You Will Never Have Happy Customers without Happy Employees

Satisfaction is a cycle. It may have your customer at the center, but it has your employees at every point in the journey. More engaged and fulfilled employees support more productive, efficient, and happier customer journeys. And in turn, happy customers are more relaxed, nicer, more loyal, and more likely to make your employees happier in their roles. 

This seemingly obvious point is easier said than done, but the companies that can do it generate twice the revenues as companies with disengaged employees. By arming your employees with useful customer information, streamlining the process of connecting the right employee to each customer, and giving regular feedback, you can drive significant change for your organization – much of which could impact your bottom line for the better. 

“Engaged employees deliver better experiences, boost profits, and are less likely to jump ship. But to appoint employees as customer advocates for and participants in the customer experience, organizations must weave customer centricity into their entire ecosystem.”

- John Dalton, VP Research Director, Forrester

Happiness Goes Hand in Hand
Study after study confirms a strong correlation between employee engagement and customer satisfaction. The process for improving employee engagement has a lot of crossover into the customer journey. Providing employees with insight related to their role in the customer journey is one of the most fundamental things you can do to improve their engagement. Putting the right resources in place is incredibly simple compared with the dividends they produce.

For example, online appointment booking and self-check-in kiosks not only help employees to manage customer volume, these resources tell them why each customer is visiting, who they are, and what services they need, so they can connect them with the most knowledgeable and appropriate employee. And smart mobile app solutions like Mobile Connect put that information in the employee’s hand, enabling him to come out from behind the counter to engage directly with the customer. This freedom to move enables employees to see more customers, and do so in a way that is more relational.

These solutions have revolutionized the customer journey satisfaction cycle. Communication is more instant and informed, productivity is higher and the customer experience is more efficient and personalized. All of those factors contribute to a higher level of satisfaction for the customer, and sense of fulfillment for the employee, who now has the ability to be a customer advocate.

The third piece of the puzzle in the process of improving the connection between of employee and customer delight is feedback. By shortening the customer feedback loop, employees get more immediate, specific, and useful information about how they have performed their task and how they could improve. 

More than one study has shown that highly engaged, high performing employees are more than twice as likely to receive feedback at least once a week, compared to their low performing counterparts. Gathering direct feedback from customers and delivering those insights to your employees on a consistent basis, tells your customers and employees that you care about their experience. 

90% of leaders think an employee engagement strategy impacts the bottom line, yet only 25% actually take steps to define that strategy. 

Employees and customers are engaged in a relationship. The steps and resources you engage to improve each side will strengthen the customer journey, brand, and bottom line. That is what impact looks like – empower employees to perform well, so they can act on your behalf to delight those you serve. 

We can help you do that. See how Qmatic supports a fully integrated, productive, and impactful customer journey. 

Sources:
Employee Engagement Is More Important Than the Customer, Entrepreneur Magazine, October 2015
Why employee engagement could soon be critical to improving customer journeys, My Customer, October 2014
Ten statistics reveal why employee engagement is more important than ever, 9 Inch Marketing