Employee satisfaction > Customer satisfaction ??

Photo by Husna Miskandar on Unsplash

From the time I started my first job, I have seen most companies place a great degree of emphasis on customer satisfaction or even customer delight. In many of the companies that I have worked for (names can be seen in my Linkedin profile), customer satisfaction was the first objective for every employee or at least one of the top two in their appraisal. Many internal quality projects, audits, surveys and other initiatives were constantly run by companies to elevate customer experience.

Since a lot of employees’ career evaluations were dependent on customer feedback, it was normal to see customer facing employees begging customers to give a good rating in the feedback survey.

But most companies and many top executives missed something that looks obvious (with the advantage of hindsight) To have a superior customer experience, organizations must have an equally compelling employee experience. In order to be truly customer-centric, you must first become employee-centric. Keeping employees engaged consistently is a conundrum for most organizations.

Here are five ways to make it happen.

1. Corporate Vision, Mission & Brand: No one likes to be a cog in the wheel. It is important for the company leadership to communicate the corporate vision, mission and brand to all employees, and make them understand that they are its custodians.
2. Sense of Belonging: Reinforce corporate goals through individual KPIs.This creates a sense of community and belonging, reflects an employee’s personal value to the company and builds engagement and loyalty over time.
3. Ongoing Training and coaching: Regular training focused on soft skills, technology, new offerings and best practices is essential for improving employee performance. Various forms of trainings (remote, self-paced, classroom, off-site) should be mixed up to give employees the best experience. The companies should also invest in one on one or group coaching for specific break-throughs in employee development. When employees realize that an investment and effort is being made in their development it makes them feel good about the company. This then automatically reflects in their interactions with customers.
4. Clear Goals & Expectations: Nothing is more demotivating than being unsure about what is expected of you or having the goal posts constantly moved. They must make sure that each employee is clear about their individual key performance indicators (KPIs) and the critical role they play in achieving the overall department and corporate goals. Timely and consistent feedback on their performance should be an integral part of the employee engagement process.
5. Building Team Spirit: Being part of a team can be a powerful motivator. It fosters collaboration, builds bonds beyond work and encourages healthy competition.

Studies have shown that an improved employee engagement and higher employee satisfaction, has a direct correlation with an increased customer satisfaction and business performance.

Let me know what you think. Would you like to add some more points to this? I will be looking forward to your comments.