When companies spend time ensuring their employees are engaged, the results speak for themselves. According to CX futurist Blake Morgan, companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competition by 147%. Further, 79% of employees at companies with above-average CX are highly engaged in their jobs vs. 49% of employees with average or below average CX scores.
So, what is the correlation between employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX). Unfortunately, it’s very common for teams to use words such as “family” and “culture” to the point that they may lose their sincerity. However, providing a good product, without a team that’s truly buying into your mission, is like building a car with a beautiful exterior and high-tech features, but an unreliable engine.
This all boils down to a simple fact. We cannot take good care of customers unless we take good care of each other. Therefore, EX and CX aren’t all that dissimilar. In fact, they both rely on the other.
Recognition and Personalization Breeds Loyalty
It’s no secret that everyone enjoys feeling recognized. Recognition and appreciation are the main ways to anyone’s heart. When employers make their teams feel valued, retention sores. This is the same outlook for customers — appreciation can often negate churn. To take this even deeper, customers like personalized shopping and user experiences. Personalization matters, whether it’s offering personalized purchase options for customers or unique options for team members. Making people feel heard and seen — recognizing them as individuals — is incredibly important.
Over the last several years, VXI’s operations in the Philippines has grown so quickly across 10 major facilities that we were suddenly at risk of losing our personal connections to employees. For us, ‘caring’ for each other is one of our most treasured corporate values. So we built programming to help teammates demonstrate their affection for one another. We created a video series, ‘People of VXI,’ that enabled teammates to share their life stories. We increased our corporate social responsibility engagement to help local communities. We doubled-down on our employee training, because we discovered our happiest employees were those who were constantly challenged and learning.
When companies show that they care, they inspire customers and employees to also care. This can be as simple as using names in discussions, to offering specialized work options for employees. By establishing personal relationships with customers and employees, organizations create spaces everyone can appreciate.
Everyone Wants to Be Heard — Customers and Employees
Feedback is what powers most customer satisfaction (CSAT) campaigns. So, why not use the same tactics for our internal teams? Consistent company surveys and opportunities for feedback give companies more information to turn into improvements for every future touchpoint. By using a closed-loop feedback process, ensuring that employee feedback was not just collected and discussed but actioned, VXI was able to improve employee satisfaction scores overall by 21% points during the past 4 years from 66% to 87%.
A Welcoming Storefront and a Welcoming Office
Creating a welcoming environment is usually top-of-mind for brick and mortar stores. Similarly, it’s top of mind for apps, websites and other digital products. So, if we are ensuring our customers feel welcome and have easy access to services, shouldn’t our employees feel the same way?
Just as good lighting sets the mood for customers, our employees also deserve comfortable work areas, and a pleasant place to work. Just as our online customers need an easy-to-use website, our team members deserve user-friendly work software and tools. While customers are key to our business, it’s our teams who keep them happy.
Focus on the Whole Experience
You may have heard the mantra of “sell an experience, rather than a product.” It’s a very valid way to approach work. As a general rule, customers care more about the experience than prices. They’re willing to spend a little extra if the service and quality is worth it.
The same can be said for team members. If we ensure that our team members are valued, appreciated, and have the right tools to genuinely want to succeed, they won’t mind going that extra mile to close a deal, finish a task, or bring forth even more ideas to the team. This is very similar to the customer who doesn’t mind paying a little extra for a product because he or she genuinely cares for the product and enjoys the experience.
Consider these few connections between our customers and employees, and you’ll see that you aren’t only selling your vision to customers, but also to your team. By ensuring they feel valued, and comfortable, you can ensure true brand advocates who will ensure the success of your company.
