3 January 2008
Empowerment, engagement and reputation are the keys to what...?
...an exceptional employee experience, says the Creating an Exceptional Customer Experience report.
A new research study by brand consultancy Uffindell West, looked at the impact of the employee experience on the customer experience and how this shapes the success of a company's brand.
Unsurprisingly, engagement shines out as a major motivator for employee satisfaction and this in turn has been found to drive positive customer experiences.
Do you get no satisfaction?
Questioning the views and attitudes of 500 UK and 500 US business people from across a variety of fields, the Creating an Exceptional Customer Experience study asked each participant a series of questions regarding their relationships with suppliers and their opinions on the working environment.
What really differentiates a company are those factors that make or break the emotional connection with the customer.
They were also quizzed about their job satisfaction and the quality of the customer experience delivered by their own firm – and were asked to rate both.
Advertising makes little difference
What was most surprising was that customers weren’t incredibly concerned with the practical, material facets of the customer experience – those often used to promote companies.
According to the results, what customers did particuarly care about were the more emotional, people-centric aspects of a company’s service.
They appreciated factors such as:
- resolving problems;
- responding to questions or requests;
- feeling they can trust the company more than the cheapest price;
- having a track record of innovation;
- having an easy to use website; and
- being easily accessible by phone (see Figure 1, below).
Figure 1. What customers appreciate from a company
What makes a strong customer experience?
It would seem that what really differentiates a company are those factors that make or break the emotional connection with the customer.
This correlation is particularly strong for employee experience factors such as:
- "freedom to do what you think is necessary";
- "freedom to be yourself";
- "interesting work";
- "company with same ethics as I have";
- "highly regarded business"; and
- "good colleagues to work with".
HR should rethink its incentives
Firms that base the employee experience around the characteristics noted above (rather than poorly-rated factors like health insurance, opportunity to travel and holiday allowance – which HR departments may traditionally use to entice new recruits) will create higher levels of job satisfaction.
Not only does this boost the customer experience, but on a separate level, aspects appreciated by employees such as having "interesting work" and "good colleagues to work with" are good for the business through greater engagement with projects and with the team.
Uffindell West suggests that there are 3 categories of employee experience that amplify job satisfaction and customer experience (see Figure 2, below):
- Empowerment ("I can make a difference").
- Engagement ("I'm committed to the business").
- Reputation ("I'm proud to work here").
Figure 2. Uffindell West's 3 suggested factors that affect job satisfaction
Internal branding's connection to customer service
From analyzing the results of its study, a truly exceptional customer experience comes from the confluence of 3 main factors, Uffindell West argues:
- Engaged employees who enjoy positive employee experiences.
- Quality customer-facing behavior – more likely to come from these engaged employees.
- Adopting an attitude and tactics that say “We're not just great, we're exceptional”.
Underpinning all of these aspects is the need to build a strong brand reputation. Any branding channels – marketing collateral, administrative materials or communications – that leverage a company’s expression of expertise at these 3 levels will actively make a difference to their customer experience, employee experience and competitiveness.
The brand challenge
The survey analysis suggests that by fixing internal aspects of its brand, a company can influence customer experience and thus its external brand's reputation.
Companies should harness the power of social networking sites as a team building tool for bringing together colleagues across the globe.
Large corporations should understand that it's employee freedom and empowerment that makes a difference, not just pay packets.
This has implications for the recent uproar when social networking site, Facebook, was banned in several institutions. Not only were employers limiting employee freedom, they were missing an opportunity to promote the sense of space, community and belonging that would drive staff engagement.
Use social networks for team building
Looking at Uffindell West's research results, Mark Allatt, former head of marketing at Deloitte says companies should harness the power of social networking sites as a team building tool for bringing together colleagues across the globe.
To drive local, national and global perceptions of a powerful brand with an exceptional customer experience, companies must embrace the idea of a unified brand experience, both internally and externally.
Have your say
How far ahead are you in terms of engaging your employees to deliver exceptional customer service? Discuss this and share your queries with your communication peers on the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
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