Customer Experience and Employee Experience — Both Matter in Your Company
Customer experience is the word you hear a lot these days. Companies are paying attention more than ever to it. The main reason is that customers want great experiences when they buy. Yes, quality, price, and other factors come into play, but “The Experience” is becoming more critical. To illustrate, SuperOffice did a study of over 1,200 companies. Almost 46% of respondents mentioned customer experience as a top priority over the next five years.
Some companies overlook the importance of employee experiences to making CX successful. Both are critical! Great CX does not happen unless your workforce is engaged with the company. Customer Experience and Employee Experience — Both Matter in Your Company!
Customer Experience and Employee Experience – Both Matter: First Some Definitions
Employee experience is the sum of employees’ workplace experience. These experiences translate into how employees feel about the company and their engagement with it. Customers go through a similar process. Their experiences shape their feelings about the company (see graphic below).
So, imagine what can happen when a customer with a positive view of the company meets a disengaged employee? The results are likely to be less than desirable.
Get Started with Employee Engagement. Explore Our Suite of Employee Survey Options: Relationship, Pulse, Onboarding, and Exit Surveys.
Why Do CX and EX Matter?
Gallup has done a lot of research on employee engagement over the years. Only about one-third of the US workforce is engaged in their jobs. Gallup defines engagement as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace. Research shows that more than 70% of engaged employees understand how to meet customer needs. Just 17% of disengaged employees do.
Engagement matters to your business outcomes. A PwC study finds the following:
- Customers will pay more, up to a 16% premium, for better customer experiences.
- One in three customers say they will walk away from a brand due to bad experiences.
- Employee experience is the starting point. Eighty-two percent of US consumers want more human interaction. Technology is essential, but human interaction matters even more. Companies need to learn how to “human” better!
Steps to Engage Your Employees
How do you better engage your employees? Here are some suggestions:
- It all starts with senior leaders. Creating this kind of positive culture starts at the top. Communicating the company values and continuously living them out is essential.
- There is a strong focus on accountability. Accountability means, among other things, recognizing excellent performance and working with those employees who don’t live out the values.
- Employee engagement is not a fad but is strong arrow in a company’s quiver. One thing I have observed is that employees now often choose to come to work with a company that lives out its values. One of the reasons we have low turnover in our company is people are attracted to the values we live out each day.
- Communication is clear, consistent, and frequent. This communication focuses primarily on examples of employees living out the company values. The best way to establish the culture is to tell stories to illustrate what the values mean.
What This Means For Your Company?
When starting your customer experience journey, pay attention to employee experience. How will you create and sustain a culture that supports your CX improvement efforts?
If you have a CX improvement program underway, how much are you paying attention to the employee experience? If not, 2024 is the time to get started.
