It amazes me how one person can have such a tremendous effect on a business’s success or failure.

I’m talking, of course, about the experience someone has when they interact with any one individual employee of a business.

If the customer has a bad experience, the obvious thing that’ll happen is they’ll swear off the company completely.

“Well, I’m never going back to that place…”

And the funny thing is this: after a few months, or even a few years, that person who delivered the horrible experience is probably long gone…

Yet you STILL never go back. 

They don’t just ruin things in the moment – they ruin them long-term… Possibly forever. 

And let’s not forget the fact that if the employee threw a tantrum in front of lots of other customers, they probably won’t come back either.

But it goes even further than that.

Do you know what people love to talk about even more than a great experience?

The worst experience they’ve ever had!

That’s why all the reviews for every single business you’ll ever read are 90% one-stars. 

Nobody ever writes about a decent, 3-star experience they had… And we rarely take the time to write about the great experiences – it’s too much work.

But when we’re angry, fuming, and vengeful, nothing gives us more satisfaction than to feel like we’re ruining a business.

So we tell the others. And word spreads. And those people who’ve never had a bad experience with the business decide not to patronize it… For fear of having a bad experience. 

Here’s a simple idea for all of us in business: adopt the ideas of Victor Krulak, the former commandant of the US Marine Corps. 

He wrote about the “strategic corporal” which insists that the entire outcome of a war rests solely on the lowest paid, most beaten-down, hardest working Marine on the frontline. 

That Marine bears the brunt of the fighting. And if they do something terrible, they ruin the image of an entire nation… Especially now that everything is seen by everybody.

The solution is to treat your lowest paid, frontline employees as the most important part of your organization. Because they absolutely are!

Those who deal with customers on a daily basis are the strongest marketing force you have, aside from the customers themselves through word-of-mouth.

Treat them as the most important people in your company, compensate them well, and train them to represent the brand you want your business to embody.