Despite all of the tools that help a business run smoothly – computerized cash registers, cellphones with budgeting software – an often overlooked factor is the people.

Humans operate the registers and navigate the software program, and they also serve as the face of a company. Humans greet customers when they walk through the door and can share a smile with community members or shareholders.

A Maine business owner and training consultant says it’s crucial that company owners invest in educating their employees on good, basic human-relations skills in order to develop lasting customer relationships.

Lee Ann Szelog, creator and producer of “The Art of Human Relations” training program, says owners must make their employees feel valued, which will help them be more productive parts of the company.

“Thriving companies continue to flourish because they understand the importance of balancing high tech with high touch, and that the need to educate and develop employees’ human-relations skills is more important than ever before,” she says.

Through her consulting firm, Simply Put LLC, Szelog teaches people the value of human interactions and how to develop human-relations skills to maximize, manage and communicate effectively in a high-tech world in order to attract, retain and expand customer relationships.

Szelog says technology supports business development and strategies, but it’s people who still drive customer loyalty, which translates into profits. Regardless of the size of a company, the return on investing in the development of employees’ human-relations skills can enhance profit and have other long-lasting results.

Basic human-relations skills can nurture better relationships with co-workers – as well as family and friends – resulting in more-positive employees with improved interpersonal and communications skills, Szelog says. Those employees make better sons or daughters, spouses, parents, coaches and volunteers.

The skills can “enhance workplace culture by creating an environment in which employees feel valued and treated fairly, contributing to lower turnover, and improve creativity and innovation, personally and professionally, resulting in better problem-solving,” Szelog says.

When human-relations skills training is made available to employees, it encourages accountability with decision-making, instills a sense of personal pride and helps employees lead more purposeful lives, the consultant says, regardless of position, title, age, income, life stage or aspirations.

“By leading with the human spirit, companies will not only have a positive impact on employees, customers, shareholders and community members,” Szelog says, “but they will also enhance workplace culture and the bottom line.”

Lee Ann Szelog is an award-winning author, training consultant, former lighthouse keeper and wildlife advocate. Passionate about helping people live life rather than react to it, she established Simply Put LLC after spending 28 years working as a marketing and training executive. She and her husband, Tom, have written and photographed two books, one the award-winning “Our Point of View - Fourteen Years at a Maine Lighthouse.”