As disruptive technology and ever-changing public behavior continues to rock the world of marketing, very few things remain guaranteed in this business. As Benjamin Franklin once quipped: “In this world, nothing except death and taxes.” In the marketing world, there is one more concept that remains a certainty over time: customer experience is king. Whether we are talking about the customer always being right in a retail setting, improving user interface on an app, or customer service for returns, customer experience is and will likely always remain the center of how the public perceives your brand.
With this in mind, today we will discuss how encouraging greater employee engagement can naturally lead to a greater customer experience and therefore a healthier brand.
Defining Employee Engagement
Let’s start by answering what is employee engagement? The answer is simple to understand but not so simple to implement. In the purest sense, “employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.” It is notably not to be confused with how happy employees are or how satisfied they are within their roles. Employee engagement specifically refers to how invested each employee is in the company overall.
There are a number of ways organizations have successfully increased employee engagement including offering flexible hours and work sites, group volunteering, positive reinforcement, valuing employee feedback and much more. A huge component which will organically encourage greater employee engagement is creating an authentic and positive company culture.
Customer Experience 101
As we mentioned in the introduction, customer experience is everything. As with many important concepts in marketing, improving customer experience is more easily said than done. There are more obvious avenues such as focusing on customer service, but true customer experience improvement comes from a company-wide dedication. Brands can manage and maximize customer experience by utilizing:
- Text analytics (text mining): This software mines the internet for relevant pieces of information that can provide customer feedback in a usable manner, allowing brands to better understand their customers and non-customers.
- Utilizing customer feedback loops: On a similar note, improving customer experience can often be achieved by listening to and understanding your customers. Closing this feedback loop is a great CX management strategy.
- Brand metrics and benchmarking: Customer experience might be king, but big data and brand metrics are the heart of all major brand decisions.
- Understanding the path to purchase journey: Customer experience doesn’t begin or end at the point of purchase. Instead, customer experience begins at the first brand interaction and it hopefully continues for many years as customers continue to patronize your brand over time.
How Employees Impact Customer Experience
Now that we understand the basics of employee engagement and customer experience, how can we use one to inform the other? First let’s establish a simple fact: it has been proven that customer service leaders have significantly higher employee engagement. A recent study showed that organizations with a less than average CX performance averaged 49% employee engagement. Meanwhile, organizations with a greater than average CX performance average 79% employee engagement. The link between CX management and employee engagement has been shown time and time again to be a direct relationship.
Most of you can probably guess why this relationship exists. More engaged customers = better service, harder work, and a better customer experience on the back end. There is no question that this is true. We would argue that the reason goes a step further. Companies that are willing to make a commitment to employee engagements are more likely to have a stronger company culture, a stronger brand personality, and a stronger identity overall. Peeling back an additional layer, this commitment stems from an emphasis on both internal and external brand alignment.
Quick Tips on Boosting Employee Engagement
While we touched on this previously, let’s explore some quick hitters on how companies can improve their overall employee engagement:
- Emphasize corporate culture. At the risk of beating a dead horse, yes, company culture is the backbone of employee engagement. Just as customers want to know your brand, so do your employees.
- Value your employees as a whole and as individuals. Employees are human beings first and foremost. Even seasoned industry veterans respond positively to group and individual attention. Letting your employees know they are valued goes a long way.
- Get HR in the loop. Human resources is probably the closest tie between management and employees in large organizations. Make sure your HR group is committed to employee engagement as well.
- Promote a social and pleasant work environment. Research shows that the physical and social environment of a workspace has a huge impact on both productivity and employee engagement.