給員工足夠的報酬，讓他們成為公司的忠實顧客。

????我們姑且認為對員工的同情心并不能成為給他們加薪的理由、加薪需要更有說服力的理由。但是，員工低薪對沃爾瑪和麥當勞這樣的公司來說真是好事嗎？

????給工人開低工資，最后自食其果的還是公司。對于許許多多像沃爾瑪和麥當勞一樣已經取得成功的大型公司來說，與它們員工經濟實力相當的人肯定具備購物和外出就餐的經濟能力。據《財富》雜志（Fortune）最近報道，麥當勞已經決定淘汰旗下的安格斯漢堡，部分原因就是因為價格太高。“不能把價格定在顧客的承受范圍之外，”投資研究及資訊機構Hedgeye風險管理公司（Hedgeye Risk Management）董事總經理霍華德?佩妮接受《財富》采訪時說。如果美國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狀繼續維持下去，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取的新生代顧客群體），同時留住原有顧客，零售和快餐企業不僅需要提供顧客需要的產品，而且要提供至少不會讓顧客掃興的消費體驗。

????麥當勞現在也面臨著同樣的問題。上個月，《華爾街日報》（The Wall Street Journal）發表了一篇報道，談到了麥當勞集團試圖“修復受損的服務”。這家公司的高管稱：“顧客最主要的不滿來自粗魯、不專業的員工。”

????“總公司以及我們的特許餐廳會不斷尋找改善顧客服務的途徑，”麥當勞的一位發言人在寫給我的電子郵件中表示。

????只要你愿意，你盡可以責備員工。但是如果實際情況是，你的員工同時打好幾份工卻還在擔心付不起不斷上漲的房租或燃氣費，也沒錢給孩子買雙新鞋子，或者說還要眼睜睜地看著家人食不果腹，如果這個時候剛好有某個顧客因為沒拿到番茄醬而朝他們大吼，這個時候被人責罵一定不是一件能容忍的事。即使是一個鐵石心腸的資本家也會意識到，這樣壓榨員工一定會影響到服務質量。

????沃爾瑪公司也存在類似的情況。據彭博資訊（Bloomberg）報道，沃爾瑪公司正在面臨裁員后貨物無法及時上架的困境——對此，員工和顧客都很不滿意。不過，沃爾瑪對彭博的報道不以為然，辯稱公司正在致力于新技術和網上業務，以有效應對運營挑戰。

????問題是沃爾瑪的商業模式并沒有完全向網上商城轉移，而且對沮喪的員工的培訓也僅停留于服務技能的訓練。大概20年前，我參加過一個由具有心理學和戲劇表演雙重背景的傳播專家史蒂芬妮?亨德利主持的公眾演講培訓班，我那時候就已經明白了一個道理。亨德利說，要想演講成功，最重要是要意識到自己的情感與演講內容之間的聯系，而且要在察覺和實際訓練的基礎上，有意識地把感覺到的情感轉化成想要表達的情感。然而，盡管這種方法對訓練演講技能行之有效，但想要用它來培訓那些生活不穩定、情緒沮喪的員工，使其提高服務水平，不管費多大勁，結果也將是徒勞。

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.