The Next Discipline

Applying Behavioral Economics to Drive Growth and Profitability

 For more information on Gallup Consulting

or Gallup’s approach to applied behavioral

economics, please visit consulting.gallup.com

or contact Sarah Van Allen at 202.715.3152

or [email protected].
 The Next Discipline

“Applied behavioral economics is the mathematical description of the role human nature plays in just about . . . everything.”
— Jim Clifton, CEO, Gallup

For years business leaders have struggled to com- human nature by recognizing that people simply are
prehend the apparent irrationality of employee and not the rational maximizers of economic gain assumed
customer behavior and the impact it has on business by classical economic theory. Instead, employees and
performance. To make sense of how employees and customers must be seen as people first, and employ-
customers behave, leaders must first begin to under- ees and customers second. That means they are subject
stand human nature and accept that human beings to all the inherent contradictions, flaws, and emotions
do not always act in rational ways. In today’s hyper- that come with being human.
competitive global business environment, the secret to
driving higher levels of growth and profitability lies in
Gallup research revealed that a study
understanding the powerful role human nature plays in
group of 10 companies that applied these
the marketplace and in the workplace.
principles outperformed peers by 85% in
Fortunately, there is an emerging management disci- sales growth and more than 25% in gross
pline based on principles of behavioral economics that margin during a recent one-year period.
can help business leaders and executives make sense
of the economic behavior of real people and serve as
Quirks in the System
a platform for effective management solutions. This
is because behavioral economics complements tradi- Economics has traveled a long — and not particularly
tional economic theory by filling in the gaps left by the easy — road to arrive at the emerging science of behav-
realities of human nature. As a result, it can provide ioral economics. Early on and throughout much of its
business leaders with insights they otherwise would not history, classical economics has embraced the rational-
have and solutions they never would have considered. agent model that characterizes Homo economicus, the
figurative species of human, as a rational and dispas-
Gallup research revealed that a study group of 10
sionate maximizer of economic gain. This view holds
companies that applied these principles outperformed
that people make economic decisions based on a cool
peers by 85% in sales growth and more than 25% in
and rational evaluation of all of the available evidence
gross margin during a recent one-year period. The key
— the benefits of a certain course of action weighed
to achieving this kind of financial performance is for
against its costs — before arriving at a decision. The
leaders to accept and work with human nature rather
right decision is the one that maximizes an individual’s
than against it. They must abandon outmoded views of
economic gain and minimizes his or her costs.

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 But there are quirks in the system that we need to
take into account — situations in which real people’s Our emotional, cognitive, and
behavior does not conform to predictions of classical perceptual processes place limits on
economics. These “anomalies” make it all the more sur- how rationally we can view the world
prising that the core assumption of the rational-agent around us. . . . These limits have a
model has not changed much in the past 250 years in profound effect on the decisions we
spite of a mountain of evidence illustrating its flaws. make — and subsequently on the way
For example, people often use simple, efficient rules of organizations need to think about how
thumb called heuristics — what Financial Times col- their employees and customers make
umnist John Authers calls “mental short-cuts that help decisions and ultimately behave.
[people] survive in the hurly-burly of normal life” — to
make decisions, such as the tendency to overestimate
Other anomalies in human decision making have
the likelihood of an event based on how typical the
been documented, such as the endowment effect — first
event is. This often occurs in situations where people
documented by economist Richard Thaler — whereby
must estimate probabilities. For example, people will
people place greater value on objects they own com-
routinely guess that someone who wears tweed jackets
pared with objects they do not own. That is, people
and is described as shy and bookish is more likely to
tend to demand a higher price to part with an object
be a classics professor than a truck driver, even though
they already own than they would be willing to pay
there are substantially more truck drivers than classics
to buy it from someone else. Another is the tendency
professors in the world.
for human decision makers to be loss averse. That is,
Or there is the simulation heuristic — the tendency to people feel more pain from losses than pleasure from
estimate the likelihood of an event actually occurring gains of equal size. For example, individuals tend to
based on how easy it is to imagine it happening. For be reluctant to accept the prospect of a 50-50 chance
example, you will be much more angry and frustrated if of gaining or losing money unless the amount to be
you missed a flight by five minutes than if you missed gained is at least twice the amount to potentially
it by an hour because it is easier to imagine a scenario be lost.
in which you could have made the flight.
Literally dozens of these heuristics and biases have
been documented in the cognitive and social psycho-
logical literature and behavioral economics literature
— far too many to describe here. But the upshot is that
our emotional, cognitive, and perceptual processes place
limits on how rationally we can view the world around
us and use the information we receive from it. These

