When we think of a customer-oriented organization, you think of how you can keep your customers happy in different ways by better understanding where their wants and needs lie. But some organizations forget to include the involvement of the employees in this, while they are the ones who serve your customers. We create different systems and processes to offer the best to the customer, but are we also working on the right experience for the employee? If an organization wants to become customer-centric in its genes, it certainly needs a focus on employee engagement in addition to the focus on customer experience.
Voice of Customer and Voice of Employee
We understand the role of the Voice of Customer in customer experience management. But another fact that not many organizations understand yet is that when customer feedback is combined with the Voice of Employee, you are really building a customer-oriented organization. If organizations recognized the value of involvement on all fronts, it could improve overall business performance. Time for a strategic approach with drivers for both the customer and the employee. Then link this approach to business objectives such as increasing revenue, sales, and growth.
The combination of cx and employee engagement
Currently, we have customer experience on one side of the fence and employee engagement on the other side: the two topics that are seen as key to the business. Combining the engagement of the employee to improve customer-centricity is necessary for various reasons. Let us look at some of the pointers identified by experts and researchers around this topic:
- Research proves that there is a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, and between customer satisfaction and financial status of the business. A happy and satisfied employee will do anything to satisfy the customers of his organization. And a happy customer naturally contributes to the financial advancement of the business. Hence, employee satisfaction is important in business growth.
- To determine employee satisfaction, it is particularly important to look at communication within the organization; how is internal communication handled? Are your employees kept informed about everything? Are the vision, strategy, and values of your organization clear to your employees?
- When employees compete to ensure an optimal customer experience, such competition can be beneficial for both customers and the organization. After all, every employee wants to offer the best experience.
- The organization’s culture is another crucial aspect of employee engagement when employees are not only expected to work together but also to show leadership and make their voices heard in various matters.
- The HR department can also contribute to an ultimate customer experience. Read more about how Human Resources can contribute to an ultimate customer experience.
Something you cannot measure cannot be improved.
Let customer experience work as a goal for your employees and provide a benchmark. This is the only way you can have employees work on improving goals. So, ensure you have the right tools to measure this. Something you cannot measure cannot be improved. By making customer experience a key part of the business, including a measurement tool, an employee can automatically track and improve efforts. Put the customer at the center by understanding what they are looking for, how they want it, when they want it, and so on. As an organization, you carry out this search for the customer together with your employees. Let employees take matters into their own hands and let them contribute to decisions to improve customer experiences.
Don’t just measure the customer experience. It is wise to also measure the employee experience, so that the employee’s work-related needs are also met and they, just like the customer, leave satisfied. A satisfied employee is enthusiastic and will feel engaged with the organization, so they will often be more productive and want to go for it every day to help the organization grow, for example, in the area of customer-centricity.
In this way, employee engagement and customer experience are closely linked. One leads to the other; an engaged employee ensures a better customer experience.
