Who’s more important—your customers or your employees?

Who’s more important—your customers or your employees?

This one is easy for me: employees every time. Customers come and go, but it’s employees who determine the frequency. Treat your employees well, invest in their skills, promote and reward customer-centric behaviors, and you’ll never need to answer this question again.

Nick Foy
Director of Operations, ModusLink

Whether they are your employees or your customers, they are both an organization’s stakeholders, who require attention, respect, and compassion to foster a long-term, profitable relationship.

Al Alper

CEO and Founder, Absolute Logic

They’re both essential. Employees must be happy, well-trained, and supported in order to provide excellent service to customers. Customers must receive excellent service in order to keep coming back, which keeps the staff employed.

Mary Ann Krevh
Director of Client Services, TranSolutions


Customers. A business can’t survive without customers. The most successful companies focus on delivering experiences that consistently exceed expectations in addressing their customers’ needs and have great employees who make it happen.

Glen Coates
CEO and Founder, Handshake

Both should be equal. Happy employees make happy customers and happy customers keep us all in business, making for happy employees.

Janet Slivoski
Purchasing/Import Compliance Manager
The Great States Corp.
American Lawn Mower Co.

Healthy food produces healthy results. Happy employees produce happy customers. We capitalize both at GDC to reinforce our emphasis on who we work for.

Rob Moore
Warehouse Manager, GDC Technics

Frankly, the employee is more important since it is he or she who will be the key factor in retaining that long-sought customer. So while clients are certainly needed, only trained and dedicated employees will keep them.

Robert Walters
President, Freight Management

My employees will always be more important, because we are in the service industry. Our customers expect excellent service from us, and the only ones who can provide that are our employees.

Kristy Knichel
CEO/President, Knichel Logistics

Happy and dedicated employees make for satisfied customers. Our commitment to the importance of employees is reflected in our actions after acquisitions. As a matter of course, after we have acquired a company, we view the new employees as the most important asset in the transaction.

Bob Shellman
CEO, Odyssey Logistics & Technology

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