Play to Your Strengths(c) Managing Your Internal Labor Markets for Lasting Compe[. .. ]ntage

Knowing your customers—who they are, where they live, what interests them—provides an important context for understanding the drivers of their experience and behavior.

Thought about the linkages between employees and customers has evolved substantially in recent years. There has been a movement from relatively simple and not very well supported notions that positive employee attitudes make for high-spending customers to more refined ideas about the importance of the system of human capital practices that drive both employee and customer outcomes.

Customers’ experience is an important stepping-stone on the path to understanding their behavior. Organizations can influence but not fully control that experience through implied brand promises and through their human capital management practices.