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 limits have a profound effect on the decisions we make Gallup, applied behavioral economics is the mathe-
— and subsequently on the way organizations need to matical description of the role human nature plays in
think about how their employees and customers make just about . . . everything. This definition spans the full
decisions and ultimately behave. spectrum of issues from how customers and employ-
ees create real growth for organizations to how citizens
What Is Behavioral Economics?
and institutions build stable and viable societies.
For the past 30 years, behavioral economics — led by such
No matter which definition you prefer, it is clear that
notable scientists as Daniel Kahneman, Robert Shiller,
behavioral economics is now coming of age and exerting
Richard Thaler, Angus Deaton, George Loewenstein, and
an impact in a wide variety of spheres, including pub-
many others — has documented many of the flaws in
lic policy and healthcare. For example, a recent study of
classical economic theory by challenging its foundational
radiologists found that attaching a patient’s photograph
premise — that individuals will always behave rationally
to his or her medical file elicited a more personal, empa-
to achieve the best possible outcome. Instead, behavioral
thetic response from the radiologist, resulting in longer,
economics emphasizes the role of psychology and the
more thorough reports containing summaries, additional
interplay among rational, perceptual, and emotional pro-
recommendations, and more incidental findings than
cesses in human decision making and economic behavior.
a typical report. Within the public policy sphere, new
In fact, some have suggested that economic decision mak-
applications of behavioral economics principles can be
ing is up to 70% emotional and 30% rational.
found in the Obama administration’s economic plans
and senior appointments.

Behavioral economics challenges Now that many within academics and government have
the central premise of classical begun to recognize the need for a more comprehensive
economic theory — that individuals
(and we would argue, accurate) perspective on human
will always behave rationally to
economic behavior, it is time for business leaders — espe-
achieve the best possible outcome.
cially those charged with understanding and managing
customer and employee experiences — to do the same.

Applying Behavioral Economics The rise of applied behavioral economics as a manage-

ment platform is of paramount importance to business
At Gallup, our goal is to take the discoveries made
leaders because it compels us to rethink the traditional
within the academic discipline of behavioral economics
rational/functional models of human decision mak-
and apply them to management and business prob-
ing that guide many business decisions. Unfortunately,
lems. That is, we develop tools and methods to measure
many business leaders (and even many economists)
and manage both the rational and irrational elements
have been slow to embrace these profound changes
of human nature to drive business success. Thus, for
in perspective, clinging instead to outmoded views of

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 behavior that regard human beings as dispassionate With this in mind, we contend that relying solely on
brokers of objective information. traditional financial metrics as indicators of organi-
zational health is problematic for two reasons. First,
neoclassical economics suggests that sales, profit, and
At Gallup, our goal is to take the the like are leading indicators of how well an organi-
discoveries made within the academic zation is doing and will do. However, they are, in fact,
discipline of behavioral economics trailing indicators — by the time the sale is made and
and apply them to management the profit shows up on the income statement, it is far
and business problems.
too late to do anything about it. These indicators sim-
ply cannot address the issue of what caused a given
level of performance in the first place. Second, any
Evolving Our “Institutions of Data”
incremental benefits of accounting or other financial
Driving higher levels of growth and profitability in efficiencies have largely already been realized. Further
today’s business environment requires not only that substantial gains in performance based on attention to
organizations develop a mastery of applied behavioral neoclassical economic metrics are relatively unlikely,
economics, but also that they put the right perfor- and additional enhancements offer little in the way of
mance metrics in place. Not surprisingly, there has been competitive advantage for most firms.
an evolution in what constitutes the “right” institu-
The next wave of metrics to emerge were tied to process
tions of data to manage our businesses. Until recently,
improvement and quality management — Six Sigma,
capitalism has been guided by neoclassical economics.
lean manufacturing, and Total Quality Management,
This institution of data — stock price, earnings per
for example. They worked well to improve output qual-
share, profit, and growth — is what business leaders all
ity and wring inefficiencies and costs out of business
trained upon to steer their organizations, divisions, and
processes, making organizations more efficient, effec-
departments — and to some extent, it served global
tive, productive, and profitable. Although mastering
business leaders quite well. Although these kinds of
this second discipline also continues to be a prerequi-
financial measures continue to be mainstay indicators
site to driving higher levels of financial performance
of organizational performance, developments in the
in today’s economic environment, the same concerns
global economy and the financial markets since the
that apply to using financial metrics as indicators of
beginning of 2008 have underscored the limitations of
organizational health also apply to those that focus on
neoclassical economic theory. It is becoming clear that
process improvement and quality management.
neoclassical economics — in isolation of developments
in other fields such as networks and complex interac- Like financial metrics, much of the benefit of focusing on
tions, psychology, and econometrics — may have led us process and quality metrics now tends to be maxed out and
down the wrong path. the big gains harder to find. While quality is necessary and

