Employee Engagement Drives Customer Experience
Most companies prioritize customer experience and customer satisfaction to ensure their business is a success. However, the employee experience is just as important and can play a crucial role in the overall customer experience as well.
Studies and research have shown that employee engagement helps drive customer satisfaction. Although employee engagement is a term that can fall into workplace jargon, there is a clear definition and way to achieve it.
This article will define what employee engagement is, how it is connected to the customer experience, and offer tips for employers on how to improve employee engagement as a way to improve customer satisfaction.
What Is Employee Engagement?
An engaged employee has an emotional commitment to their work; they are fully immersed and generally enthusiastic about what they are doing and are in line with the company and its goals.
Thus, employee engagement is what the employer does to ensure their employees feel as described above. It’s the effort that management and leaders within the company put into ensuring their employees are satisfied, enjoying their job, and committed to the success of the company.
However, employee engagement should not be confused with employee satisfaction. While making sure your employees are satisfied is part of the equation, it is not the only thing that makes for an engaged employee.
While giving an employee a pay increase and providing more in-office amenities might make an employee more satisfied and happy temporarily, it may not ensure your employees are fully committed to the company and its success in the long run.
Good communication, ethical company values and beliefs, clear expectations, good leadership, employee appreciation, and an workplace where employees have what they need are also essential to employee engagement. In turn, quality employee engagement is vital to any business.
The more engaged and satisfied your employees are, the fewer issues they will have, which means more productivity, better quality work, and higher employee retention rates.
The Connection Between Employee Engagement and Customer Experience
It makes sense that happy employees equal happy customers because if your employees aren’t engaged and happy, then how can you expect them to provide quality service to your customers?
An employee that is stressed about their job, for example, will likely struggle in their role and not have the focus and dedication they need to do a good job. If an employee is underperforming, it will ultimately affect customer satisfaction, especially if that employee is directly tied to the customer’s experience, such as a customer service representative.
In contrast, when employees are treated well, are thoroughly engaged, and find meaning in their role, they are more committed to going above and beyond to provide satisfaction and engagement to customers.
This isn’t even an anecdotal experience, either. Companies with 79% higher employee engagement provide significantly better customer experiences than their competitors.
This is because when an employee is engaged, they are more innovative and creative when it comes to providing customer solutions, they form better relationships with customers, and they are committed to helping the company achieve its goals, which could attract more customers.
So if you are looking for long-lasting customer engagement, you need to connect your customers to your brand emotionally, and to do this, you need more engaged employees that go above and beyond to build those emotional connections with your customers.
How To Improve the Employee Experience
However, discussing the benefits of happy employees is one thing. Actually putting in the work to make them happier is an entirely different endeavor — one that should constantly be maintained to ensure your company prioritizes its employees and customers.
There are many ways to do this, but the three primary solutions are to recognize, engage, and reward:
1. Recognize Your Employees
To ensure your employees feel seen and appreciated, it’s important to recognize their hard work and effort. Recognition is essential to inspiring your employees to continue working hard and producing quality work. One way to do this is to embrace active feedback.
You want to show your employees that you see what they are doing and appreciate it by giving them positive feedback while also creating a space where they feel safe speaking up when they need help or simply voicing their opinion.
Essentially, you should attempt to make your employees feel both seen and heard, as doing this shows that you respect them and recognize their work and the importance of their role within the company.
2. Engage With Your Employees
Of course, to increase employee engagement, you need to actively engage them. This could mean a lot of different things, but primarily it involves communication and giving your employees the tools they need to succeed.
When you communicate regularly with employees, provide them with clear expectations, and give them the tools and resources they need to do their job well, they will be more engaged. For example, if your employees often go through entire workdays without hearing much from their managers or team leads, they are going to feel less engaged and might even feel unsure of what is expected of them.
If communication and check-ins happen more often, however, your employees will build better relationships with their managers, know what is expected of them, and will be able to do their job better without any confusion or misunderstandings.
3. Reward Your Employees
Employee appreciation is another key element in satisfying and engaging your employees. This can also be done in numerous ways, such as rewarding your employees with appreciation days, recognition ceremonies, and sending them appreciative notes and emails.
You can also show your employees that you care about them and their hard work by offering rewards such as extra time off, small gifts of thanks, covering commuting costs, or providing them with health and wellness benefits like in-office yoga or massages.
Workplace events and parties can also show that you appreciate your employees and can provide opportunities for employees to bond with their colleagues, which can further boost employee engagement.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, your employees are more than just cogs in the system. Happy employees = happy customers. So the more you engage your employees, the better experiences your customers will have. And the more satisfied your customers are, the more you will be able to grow your business and achieve success.
So make employee engagement a priority and show your staff that you care about their needs, are there to support them, and appreciate all of their hard work.
