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.
- The key characteristic for determining employee satisfaction is organizational communication, which is the measure of upward and downward communication. Are your employees informed properly? Are the vision, strategy, and values of your organization clear to them?
- When employees compete to spearhead an optimal customer experience, this can be beneficial to both the customers and the organization. After all, this means that every employee wants to offer the best experience.
- Organization culture is another crucial aspect of employee engagement as employees are not just expected to work together but also take ownership of customers and function as their voice on various matters.
- Customer Service departments are not only about the employees. Human Resources, for example, can also contribute to the ultimate customer experience.
Something you can’t measure can’t be improved
Let customer experience work as a goal for your employees that should be measured on a continuous basis. Otherwise, they can never work towards improving those goals. So, make sure you have the right tools to measure customer experience. Something you can’t measure can’t be improved. By making customer experience an important part of the company and by including a metric, an employee can automatically follow and improve their efforts. Place your customer in the centre of your universe by understanding what they are looking for, how they want it, when they want it and so on. You, as an organization, conduct this search to your customer together with your employees. Let employees take matters into their own hands and let them contribute to decisions to improve customer experience.
Do not just measure customer experience. It is wise to also measure the experience of the employee so that the employee is also served in work-related needs and, just like the customer, is satisfied to be involved with the company. A satisfied employee is enthusiastic and feels involved. Satisfied and engaged employees are often more productive and truly want to help the organization grow, for example to improve customer-centricity.