Employee engagement is incredibly vital for the success of your customer experience goals. Why? Employees act as the fuel that will keep your company running. They can impact how your customers see your brand.

So, one of the main goals that companies should have is to invest in employee engagement for better customer experience. Continue reading to learn more.

What is customer experience?

Customer experience is the building block of the success of any business. It is a customer’s impression/view of your services and products. This impression can make your customers buy from you or abandon you.

71% of customers make purchasing decisions based on the quality of services they receive. Thus, enhancing customer experience should be a significant part of your strategic foresight.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the heart of a successful, better customer experience strategy. It involves a reflection into;

• How committed your workforce is to your business
• How your employees feel about their job
• Your employees’ motivation level
• Your employees’ involvement in the success of your company
• The emotional commitment of your employees

In short, employee engagement is the level of enthusiasm and dedication between your employees and their work. These engagement levels can fall into different categories, including;

• Highly engaged employees
• Moderately engaged employees
• Barely engaged employees
• Disengaged employees

So, if your goal is to increase your employee engagement, use the above levels of engagement to determine how your workforce feels about your business.

What is the correlation between employee engagement and customer experience?

Employee engagement and customer experience have a direct correlation. When you have happy employees, –you will enjoy happy customers. If your employees feel appreciated and believe in what they’re doing, they will go the extra mile to ensure a better customer experience.

So, a significant part of your workforce management should center around ensuring better employee engagement. This is because;

• Engaged employees are highly likely to exhibit dedication and enthusiasm when working with customers.
• Engaged employees are highly likely to develop meaningful relationships with your customers over time. These relationships can facilitate higher customer retention.
• The employee will also invest their time learning about your services/products. This will ensure that they can make relevant recommendations and provide accurate information to help your customers make purchasing decisions.

Furthermore, a survey found that 89% of individuals believe that employee engagement is of higher importance to customer experience. Thus, you should invest more in areas of employee engagement.

So, how can you invest in employee engagement for better customer experience?

There are several ways that you can use to invest in employee engagement for better customer experience. They include;

Determine your employees’ needs

One of the primary strategies for effective people management is identifying their needs. So, in this case, you should determine what your employees need. You can do this by using an engagement survey that includes a Likert scale, where the employees answer with “highly likely,” “less likely,” or “neutral.” The survey can consist of questions like;

• I find the company’s values and my values are similar
• I believe that my workload is relevant to my role
• My manager shows interest in my overall well-being
• I feel appreciated at work
• I feel recognized for my success and hard work.

Once you get the employee engagement survey results, prioritize areas of concern. For instance, if the survey shows that employees feel less appreciated at work, change your workforce management strategy and show more appreciation. This can help you enhance employee engagement, which in turn will promote a better customer experience.

Evaluate performance metrics

Performance metrics like absenteeism, productivity, and quality control can clearly indicate how engaged your employees are. For instance, highly engaged employees will demonstrate 21% higher productivity.

Also, trends like declining output and high absenteeism rates can show declining engagement. So, once you gather the performance metrics, do the following;

• Review them regularly
• Identify areas that need improvement
• Implement targeted engagement initiatives, such as peer-to-peer recognition programs.

You can also use digital agencies in your evaluation of performance metrics. One of the most essential elements of a digital agency’s job is to evaluate customer experience. You can use the evaluation results to determine areas of employee engagement that require improvement.

Solicit feedback

Develop channels for feedback loops and open communication between employees and managers. These channels can be done through email integration with sites like Slack. When you have open communication, you can ensure that employee engagement initiatives align with your customer experience goals.

This will help to shorten the distance between customers and employees.

Invest in learning tools

There are two main learning tools that you can invest in to ensure a better customer experience. The first one is the listening stations. Listening stations can help your staff better understand your customer experiences and needs.

The listening station allows your employees to listen to customers speak and hear about their issues with your business. They can include video conferencing or physical location stations.

The other tool is customer rooms. Customer rooms use visual data to depict customer journeys. These tools will help employees to understand your customers better. Note that when your employees know your customers better, they are more likely to engage with them better since they’ll know their pain points and what makes them happy. 

In turn, the customers are highly likely to make purchases due to engaged employees. 92% of customers will make repeat purchases if they get a positive experience from your employees. So, invest in customer listening tools to ensure better employee engagement and customer experience.

Use customer satisfaction metrics

Employee engagement and customer satisfaction are interdependent. Employees are the primary contributors to poor or improved customer experience. So, customer metrics like customer satisfaction survey and Net Promoter Score (NPS) results can show;

• Underlying workforce issues
• Customer complaints

These results can help you gauge your customers’ experience with your employees. For instance, the customer satisfaction survey can help pinpoint whether your employees can clearly describe your products. If you find that they cannot do that, you can focus employee engagement strategy on employee training.

Have a positive work culture

Create a workplace environment that focuses on employee recognition, well-being, and growth opportunities. When you have a positive culture, you are highly likely to have engaged employees who are passionate about ensuring a better customer experience.

Also, these employees will be more;

• Productive
• Engaged
• Innovative
• Have better teamwork

All of the above will promote a better customer experience in your business.

Bottom Line

Creating a culture of employee engagement is not something to overlook in your business. This culture can help to unlock significant benefits for your customers and employees. In fact, enhanced employee engagement can ensure that your employees are enthusiastic enough to build positive relationships with your customers.

Guest writer.