Why “Happy Employees” Leads to a Successful Software Vendor Relationship
As I was pondered a topic one of my colleagues, Rayanne Thorn, wrote about, Understanding Employee Engagement, it got me thinking deeper about a vendor’s employees, and whether prospects should consider how engaged or happy employees are at a software vendor they are considering as part of their decision-making process. I think they should and let me take you through my reasoning.
Evaluating Vendors
When a customer is evaluating vendors, at the top of their list is usually the vendor’s ability to meet their technological needs. If they can’t meet that, all of the other considerations are mute. After that, close behind are: 1) price; 2) the vendor’s ability to deliver on what they commit to; and 3) the vendor’s customer support. At the end of the day, I consider #2 and #3 to be the most important considerations prospects should consider. No matter how good a vendor’s technology is, and no matter how good their price is, if they can’t deliver against what they commit to or won’t support after a customer goes live, the customer’s likely success in using the vendor’s software is low.
Now, if you think further about #2 and #3, the ability to deliver and provide customer support, these two considerations are about the vendor’s employees and the environment created for them to execute against them. So, if the vendor creates an environment for their employees to succeed, and the employees are deeply engaged within their company, your chance for success goes way up. Why would employees be deeply engaged? Because they are happy at the company where they work.
Logical?
So, if you accept my logic, companies should heavily consider the happiness of their vendor’s employees in their decision-making process. The great thing about this is there is a website where you can check out the happiness of a company’s employees, that being Glassdoor. While I’m sure Glassdoor’s evaluation isn’t perfect, it still should give you a great idea of how happy and engaged the vendor’s employees are.
Happy searching!
Until Next Time,
