Employees are in an ideal position to increase the customer’s engagement for a variety of reasons. If they’re the frontline workers, they provide a significant portion of the experience for customers, which is why they are able to improve the experience by offering top-quality service with a positive attitude. People respond to positive and uplifting feelings and customers are no different. Because employees are able to observe the experience of customers on a regular basis they can spot subtleties and changes in the customer’s opinion often before they are identified through more formal market research. Additionally, employees are in an area of overlap between empathy for customers and corporate culture. For example, employees will often be able to recognize which aspects of an internal procedure make it difficult to provide rapid, accurate, and enjoyable service Customer Engagement.

In recognition of the influence employees can have on their customer experiences, numerous business managers are seeking ways to tap into employees’ insight and improve the engagement of customers. These five tips can assist you in maximizing the power of your employees to enhance the customer experience. In the end it is a good idea to run an employee engagement campaign particularly when it is integrated in the larger Voice of the Employee program could prove to be an effective way to increase the customer’s engagement.

  1. Establish a culture of customer-centricity.

A company-centric organization is one that does what is best for its executives or shareholders and, sometimes, employees. A customer-centric business has a loyal customer base due to the fact that it incorporates customers into their mission and encourages customers to offer feedback regularly. In addition, in companies that are customer-centric employees are:

Empowered to address customer concerns,

  • Given feedback from customers (i.e. they are able to get the results of research on customer engagement) and

They are recognized when they treat customers with excellence.

Our study has revealed that employees who work in customer-centric businesses have a six-fold higher chance be engaged and fully involved – and engagement by employees leads to greater customer satisfaction. To understand and increase employee engagement with acknowledgement, we suggest the establishment of an internal brand Ambassador program to determine those employees who are going extra miles for their customers. Brand Ambassadors are committed to their job and the services they offer. They are convinced that engagement with customers is essential. One extremely active Brand Ambassador we spoke with stated “I really believe that this is essential things. Customer Service is crucial. It is what gives life meaning.” If you study how your company’s Brand Ambassadors please clients, it is possible to develop courses for employees to learn from which will raise the bar of customer engagement for your entire business. (For more information about how to locate Brand Ambassadors, read our 5th tip below.)

  1. Offer tools to collect customer feedback.

It’s not uncommon for businesses to shell out huge sums on market research , but completely disregarding the most effective tools for customer research they already have in their arsenal – i.e. employees. Your employees could be great listeners, and report back what customers ‘ comments on their experiences. To improve customer satisfaction You can equip your employees with tools that allow them to document their observations. It could be as easy as having a common online forum in which both leaders and employees can participate in discussions about what customers experience. It can also be as intricate as a CRM with spaces for customer notes.

  1. It should be easy and enjoyable for employees to invent.

As we’ve mentioned before that staff members are situated in a special position because they are directly involved with their customers and are also a part of the corporate culture. This means they are uniquely competent to offer suggestions on how the company’s processes, products, and services can be improved. Let your employees to share their insights into customer engagement. One way to encourage employee creativity is to develop games that revolve around offering suggestions. In addition, experts in customer engagement can suggest more seamless, simple-to-use tools, such as the Voice of the Customer program that automatically sends an alert to acknowledge that a particular employee meets expectations. The sight of their peers receiving such acknowledgement will naturally inspire employees to ponder their minds on ways to improve customer service. As the motivation grows throughout your workforce be sure to have a well-organized, central process for collecting employee suggestions.

  1. It is important to ensure that employees are safe to share their experiences.

Customer engagement and employee engagement are inextricably linked. Employees who are disgruntled and apathetic influence customers, and vice versa. Similarly, enthusiastic and engaged employees inspire customers to be engaged as well. To provide top-quality service, employees need to feel secure and protected when they are at work. An Voice of the Employee program will allow you to identify the causes that your employees might be unengaged. To truthfully report on the factors that hinder their employee’s engagement, the majority of employees need to be anonymous. It’s normal for people to feel anxious and cautious when they are asked to answer surveys for employees, especially when their candid opinions could be taken as criticism.

Therefore, it’s crucial to select an Voice of the Employee system which is anonymous. For example our eFocus solution for group management offers an online forum in which employees are given code namesand thus feel more confident in giving honest feedback on their organization.

  1. Standardize the vertical feedback flow.

Every employee’s feedback that is available to the public is worthless unless management can integrate it into their strategic plan. The volume of information involved with research on engagement of employees is overwhelming without a central Voice of the Employee system. Ideally your Voice of the Employee program includes built-in tools to transfer feedback from both employees and customers to your Customer Experience team , and onto the C-suite. The Web 2.0 initiatives for employee engagement must contain tools to determine what employees are required to see what feedback data, as well as keeping track of employee engagement problems.

 

Categories: Business