I want you to think back on the last time you were looking to try a new restaurant – not off of a recommendation, but on a whim. According to EarthWeb, if you’re like 56% of Americans, you turned to “Yelp” for assistance and guidance from previous patrons. You pay no mind to the fact that you’re trusting complete strangers. You’re there to read about their experiences and see how many of them align in either a positive or negative way. And that goes way beyond just the food itself; you want to know about the service. After all, why pay your hard-earned money to have a good meal but be treated terribly, or vice versa?
For the basic consumer, the criteria end there. For those savvier consumers, perhaps business or restaurant owners themselves, they know there’s probably a deeper layer to the service aspect of the review. It’s not just a reflection on hiring; it reflects management. So, when they see a negative review, they can safely ascertain that there’s an underlying toxicity driving poor behavior from staff and, through simple interpersonal communication, directly impacts the customer’s experience. More importantly, this impacts the business as a whole: from customer growth and retention to overall revenue and business growth.
Even though the “Yelp restaurant review” example is applicable to a small business, the same holds true for every B2B or B2C organization in the world, regardless of industry. And now, in this digital age where customers expect stellar service in real time, sales and marketing teams have to ensure every step of the customer journey meets or exceeds these expectations – and that all begins with a happy staff. So, where do you start?
Building, Supporting, and Sustaining the Happy Employee
You may have heard the saying, “when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” It’s a seemingly simple adage, but there’s a lot more beneath the surface. It still begs the question; how can you make sure your employees actually love what they do? According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, Microsoft is one of the largest organizations to lead the way in staff satisfaction. In fact, Microsoft’s Chief People Officer, Kathleen Hogan, breaks down employee fulfillment into five key, successive components that she calls “The 5 P’s: Pay, Perks, People, Pride, and Purpose.” The “Pay” and “Perks” part are pretty self-explanatory. The remaining three, however, require a lot of attention.
When it comes to “People,” we’re ostensibly talking about an employee’s team. You want good people surrounded by good people, where creativity, collaboration, and comradery occur and flow organically. However, collaboration is a great thing in moderation. For an employee to take “Pride” and find “Purpose” in their work, they need the empowerment of doing things on their own. And when these “5 P’s” successively align, the result should be a happy and fulfilled employee.
Today’s Consumer: High Expectations; Low Tolerance
Since the start of the pandemic, the way customers interact with businesses has changed and frankly, continues to change. With lockdowns came a massive increase in the use of digital channels. When things started to open up, consumers started to take multiple approaches to their shopping (in-store, BOPIS, and online). As new Covid strains and flareups continue to ebb and flow, so do consumer behaviors. And with all of that uncertainty, consumers have come to demand two aspects of their buying journey to remain the same: the buying experience and customer service.
While rising inflation may be causing consumers to carefully evaluate investments in high-stakes purchases, inflation is also increasing their expectations for excellent customer service. According to Invoca’s 2022 Buyer Experience Benchmark Report, over three-quarters (76%) of consumers surveyed said they would stop doing business with a company after just one bad experience. In comparison, 63% said they will still pay more for great customer service. But what does that entail?
A recent PR Newswire report showed consumers now expect businesses to know their reason for calling, especially if they’ve done business with them before, with the vast majority (85%) expecting they know some details about. These results compare to 2021, where only 71% believed businesses should already know these details and expect their reason for calling. Negative customer experience boils down to rude agents (59%), long hold times (58%), and too many transfers (54%). It’s clear that consumers have lost patience with contact center agents and tempers are rising with more than half (61%) of respondents admitting they will sometimes get angry or raise their voice with agents.
Not surprisingly, CX is top of mind for managers, directors, and senior leaders. CMSWIRE recently surveyed leaders on CX, with seven in ten respondents ranking “improved CX” as a high or critical priority for the upcoming year. Organizations also appear to understand the role that EX plays in this initiative, with 92% who said they believe that senior leadership understands the correlation. As a result, more and more managers are using data-driven insights to both reward high employee engagement and positive behavior as well as identify and isolate CX problems before they become too big to fix.
Tying it All Together
One thing we know by now is that connecting EX and CX is a delicate dance. One that requires customer-centricity but with employee behavior top of mind. A prime example of an organization doing this successfully is plumbing fixture giant, Moen. In a recent interview with Forbes, Moen’s VP of Technology, Gina Carlson, said, “our investment in CX technology has been all about aligning with our business strategy and vision in a customer-centric way.” Carlson would go on to say, “connecting data on a centralized platform across the sales team, contact centers, and marketing has resulted in higher sales and close rates, more responsive customer service with faster resolutions, and a competitive advantage for our brands.”
To align EX with the CX mission, organizations need to be able to clearly evaluate employee performance, identify opportunities for better employee support, and deploy practices and technology to put them into action. Data can help, but managers must do more than simply measure and record information. Employee metrics, if used correctly, lead to actionable insights and fuel a larger agent engagement strategy that positively affects CX. This, in turn, means growth in customer base and revenue.
In short, EX + CX = Business Growth. It’s a seemingly simple equation that doesn’t have a simple “silver bullet” solution. However, with the right plan and tools in place, your organization can reap the many benefits of the happy employee/happy customer symbiosis. And we’d love to hear from you on this subject! Please let us know in the comments how your organization is approaching the EX/CX connection, along with your challenges and successes.
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