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 declining quality is likely to be a leading indicator of future powerful linkages to financial performance outcomes.
declines in company performance, improvements in qual- These leading indicators, in turn, can help managers and
ity are no longer likely to provide a significant competitive executives take corrective action before declines in finan-
advantage for most companies. Likewise, for many organi- cial performance occur.
zations, incremental improvements in operational efficiency
Deploying the right kind of metrics is a necessary first
may continue to provide some cost-reduction benefits, but
step. The next step is to build a human capital manage-
in our view they, too, will yield little in the way of additional
ment strategy around the effects of human nature on
competitive advantage.
performance. This is achieved by identifying the innate
talents of current and prospective employees and posi-
tioning them in the roles that maximize their greatest
For many organizations, incremental
strengths (the ability to consistently provide near-per-
improvements in operational efficiency
may continue to provide some cost- fect performance in a specific task). This strategy allows

reduction benefits, but in our view your organization to build a solid emotional infrastruc-

they, too, will yield little in the way of ture based on the human nature of your employees to
additional competitive advantage. enable consistent and sustained high performance.

Applied Behavioral Economics and the

The Next Discipline Emotional Economy

We believe that the next big institution of data will be Our work with organizations around the globe has

found in developing new sets of leadership initiatives led us to the conclusion that every company has an

and metrics around behavioral economics, because the enormous — but largely untapped — potential for

gains to be found are much larger than in any other area breakthrough improvements in employee productivity,

and because this potential is largely untapped. Mastery customer retention, and real growth and profitability

of this third discipline — applied behavioral econom- by understanding and leveraging how human nature

ics — holds the promise of realizing breakthrough drives business performance. This unrealized potential

improvements in employee productivity, customer reten- represents an internal economy with its own unique set

tion, and real growth and profitability. But precisely how of rules and dynamics — an emotional economy —

should insights from behavioral economics be applied that can be measured and managed to improve business

in business? Metrics based on the application of behav- performance. Most importantly, the emotional economy

ioral economics principles — understanding how to drives the neoclassical economy.

emotionally engage your employees and your customers Before organizations can harness the power of applied
— provide true leading indicators of future financial per- behavioral economics, they must build an institutional
formance, indicators that have demonstrated direct and capability of understanding how the emotional economy

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 works in their organization and in the larger market- 4. There is vast variation in both employee
place. Next, they must align their business processes and and customer engagement from location to
location and team to team within the same
key performance metrics with this capability to fully
organization.
leverage the insights afforded by a behavioral econom-
ics perspective. Finally, they must deploy these insights 5. The ability to engage employees depends on
identifying the unique strengths they bring
effectively to manage and optimize their employee and
to their roles, selecting and positioning them
Figure 1 for success by ensuring their strengths fit their
roles, and providing them with an engaging
workplace and manager.

Customer Behavior Is Influenced More by

Emotion Than Reason

Business leaders, researchers, academics, and manage-

ment consultants alike have expressed concern that while
customer satisfaction may be a necessary foundation for
building strong customer relationships, by itself it is a
relatively poor predictor of future customer behavior and
organizational financial performance. Our data support
customer relationships. Gallup has developed a model this concern. Results from a large number of case studies
(see Figure 1) that describes the elements of the emo- suggest that customers who are extremely satisfied — those
tional economy and how they relate to an organization’s who provide the highest rating of overall satisfaction with
well-being. The “linked path” relates the individual con- an organization’s products or services — fall into two dis-
tribution of every employee to this ultimate goal. tinct groups: those who are emotionally satisfied and those

