As the adage goes, your customer experience is only as good as your employees’ experience. When people show up to work happy, they’re more likely to pass that positive energy onto those they serve. And that still rings true. But, as we are all aware, the landscape for employee experience has changed considerably.
Today, what employees desire looks different than it did just a few years ago. It could be working from home or unlimited PTO. How about having a Bring Your Dog to Work Day or focusing significantly on mental health?
So the million-dollar question is: Are you providing everything necessary to give your employees what they want and need to be successful?
We've talked with industry pros and gathered four imperatives to keep your employees satisfied and engaged so you can drive those great customer experiences.
1. Send out employee surveys.
Get valuable feedback from employees. Ask them how they are doing (and really listen!). Hear their voices, understand their problems, and embrace the opportunities to fix them. You can accomplish this through a formal survey or a strategically placed suggestion box. Remember, the most important aspect of a survey is having a process in place for how to act on feedback after you get it—make sure you’re ready to do something after you listen!
2. Share customer feedback!
Provide frequent feedback to your employees from customers. Share information about what customers are saying and remove subjectivity with internal coaching. This transparency will help employees own and manage their relationship with customers, increasing satisfaction scores.
3. Empower your employees.
There are so many ways to build up your team! Managers need to:
- Train employees to drive great customer experiences, like helping them understand customer trends and specifics on what's happening in the market.
- Implement tools and processes to help employees succeed, like providing frontline employees with real-time assistance to give guidance to customers in the moment.
- Offer unwavering support for mental health.
- Set up a working plan for workplace diversity.
- Be flexible when at all possible.
- Provide consistent communication from executives.
4. Prove they belong.
Employees thrive when they feel they are appreciated and in the right place. Here are a few key ways to foster a sense of belonging among your employees:
- Provide collaboration tools and forums to replace water cooler discussions in a hybrid work environment.
- Find new ways to connect with people. (For example, maybe once a month or once a quarter, a regular weekly meeting could be more casual and focused on getting to know each other.)
- Give employees confidence in the organization they work for by demonstrating that you are not just a brand but a person who cares for their well-being.
- Provide opportunities for employees to connect with each other. (For example, encourage employees to form book clubs or other discussion groups based on mutual interests and “meet” over lunch periodically.)
- Hand out encouragement, care, and support for everyone, all the time. (And be sure to keep a special eye on those working remotely—it still can get lonely for many).
Feeling a little overwhelmed? We get it. It's a lot to manage. But don't worry, Andrew Reise is here to help. We are a full-service management consulting firm specializing in strategy, customer experience, the voice of the customer, project/program management, and subscription services.
Want to learn more? Check out our website, or drop us an email with your questions. Feel free to give us a call at 913-323-6899. Let's talk about what is involved in identifying barriers and setting up a framework for a fantastic customer experience at your organization.
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