When you think about improving customer experience, you might think about things you can add to make their experience that much better. But what if you consider going back to the beginning? To the foundation of your business, your employees.
A strong team can make a world of difference when it comes to customer experience. If you have satisfied employees, they’re going to be putting their best into their work. When you employees are putting forth their best effort, customers will recognize it and your business will be on its way to greater success and increased profits.
All of this is easier said than done, so what are some steps that your business can take to engage your employees and have a positive effect on your business?
How to Engage Your Employees and Improve Your Customer Experience
Clear Up Communication
Your business success often depends on clear communication and collaboration among your team. Clear communication is a common challenge for employees and their managers. Some of the most common ways we communicate come with pitfalls that we all know so well: multiple unheard voicemails, emails that get buried deep in our inboxes, and memos that get piled on top of one another on our desks.
In order to clear up communication for your team, give them a really easy way to reach their higher-ups. Text message communication, when utilized correctly, can be a great communication vehicle for helping get important messages straight to the top without any BS. Another great thing about text messaging is that it’s hard to hold crazy long and complex conversations. Why is that a good thing? You might ask. Well, talking to employees is always best in-person or at least on the phone to convey tone and so that everyone has a clear understanding of what is being discussed. Text messaging is just a great way to let your employees say, “Hey, something’s on my mind. Can we chat?”
When your employees feel their voices are heard, overall productivity and performance improves, meaning a better experience for your customer.
Discover What Your Employees Want, And Give It To Them
For employees, sometimes expressing what they want can be a challenge. People can feel hesitant, like their ideas aren’t good enough, or they may feel vulnerable when putting themselves and their wants out there. So how do you show employees it’s ok to ask for things that would improve their life?
A great way to ask for this is through anonymity. Perhaps an employee wouldn’t feel comfortable asking for something personally but would feel safe with an air of anonymity. Maybe you ask with a suggestion box, or by offering an anonymous text messaging line that your employees can use at any time. This way you can discover what employees want and start to recognize trends and patterns in their requests. Maybe your company doesn’t offer Direct Deposit, but tons of employees are wanting it! A great way to improve your employee experience (and their perception of management) would be to begin providing Direct Deposit.
These are just a couple of ideas to improve employee engagement as a way of improving customer experience. There are plenty of other ways that your business can tweak an existing process to be more helpful and intuitive for employees. Interested in learning more about employee experience management? Visit this helpful blog.