If we were to summarize the key observations from our who are rationally satisfied. Emotionally satisfied custom-

work with organizations around the world, it would ers have a strong emotional attachment to the organization

look like this: while rationally satisfied customers do not. Our research
reveals that emotionally satisfied customers deliver signifi-
1. Customer behavior is influenced more by
cantly enhanced value to an organization, for example, by
emotion than reason, and these emotional
dimensions can be measured and managed. buying more products, spending more for those products,
returning more often, and staying longer with the business.
2. Employees have a tremendous impact on
Rationally satisfied customers, on the other hand, behave
customers’ emotional engagement, for good or ill.
no differently than customers who are dissatisfied.
3. Employee behavior is influenced more by
emotion than reason, and these emotional This pattern is not limited to customer satisfaction
dimensions can be measured and managed. responses; in fact, we see the same pattern for customer

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 advocacy. Findings from a large number of case stud- crucial business performance metrics, including cus-
ies suggest that customers who describe themselves tomer retention, cross-sell, share of wallet, frequency of
as strong advocates for an organization’s products or purchase, profitability, and relationship growth.
services — those who provide the highest “likelihood
The resulting work suggests that there are four key
to recommend” ratings — also fall into two distinct
dimensions, as illustrated in Figure 2, to a customer’s
groups: those who are emotional (even passionate)
emotional attachment to an organization (along with
advocates and those who are merely rational advocates.
the more rational foundational elements typically asso-
ciated with customer satisfaction). Each dimension

Emotionally satisfied customers deliver represents a specific set of activities that meet custom-
significantly enhanced value to an ers’ emotional needs.
organization . . . by buying more
The first dimension of emotional attachment is
products, spending more for those
Confidence. Is this organization trustworthy? Can its
products, returning more often, and
employees be trusted do what they say they will do
staying longer with the business.
day in and day out? Confidence is the foundation on
which higher levels of emotional attachment are built.
Emotional advocates have a strong emotional attach- But confidence alone is not enough to build long-
ment to the organization while rational advocates do term, sustainable, and emotionally connected customer
not. Our research reveals that emotional advocates — relationships. Beyond confidence lies Integrity, the
like their emotionally satisfied counterparts — deliver essential dimension of fair play. Does this organization
significantly enhanced value to an organization, buy treat me the way I deserve to be treated? If some-
significantly more products, spend significantly more thing goes awry, can I count on this organization to fix
for those products, and give a greater share of their total it quickly? The next emotional requirement is Pride, a
spending to the business. Rational advocates, on the sense of positive association and identification with the
other hand, behave no differently than customers who organization. Customers feel pride not because of what
would not recommend the organization to others. their association with an organization says to others,
but more importantly, because of what it says to them
So if these two traditional standby metrics fail to deliver
about themselves. The ultimate expression of a strong
as advertised, how can we accurately gauge customer
emotional attachment is Passion. Passionate custom-
sentiment? Taking a cue from behavioral economics,
ers describe their relationship with the organization as
scientists at Gallup developed a method to measure —
irreplaceable and a perfect fit. Passionate customers are
reliably and accurately — the emotional connections
customers for life and are worth their weight in gold.
between customers and the organizations that serve
them. Our research also sought to demonstrate the link- As illustrated in Figure 3, our research revealed that
ages between this measure of customer engagement and across organizations of different types, customers who

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 Figure 2

Customer Engagement Hierarchy

Can’t imagine a world without Your company is irreplaceable to me.

Perfect company for people like me I feel passionate about you.

Treats me with respect Your company is prestigious. It

Feel proud to be a customer is part of who I am.

Fair resolution of any problems When we have a problem,

Always treats me fairly you always treat me fairly.

Always delivers on promise I can safely assume that you

Name I can always trust will always keep your promises.

