Customer service that delights starts with employee engagement

Employees: The Direct Route to Customers' Hearts
If you want your workers to delight customers, employee engagement is only the beginning .




We have all heard the advice. Companies that want to thrive in the recession and emerge stronger at its conclusion need to devote leadership time and resources to developing and implementing a growth plan. New products, sharper execution, better marketing and skills development are a must, but forgetting how much of an influence frontline staff has on customer satisfaction and retention is a key piece of the puzzle.

The link between employee engagement and business outcomes has been well established: employees that are more engaged in their work and with their companies are more likely to stay, more likely to recommend the company and its products, and more likely to go the extra mile to get the job done. But employees can also be a window to customers, and more importantly, a barometer for their satisfaction with your company's products and services.

Research involving more than 30,000 customer service employees conducted earlier this year by the Corporate Executive Board indicates that there is a close connection between employees' work experience and customer opinions. Departments where employees reported they had the authority to take actions to meet customer needs, make decisions on their own to improve quality, and respond to problems without waiting for approval had the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

The study also discovered that even a small change in employees' ability to get the job done for customers can yield big dividends. Improving the percentage of employees who reported they had the ability to easily correct customers' problems by just 5 percentage points yielded a 10% increase in customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers buy more of your products and services and recommend your organization to others. In fact, the relationships between employee and customer viewpoints were so strong that employee opinions about their ability to serve customers could be used as a bellwether for client concerns.

There is no substitute for direct feedback from customers, but it is clearly worth listening to what employees have to say about the customer experience. Using employee inputs to revamp processes, tools, and decision and authority rights can greatly enhance the customer experience, and thus better positioning your company for growth and long-term success.


Source: Blog entry by Corporate Executive Board —What the Best Companies Do™