- 16
- December
- 2022
You're familiar with the proverb "happy workers = happy consumers". Although this idea has always been true, it is now the foundation of many organizations' larger growth-oriented plans. Given the increasing competition and elevated customer expectations, the majority of businesses understand that customer experience (CX) is a critical distinction. Since employees are an organization's first consumers, having a positive CX is essential for success.
Customer experiences (CX) often reflect how employees feel about their work, thus satisfied and supportive staff are more likely to facilitate excellent customer experiences. Empathy is essential for businesses to develop trust and create a foundation of loyal customers. It makes sense that focusing on the company's heartbeat, its employees, is more crucial than ever for retaining consumers and ensuring the success of the business. Companies with highly engaged workers perform better than their competitors, have higher retention rates, and experience fewer absences. A highly engaged staff has a good financial impact and helps to constantly provide a superior customer experience.
In his self-published book 'Customer What?', Ian Golding explains the fundamentals of CX and touches on the connection between employee and customer experiences. The biggest underlying concept of the customer experience, according to Golding, is the principle of empathy. "But empathy isn't just towards the customer. It has to be towards your employees. If you don't get it right for your people, they won't get it right for your customer." The disconnect between corporate leaders and employees, which fosters a siloed culture, is a concern for many firms. These silos may worsen if leaders make choices without considering employee input.
In his discussion, Golding stressed the need for trust between managers and staff. Managers are better able to grasp how customers feel about the company when they are aware of employee satisfaction levels.
"If a business cares for its people, and they feel engaged and empowered, in turn, they will care for the customers of that business," Golding wrote. "If your business does not care for its people, your customers will interact with disengaged, unhappy employees, and disengagement and unhappiness are what they will remember about the experience." Companies that top our U.S. Top 100 index in the KPMG 2020 Customer Experience Excellence Report link the employee experience and the customer experience inextricably. The design of the employee experience receives the same amount of attention as the design of the consumer experience.
The study also found that:
The most successful companies are characterized by three employee focus areas:
- Enablement — ensuring employees have all of the tools for the job;
- Empowerment — trusting and equipping employees to make the right decisions for customers; and
- Engagement — providing a sense of purpose that elevates the job into something psychologically fulfilling.
A Deloitte survey found that 80% of respondents rated Employee Experiences important or very important for business strategy in delivering great CX. It’s not surprising since it’s the employee experience that owns the customer experience.
Most Employee centric organizations focus on building a workplace culture that:
- Creates a workplace that is rewarding and entertaining.
- Establishes training as a cultural norm.
- Provides significant employee growth.
- Applauds and recognizes superior customer service.
- Shows employees that they have complete support.
Although the idea of an employee-centric culture is not new, most employees remain disengaged. Therefore, it's crucial to stress devoting time and effort to raising employee satisfaction levels within your company:
- By promoting the idea that the customer experience is important throughout the company, employers may inspire and motivate their staff to care deeply about it.
- Fostering an atmosphere of worker accountability.
- Putting in place formal procedures that make it simpler for staff to promote good customer service.
Long-term employees frequently have a deeper understanding of how to improve the customer experience. Collaboration within an organization and knowledge exchange are valued and rewarded.
A solid knowledge management system informs and educates your employees so they become experts in your product and services while also increasing self-service effectiveness. As a creator of these systems, we’ve seen the collective intelligence gathered in an organization’s knowledge base also allow employees the ability to access and deliver answers to customers more quickly. This leads to greater customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.
Hence, Economic Times in its article that organizations that succeed at customer experience have 150 percent more engaged employees than companies that don't. The data to measure key employee experience metrics are: Surveys on employee engagement can be used to determine which employees feel appreciated and engaged.
Employee net promoter score (ENPS) surveys are used to determine how probable it is that a certain employee will suggest your company as a great place to work. A higher rating in this category suggests contented and dedicated workers. Surveys for performance reviews enable you to collect detailed qualitative feedback. The information can be utilized to enhance training programs, make plans for mentoring and promotions, and find possibilities for skill development.
Employment Employees matter as much to your customers as to your business. While having a "customer is king" mentality is important, it's also crucial to keep in mind the other people whose happiness is crucial to the success of your business. You may be certain that unhappy employees result in unhappy customers if happy employees create pleased customers.
Developing a customer-centric business model is always beneficial, but if you want to gain a significant competitive advantage, focus first on providing outstanding employee experiences. There are countless advantages to considering the customer and employee experiences as two sides of the same coin.