Overall Satisfaction
Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Continue

are fully engaged — those customers who have a strong Figure 3

emotional connection to the organization — represent Customer Engagement Drives Financial Performance
an average 23% premium in terms of share of wal- Per-Customer Contribution
Indexed Performance (Average = 100)
let, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth over 100

Fully Engaged 123

the average customer. In stark contrast, actively disen-
gaged customers — those customers whose emotional Engaged 107

connection to the organization is weak or absent —

Not Engaged 99
represent a 13% discount. At a local business unit level
(a store, branch, sales team, or other local unit), those Actively Disengaged 87

whose levels of customer engagement place them in

the top 25% of comparable units within an organiza-
Employees Have a Tremendous Impact on
tion tend to outperform all other units on measures of Customers’ Emotional Engagement
profit contribution, sales, and growth by a factor of two
On the sales floor, at a hotel front desk, or even in a
to one. Clearly, engaging customers on an emotional
hospital room, the interaction between an employee
level has a significant financial benefit.
and a customer — what we call the employee-customer
encounter — is a critical determinant of the financial
health of the enterprise. The difference between creat-
ing an experience that draws customers back and one
that sends them away from your organization forever
has large effects on the productivity and profitability of
the organization.

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 Employee Behavior Is Influenced More by Figure 4
Emotion Than Reason
Employee Engagement Hierarchy
Just as engaged customers are among an organiza- Financial Outcomes
100%
tion’s most profitable patrons and passionate advocates, How can Growth
we grow?
engaged employees are an organization’s most produc-
Teamwork
tive and efficient workers. Engaged employees want Do I belong?

their organization to succeed because they feel con- Individual

What do I give?
Contribution
nected emotionally, socially, and even spiritually to its
Basic
mission, vision, and purpose. They are involved in and What do I get?
Needs
0%
enthusiastic about what is happening in their local
work environment.
Teams of emotionally engaged employees deliver sig-
Among the many variables that differentiate engaged nificantly better growth (productivity, profitability,
and disengaged workplaces is the quality of the local and customer) and cost-reduction (turnover, absen-
workplace manager and his or her ability to successfully teeism, theft, and safety) outcomes than disengaged
meet a core set of employees’ emotional requirements, work teams. Similarly, organizations that engage their
as shown in Figure 4. These requirements include employees grow their earnings more than 2½ times
delivering on the most basic needs in the workplace faster than organizations that do not.
— clear expectations and the materials required to do
In the board room and at the leadership level, prin-
the job. Once employees are armed with clear expecta-
ciples of behavioral economics play out in a variety of
tions and proper equipment, they need to feel that they
decision-making situations, with substantial implica-
are making an individual contribution to the orga-
tions for organizational performance. From the biasing
nization and that those contributions are recognized
effects of sunk costs, to the tendency to be swayed by
and valued. Employees perform best in activities they
how a decision is initially positioned or framed, to the
inherently enjoy and for which they have a well-devel-
tendency to be resistant to changing the status quo,
oped predisposition. It’s also crucial that employees feel
executive decision-making processes are extremely
they belong to something bigger than themselves and
vulnerable to the ill effects of cognitive and percep-
develop a strong sense of teamwork. Finally, employees
tual biases and heuristics. Fortunately, many of these
who have the opportunity to discuss their progress and
ill effects can be overcome — or at least reduced —
who have opportunities for personal and professional
with appropriate training, awareness, and discipline.
growth build a deeper emotional commitment to the
But before they can be overcome, executives must be
organization. A psychologically committed employee
made aware of them and the situations in which they
in an engaging work environment is primed for inno-
are likely to arise.
vation and productivity.

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 There Is Vast Variation Within the bank branch, local office, or sales team — the local
Organization level where employees spend most of their time, where
customer interactions occur, and where the customer
Consider the following: An apparel retailer claims to
experience is created. Because most managers’ spheres
be an industry leader in customer satisfaction, citing
of influence are circumscribed and local, the metrics
an independent study of customers in the category.
they rely on to manage must also be focused locally.
A retail bank announces that it has won an award for
Local measurement and feedback also permit the iden-
being one of the country’s best places to work for the
tification of teams and locations that excel at managing
fifth year in a row. While each of these claims may be
their own local emotional economies. These optimized
legitimate, candid conversations with customers who
locations can provide critical guidance to the rest of
shop in the store’s different locations or visit differ-
the organization on how to manage these elements of
ent bank branches will inevitably reveal a large range
the emotional economy that are important and dif-
in the quality of the customer-employee encounter
ficult to replicate. Nonetheless, local performance
at those organizations. Within the same retailer, one
variation is a scourge to organizations that aspire to
store location may deliver exceptional service while
high performance.
another struggles to drag customers through the door.
Within the bank, some branches may be exceptional Identifying Strengths, Selection, Fit to Role,
places to work while others are oppressive. In fact, the and Great Managers

