“Happy Employees Make Happy Customers”! It is a fact that every company should use as a business bumper sticker! It’s a wonderful sentiment and an excellent strategy! Yet, measuring happiness can be challenging. So, is the result worth the effort? Absolutely!
The preliminary key to master customers’ satisfaction, and urging them to do business with you again and again, is creating a long-term relationship with them by prioritizing employee happiness. After all, they are the ones that are in direct contact with your potential and current users. But where do you start?
1. Offer Meaningful Employee Growth:
Business leaders always strive to prioritize customers. So, how can you accomplish this? By having a team that is tremendously engaged and happy. Starbucks’ strategy is a great example, as explained by Howard Schultz, the CEO. The well-known brand was built not with customers, but with their own people as they believed that the best way they can exceed their customers’ expectations is by investing in training great employees. This strategy has led to tremendous success today.
2. Make Employees Feel Supported:
When your employees have loads of intrinsic motivation and lots of talent–but rarely feel empowered or encouraged, it will surely hold back innovation and creativity in the workplace. As stated by Richard Branson, the CEO of Virgin Airline’s website, “Happy staff are proud staff, and proud staff delivers excellent customer service, which drives business success”. A successful example that proves that businesses investing in employee experience have a more dedicated, productive workflow that can be translated to a better customer experience.
3. Make “Being Recognized” Part of The Culture:
For one simple reason! Being recognized helps everyone feel they are doing it right. While ordinary employees can deliver good outcomes, high-performing employees help create happier customers while leading to stunning business results. And the ultimate approach to reaching this outcome is by showing acknowledgment and appreciation.
Once that is in place, it becomes easier to see all of your employees contributing to customer happiness–boosting customer metrics while also driving profitability and productivity.
4. Create A Comfortable Work Environment:
Happiness increases productivity! You need to create an easy, efficient, and more valid experience for your most valuable asset; your staff.
The employee experience is the path an employee takes with your company. It includes every interaction that occurs throughout the employees’ life cycle, as well as experiences involving their role, workspace, manager, and well-being. As technologies grow at a faster pace, customers of today have more options than ever. Your business does not only need to deliver innovative products or services but also provide meaningful interactions and experiences that delight consumers and encourage their loyalty to your brand. This can only stem from your employees!
Your company’s ability to deliver great employee and customer experiences hinges on its ability to seamlessly handle the employee first on the backend before handling the customer. If you want your company to achieve exceptional and consistent productivity, you must align your reward systems with your customers’ wants and needs–as well as ensure that your desired outcomes are clearly defined and that everyone is held accountable for their results, more importantly, feels safe enough to do so. And don’t forget: “What happens on the inside of your organization is felt by your customers outside.
