給員工足夠的報(bào)酬，讓他們成為公司的忠實(shí)顧客。

????我們姑且認(rèn)為對(duì)員工的同情心并不能成為給他們加薪的理由、加薪需要更有說(shuō)服力的理由。但是，員工低薪對(duì)沃爾瑪和麥當(dāng)勞這樣的公司來(lái)說(shuō)真是好事嗎？

????給工人開(kāi)低工資，最后自食其果的還是公司。對(duì)于許許多多像沃爾瑪和麥當(dāng)勞一樣已經(jīng)取得成功的大型公司來(lái)說(shuō)，與它們員工經(jīng)濟(jì)實(shí)力相當(dāng)?shù)娜丝隙ň邆滟?gòu)物和外出就餐的經(jīng)濟(jì)能力。據(jù)《財(cái)富》雜志（Fortune）最近報(bào)道，麥當(dāng)勞已經(jīng)決定淘汰旗下的安格斯?jié)h堡，部分原因就是因?yàn)閮r(jià)格太高。“不能把價(jià)格定在顧客的承受范圍之外，”投資研究及資訊機(jī)構(gòu)Hedgeye風(fēng)險(xiǎn)管理公司（Hedgeye Risk Management）董事總經(jīng)理霍華德?佩妮接受《財(cái)富》采訪時(shí)說(shuō)。如果美國(guó)中等收入職員可支配收入微薄，而低收入工人可支配收入幾乎為零的現(xiàn)狀繼續(xù)維持下去，許多其他變革將成為必然。

????另外，為了吸引新的顧客（如沃爾瑪正在積極爭(zhēng)取的新生代顧客群體），同時(shí)留住原有顧客，零售和快餐企業(yè)不僅需要提供顧客需要的產(chǎn)品，而且要提供至少不會(huì)讓顧客掃興的消費(fèi)體驗(yàn)。

????麥當(dāng)勞現(xiàn)在也面臨著同樣的問(wèn)題。上個(gè)月，《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》（The Wall Street Journal）發(fā)表了一篇報(bào)道，談到了麥當(dāng)勞集團(tuán)試圖“修復(fù)受損的服務(wù)”。這家公司的高管稱(chēng)：“顧客最主要的不滿(mǎn)來(lái)自粗魯、不專(zhuān)業(yè)的員工?！?/p>

????“總公司以及我們的特許餐廳會(huì)不斷尋找改善顧客服務(wù)的途徑，”麥當(dāng)勞的一位發(fā)言人在寫(xiě)給我的電子郵件中表示。

????只要你愿意，你盡可以責(zé)備員工。但是如果實(shí)際情況是，你的員工同時(shí)打好幾份工卻還在擔(dān)心付不起不斷上漲的房租或燃?xì)赓M(fèi)，也沒(méi)錢(qián)給孩子買(mǎi)雙新鞋子，或者說(shuō)還要眼睜睜地看著家人食不果腹，如果這個(gè)時(shí)候剛好有某個(gè)顧客因?yàn)闆](méi)拿到番茄醬而朝他們大吼，這個(gè)時(shí)候被人責(zé)罵一定不是一件能容忍的事。即使是一個(gè)鐵石心腸的資本家也會(huì)意識(shí)到，這樣壓榨員工一定會(huì)影響到服務(wù)質(zhì)量。

????沃爾瑪公司也存在類(lèi)似的情況。據(jù)彭博資訊（Bloomberg）報(bào)道，沃爾瑪公司正在面臨裁員后貨物無(wú)法及時(shí)上架的困境——對(duì)此，員工和顧客都很不滿(mǎn)意。不過(guò)，沃爾瑪對(duì)彭博的報(bào)道不以為然，辯稱(chēng)公司正在致力于新技術(shù)和網(wǎng)上業(yè)務(wù)，以有效應(yīng)對(duì)運(yùn)營(yíng)挑戰(zhàn)。

????問(wèn)題是沃爾瑪?shù)纳虡I(yè)模式并沒(méi)有完全向網(wǎng)上商城轉(zhuǎn)移，而且對(duì)沮喪的員工的培訓(xùn)也僅停留于服務(wù)技能的訓(xùn)練。大概20年前，我參加過(guò)一個(gè)由具有心理學(xué)和戲劇表演雙重背景的傳播專(zhuān)家史蒂芬妮?亨德利主持的公眾演講培訓(xùn)班，我那時(shí)候就已經(jīng)明白了一個(gè)道理。亨德利說(shuō)，要想演講成功，最重要是要意識(shí)到自己的情感與演講內(nèi)容之間的聯(lián)系，而且要在察覺(jué)和實(shí)際訓(xùn)練的基礎(chǔ)上，有意識(shí)地把感覺(jué)到的情感轉(zhuǎn)化成想要表達(dá)的情感。然而，盡管這種方法對(duì)訓(xùn)練演講技能行之有效，但想要用它來(lái)培訓(xùn)那些生活不穩(wěn)定、情緒沮喪的員工，使其提高服務(wù)水平，不管費(fèi)多大勁，結(jié)果也將是徒勞。

Paying your workers enough to be good customers

????But let's say we have no compassion for workers and need more convincing. Do low wages help companies like Wal-Mart and McDonald's?

????The chickens seem to be coming home to roost on that score. For massive establishments like Wal-Mart and McDonald's to succeed, people who fit the economic profile of their own workers must have the wherewithal to shop and eat out. Fortune recently reported that McDonald's has decided to eliminate its big Angus burger, in part, because of the high cost. "You can't price it outside [the] range of people coming into McDonald's," Howard Penney, managing director of Hedgeye Risk Management, told Fortune. Many other changes will be needed if U.S. middle-income workers continue to have meager disposable income and low-wage workers have none.

????Further, to attract new customers (like millennials, a group Wal-Mart is targeting) and retain existing customers, retail and fast food establishments not only need to provide products that customers want, they need to also provide an experience that at a minimum won't turn customers off.

????McDonald's is wrestling with that issue now. Last month, the Wall Street Journal ran a report on the chain's efforts to repair its "broken service;" McDonald's executives said "the top complaint [w]as 'rude or unprofessional employees.'"

????"McDonald's and our franchisees continue to look at ways to improve our customer service experience," a spokesperson wrote me in an email.

????You can blame the workers if you like. But if you hold down multiple jobs and don't know how you will afford to pay your rising rent or gas costs or buy your child shoes, or if you are forced to witness family members skipping meals, it might be a challenge to be pleasant if someone yells at you because they didn't get their ketchup. Even a hard-hearted capitalist will recognize that squeezing workers in this way will affect customer service.

????Wal-Mart is facing similar issues. Bloomberg reported that the company is having trouble keeping shelves stocked following staff cutbacks — and workers and customers are not happy. Wal-Mart has disputed Bloomberg's findings. The company says it's focusing on technology and its online business as possible solutions to its operational challenges.

????But the company's business model hasn't moved completely online, and educating unhappy workers will only go so far. I learned this lesson when I took a public speaking workshop almost 20 years ago given by communications expert Stephanie Hendrie, who has a background in both psychology and theatre. To give a speech well, Hendrie said that it was important to become conscious of the emotion you feel related to the words in your speech and, through awareness and practice, to change that emotion consciously to the emotion you want to convey. But while it's helpful in speechmaking, for workers who are living lives of instability and distress, this is a nearly impossible feat no matter how hard they try.