This story is a version of a post published here.
Does your staff feel privileged to be part of your brand? Do your employees recommend others to join? Are there more smiles than frowns? Does the staff use break time to search for other jobs?
Easy questions that determine the pulse of your entire workforce and the future of any organisation.
Almost all companies in today’s world would like to offer their customers an unmatched experience; they are also focused on achieving undying customer loyalty. But in this race, most companies forget the people who make it possible to actually achieve these dreams. On the other hand, there are some other organisations that strike a balance by treating their employees as internal customers. For those few, the employees come first and not the customer. Ultimate Software, an extremely people centric organisation, is dreaming of clocking BILLION DOLLARS in revenue. It ensures that its workforce is engaged, motivated and, at times, spoilt to the extent that its employees consider retiring with it. It is just one of the examples of why employee focus along with a customer experience differentiation is a winning strategy!
The formula for the success of such companies is simple: focus on your internal customers and they will take care of your external customers. So, what does it take to provide an environment that is welcoming, motivating and comfortable to your staff while still delivering an exceptional customer experience?
Let us see how five of the biggest global organisations manage to achieve this:
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An Apple a Day makes you Want to go to Work Everyday!
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Google: The Best Company to Work for, 2014
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The E-Commerce Giant: Amazon
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All you need is Air
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Facebook: The new Corporate Order
According to Fortune, for the past eight years in a row, Apple has been considered the most admired company in the world. The company’s strategy to focus on its staff is simple but effective. The pay packages of the employees are quite good, so the staff is focused on work and not pay day. Also, each employee gets a new iPhone and there are multiple training and development programs to enhance skills and engagement. Not just this, following the legacy of its founder Steve Jobs, Apple, along with its employees, has a very keen focus on customer experience. All employees have a profound understanding of how their work affects customer experience. Apple, along with being the most admired company to work for, is also the epitome of a customer experience focused company.
Google intends to spoil its employees, literally. It offers lunch, dinner and healthy meals free of charge. It also takes care of financial support for adopting a child and offers free car wash, bike repair, gym, hair stylist and what not! These services are all available at its headquarters. Most of all, Googlers (as its employees like to be called) are empowered to work on Google’s mission:
To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
We all know about Google’s policy that every employee should dedicate 20% of their time on pursuing a personal project that they are passionate about. It is the result of such great work culture that Google has managed to wow its customers with services such as Google Maps, Drive, Android Phones etc.
Amazon has a unique strategy to ensure that only those who would like to actually work for the company, stay on. They offer $2000 and 4 weeks pay, plus $1000 to $5000 a year to staff and this is what Amazon would like to consider as positive attrition. The flip side to this is that employees, who turn down the offer, should approach their work with an all new sense of motivation! A deeply motivated employee base who is incentivised to leave the company is even more dedicated at delivering exceptional customer experience. It is not hard to guess that every Amazon employee must feel proud of his work.
The awesome new home renting service ‘AirBnB’ offers free daily organic meals and also provides its employees with a $2000 yearly bonus to just travel anywhere in the world! AirBnB allows its employees to experience the same journey that its customers experience. This ensures that all of its employees get a chance to truly wear the customer’s hat once every year. It certainly gives them a renewed perspective of how it must feel to be an AirBnB customer – and who wouldn’t want to get a great experience from the company they work for?
Mark Zuckerberg has dissolved all hierarchies and interacts with entry level staff directly. His office has glass walls to give a feel to his staff that he is approachable and transparent in his decisions. Also, the dress code for office is that there is no dress code. Zuckerberg encourages employees to focus more on their deliverables than their attire, ensuring that all employees deliver on their commitment – a surefire way to great customer experience.
These are some wonderful strategies that are used to drive and motivate the employees in supremely customer focused companies of the new age. If you think there are other organizations out there with similar or better concepts, then please let us know!
