How Does Employee Experience Impact Customer Experience?

The goal of every organization is to make its customers happy. And one way to ensure that is by making your employees your brand ambassadors. In simple words, we call it employee experience.

Now, you might have read many times that customers should be the brand ambassadors of your company. But we would go a step ahead and say your employees can play a vital role in making your customers feel valued and listened to.  

So, why not make your employees feel valued and create an environment that makes your customers happy during the sale. This is the crux of the employee experience concept. 

In the forthcoming sections of this write-up, we will look at how employee experience can help create a positive impact on customer experience? 

So, let’s get started. 

The magic of creating an employee-focused culture in your organization 

The most popular business proverb, “Customer is the King”, shows that customers are the heartbeat of any business. All the time and efforts put in by businesses are for the sole purpose – to satisfy customer needs and make them happy. While there are several factors determining customer experience, a positive employee-centric work culture also adds to it. While this remains to be frequently ignored, an employee-focused work culture is one of the strongest pillars on which the structure of happy and satisfied customers can be built. If a business cannot keep its employees happy and satisfied, it may be difficult for it to hold customers for very long.

Once a business learns the art of creating employee-focused culture, it can magically turn into a brand that makes its customers happy. A business can win and retain loyal customers only by providing them exceptional customer experience. And this feat can be achieved only when employees work wholeheartedly to provide the customers the best experience they can y have. It is needless to say that this enthusiastic behavior can be expected from employees only when they are satisfied with what they receive from the business hiring them.

So, you must note that employees are as important as customers for the success or failure of a business. An employee-focused culture in an organization is the sure-shot way of winning happy customers.

The benefits of employee experience to an organization 

There are numerous benefits an organization can enjoy if the employees of the organization are happy and satisfied.  Here are some of the benefits of employee experience to an organization –

• An organization does not need to brainstorm or invest in a customer experience program if the employees are themselves focused on customer experience. In fact, the best customer experience program can fail or deliver lesser results if employees are not focused on customer experience.
• Enabling employees with the right tools to get things done is one of the important factors for enhancing the employee experience. When employees are equipped with the right tool, they will automatically become more productive, thereby enhancing customer experience and the overall performance of the organization.
• In addition to the right tools, the right training also helps employees get things done more efficiently. Employees feel happier when they receive all the needed support from the organization, and this also enhances their productivity level. Productive employees automatically translate into a better customer experience.
• Rewarding employees for their efforts and providing the chance to achieve excellence professionally too boosts employee experience. When employees are satisfied with the organization’s behavior towards them, they are less likely to switch jobs. A higher retention rate for employees guarantees a higher retention rate for employees too.  

The interlink between employee experience and customer experience 

Many business research and studies have indicated a strong relationship between employee experience and customer experience. This means if your employees are happy and satisfied, the same will reflect in your customer experience, which is true for an unsatisfied employee experience. For example, a survey of U.S. business leaders done by Gallup in 2014 clearly came with the result that “happy employees are the key to happy customers”.

Whether a customer has a positive or negative experience with your business, an employee is always there in the equation. Today, it has become more important for businesses to focus on a positive experience for customers because every customer has the power to make negative feedback about your organization go viral on social media channels. Any unpleasant experience can be blown out of proportion by social media channels. The only element that can save your organization from negative customer feedback is your employees who ‘genuinely’ cares for the reputation of your business. When employees are satisfied with the organization, they will do everything to protect and safeguard its reputation.

Satisfied employees and happy customers are the two strongest pillars of competitive advantage in the market. Every organization in the market knows that happy customers are the magnet for attracting more customers to an organization. But very few acknowledge the fact that internal ‘customer’, i.e. the employees too, can work as a magnet for the organization. A happy employee attracts and keeps customers happy, while unsatisfied employees may work as a repulsive magnet sending customers away to the competitors with their bad customer services. The organizations that understand this are the market leaders in their respective industries. 

Key pillars of employee experience excellence 

A most common mistake done by many small businesses is that they assume that timely paychecks guarantee the employees’ happiness. The main goal of employees may be to earn a living, but paychecks only cannot make employees happy. The Gallup survey showed that companies with a higher rate of satisfied employees pay attention to factors like clarifying work expectations to employees well in advance, promoting collaborative work culture among employees, and providing the right tools required to get their work done.  

Investing time and effort in employee happiness factors can create magical results in terms of happy customers. So, businesses need to understand the importance of employee-centric work culture and incorporate the required elements in their business. The essential elements or the key pillars that can create the magic includes –

• The satisfying and enjoyable work environment for employees. When work does not feel like a chore, employees are more likely to be more productive and enthusiastic about delivering results.
• Proper in-house training to employees for their job responsibilities. Every employee comes with a formal degree and training for their work, but in-house training has been proved to be more integrating. Further, in-house training helps employees to know each other better and develop a relationship with co-workers.
• Meaningful employee development in terms of their professional aspirations. No employee can work endlessly for attaining organizational goals if the endeavor does not help her achieve her professional aspirations. So, employees’ aspirations need to be integrated with the organizational goal to make employees happy and satisfied.
• Rewarding good behaviors and excellent work ethics. When an employee puts effort in their work and performs better than others, they want to be praised and rewarded. This makes that employee happy and promotes others to adopt better work ethics and perform their best.
• Making employees feel that they are valued. Reciprocation is human nature. When employees are valued, they reciprocate by valuing the organization. This will directly translate to a better customer experience.
• A mixture of monetary and non-monetary rewards for dedicated services from employees. Non-monetary rewards like praise many times work better than monetary rewards. So, the organization does not only need to reward employees’ efforts but also needs to create a well-balanced mixture of monetary and non-monetary awards.  
• Transparency and trust in the work culture and communication from the employer. When the work environment is transparent, and when an employer shows trust in their communication, employees are more likely to trust the organization. This mutual trust is one of the important elements for enhancing the customer experience.
• Frictionless and collaborative work environment among different departments and teams of the organization. A frictionless and collaborative work environment is the key to the overall productivity of an organization. Employees who are part of such a productive work environment tend to love their work and feel the importance of their effort. 
• A culture of belongingness and inclusion in the organization. No employee should feel left out or less valued than others. The organization should feel like a family. When the organization is a family, the employees will give their best to keep customers satisfied and happy.

Final Thoughts 

If you successfully create the right level of empowerment for your employees, it will help you deliver better customer experiences.

Always keep in mind, when your vision, mission, and values are deeply ingrained in your company’s DNA, your employees will be more driven towards providing extraordinary customer experiences! 

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