employees from Bay Bank in Panama City Beach.  We were engaging each other in a series of lessons on customer service, and this concept of 'employees first, customer second' came up. With the audience consisting of senior staff and front-line employees, I wondered aloud what the consensus would be.

One of the higher-ups in the organization quickly stated that he believed that they were an employee-first organization.  After a few excited whoops and hollers from the employees, he went on to state that the Bay Bank employees are the heart and soul of the organization.  This small community bank of about 100 employees prides itself on exceeding the customers expectations with their customer service.  He mentioned that if they do not take care of the employees, nothing else will fall into place.

Then, another employee shared their feelings...that is was upper management's role to take care of the employees, and it was the front-line employees job to take care of the customer.  As long as both sides are doing their job, success is bound to occur.

Great thoughts!  This is a group that knows who they are and how to provide for BOTH the employee and the customer. 

So how about you?  Is your organization a "Cast first" or "Guest first" organization?  If you are unsure, here are some ways to help you find out...