variability within an organization easily dwarfs the dif-

From a behavioral economics perspective, high perfor-
ferences between competitors. Substantial variability in
mance organizations recognize the need to understand
customer and employee engagement represents a sig-
and accept human nature at the individual level, per-
nificant threat to the sustainability of the enterprise
son by person, and to leverage it to drive performance.
and drags down financial performance.
Human nature dictates that every individual has a
unique set of characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses.
These strengths lead to consistent, near-perfect per-
Local performance variation is
formance in a specific activity, and, importantly, they
a scourge to organizations that
aspire to high performance. can be assessed. But because everyone is different, not
everyone can be successful in every role. Therefore, it
is essential for organizations to optimize each new and
The existence of a broad range of performance variabil- existing employee’s potential (and their team’s likeli-
ity within an organization suggests that the only way hood of success) by working with human nature, rather
to manage that variability and improve local perfor- than against it, as much as possible. Knowing your
mance is to provide performance feedback at the level employees’ most naturally powerful strengths helps you
where it originates. In practice, this means at the store, understand how best to position them for success.

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 For new employees, this means deploying a disciplined validity, we believe it fails to convey the true multi-
selection process to match prospective employees’ dimensional nature of the interdependencies among
strengths to the demands of their roles. This will employee and customer engagement and overall orga-
increase their likelihood of success and their ability to nizational financial performance.
perform at the level of excellence. For existing employ-
Employee engagement does have a direct and mea-
ees, a manager’s goal should be to use each person’s
surable relationship to — and impact on — customer
unique strengths to maximum effect, rather than trying
engagement. But the ways in which employee and
to change the things that are difficult or even impos-
customer engagement interact to enhance an organiza-
sible to change. Employees whose supervisor focuses
tion’s financial vigor are more complex than a simple
on their strengths during performance reviews are
linear chain of factors. This is because the combined
more than 2½ times as likely to be engaged as those
impact of engaging an organization’s employees and
whose supervisors focus on their weaknesses. Gallup
customers simultaneously is substantially greater
has researched this topic for more than 35 years, study-
than the effects of engaging employees or custom-
ing more than 6 million people in the process, and we
ers separately. Employee engagement and customer
have found that individuals and organizations have
engagement interact to drive even higher levels of
much more potential for growth in areas of great
financial performance. This Performance Optimization
strength than in areas of weakness. By individualizing
model (Figure 5) suggests that gains in team-level
your organization’s approach to selecting and manag-
financial performance can be driven exponentially by
ing employees and working with human nature rather
simultaneously optimizing both employee and cus-
than against it, you’ll unlock their maximum potential
tomer engagement. In fact, “optimized” teams within
and your maximum profitability.
an organization — those that are in the top 50% of
Optimize: Employee and Customer teams on both employee and customer engagement
Engagement Interact to Drive Performance
— generate a 240% boost in financial performance

Conventional views of the relationships among compared with teams that fail to engage their employ-

employee attitudes, customer requirements, and finan- ees and their customers. Furthermore, optimized teams

cial performance have emphasized their sequential also significantly outperform those that scored high on

nature. You can think of these variables as successive one but not the other of these metrics.

links in a chain, in which each variable affects the next

to drive some ultimate outcome. This perspective sug-
gests that engaged employees create engaged customers
who foster organizational success by delivering positive
financial outcomes. Though this perspective has some

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 Figure 5 Contact Us

Performance For more information about Gallup Consulting or

Optimization Quadrants
Gallup’s approach to applied behavioral economics,
“Optimized”
please visit consulting.gallup.com or contact Sarah
CE11 Customer Engagement 

70% 240%
Van Allen at 202.715.3152 or sarah_van_allen@
boost boost gallup.com.

1.0 70%
boost

Q12 Employee Engagement 

Conclusion

Gallup’s applied behavioral economics approach starts

by accepting our human nature and capitalizing on it
to select and position employees, manage and moti-
vate them, accelerate their development, and unleash
innovation and productivity, all to ultimately engage
the emotions of your most valuable asset — your
customers. Contrary to popular wisdom, our emo-
tional traits are in fact quite predictable, and it is
this long-ignored aspect of employee-customer rela-
tions that holds the key to superior performance and
long-term growth.

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