If you read the business news recently, you may have seen the story of Tony Barzar, a 60-year-old Costco cashier earning nearly $33 an hour. After decades with the company, his retirement savings have grown to more than $1 million. At first glance, it sounds like an unusual story about generous wages and benefits.
The headline is about wages. The real story is about customer experience. Costco has long believed that experienced employees create a better shopping experience overall. Rather than viewing long-tenured workers as an increasing expense, the company sees them as one of its greatest competitive advantages.
In fact, the retailer reports first-year employee turnover of around 7%, dramatically lower than the retail industry average, and credits experienced employees with moving customers through checkout more efficiently, mentoring newer team members, and helping build the kind of service that keeps members renewing year after year.
Most small businesses can’t match Costco’s payroll. That’s perfectly understandable. What every business can learn from Costco, however, is something else entirely: employee retention isn’t just an HR issue. It’s a customer experience strategy.
Experience Leaves Fingerprints
Customers rarely know how long an employee has worked for your business. They don’t need to. They can tell by the confidence with which questions are answered, how smoothly problems are resolved, and how effortlessly routine transactions move along. They notice when a checkout line keeps moving because the cashier knows the register so well that every motion is almost automatic.
An experienced cashier doesn’t simply scan groceries faster. They recognize produce codes from memory. They catch pricing errors before they become delays. They answer questions without interrupting the transaction. Those efficiencies shave only seconds from each order, but over hundreds of customers a day they add up to shorter lines, lower labor costs per transaction, and a smoother experience for everyone.
Whether you run a restaurant, medical office, bank, or manufacturing company, experience produces faster decisions, fewer mistakes, and greater confidence. Customers may never know why one business feels easier to do business with than another, but they recognize the difference immediately.
The Cost You Don’t See on the Balance Sheet
Most owners understand the direct cost of employee turnover. Recruiting takes time. Hiring costs money. Training requires resources. Those expenses can be measured.
Businesses often calculate the cost of replacing an employee. Far fewer calculate the cost of replacing experience. That cost is measured through what your customers experience while new employees are still learning. Every time a seasoned employee leaves, your business loses more than a person. You lose product knowledge, familiarity with your procedures, relationships with regular customers, and someone who quietly teaches newer employees how things are really done.
For weeks or months afterward, customers may encounter longer waits, uncertain answers, inconsistent service, or policies that are applied differently depending on who happens to be helping them. Rarely is one interaction bad enough to drive a customer away. Instead, those small frustrations accumulate until doing business with a competitor simply feels easier.
Those moments rarely appear on a financial report, but they absolutely influence whether customers come back.
The Customer Experience Starts Behind the Scenes
An overlooked benefits of retaining experienced employees is that they become your best trainers. New hires don’t learn everything from orientation manuals. They learn by watching veterans handle a difficult customer with patience, solve a problem without panic, or recover gracefully from a mistake. Costco recognizes this value and intentionally encourages experienced employees to mentor newer team members. The goal isn’t simply to train someone to perform a task. It’s to preserve the judgment and habits that only experience can teach. Experience scales when experienced people stay long enough to pass it on.
This is exactly the sort of advantage mystery shopping uncovers. Mystery shoppers don’t ask how long someone has worked for your company. They evaluate the experience your customers actually receive. When our shoppers visit businesses with experienced, engaged employees, they tend to find consistent service, confident interactions, and employees who know both the business and the customer.
Businesses struggling with turnover often show different patterns. Employees are confused. Service varies from one visit to the next. Policies are applied inconsistently. Customers leave feeling that no one is quite on the same page.
Your Customers Feel the Difference
The lesson from Costco isn’t that every business should pay Costco wages. It’s that experienced employees create better customer experiences, and better customer experiences create loyal customers.
Whether you invest in your team through competitive pay, meaningful recognition, opportunities for growth, strong leadership, or simply creating a workplace where good people want to stay, your customers will benefit from that investment. Retaining great employees isn’t just an investment in your workforce. It’s an investment in every customer who walks through your door.
At The Brandt Group, we’ve spent more than 30 years helping businesses see themselves through their customers’ eyes. Our mystery shopping programs, customer and employee surveys, and leadership training seminars help identify the strengths that build customer loyalty and the opportunities that deserve attention. With an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, we’re ready to help you create the kind of customer experience that keeps people coming back, year after year.
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