A positive employee experience – its importance in managing the customer experience

Published on March 11, 2024 by Mitali Dua

With customer experience increasingly taking centre stage, organisations are also focusing on enhancing the employee experience. A positive employee experience not only increases employee productivity, engagement and retention, but also leads to enhanced customer experience. Eighty-five percent of the organisations surveyed by IDC believe that a better employee experience and higher employee engagement lead to an enhanced customer experience, higher customer satisfaction and higher revenue for the organisation. Sixty-two percent of the respondents believe that there is a defined causal relationship between employee experience and customer experience.

A superior employee experience creates satisfied and engaged employees who are motivated and have a sense of belonging towards the organisation. Such employees are invested in the growth of the organisation and are willing to go the extra mile to ensure that customer needs are fulfilled, taking the customer experience a notch higher, making it imperative for organisations to prioritise and invest in employee wellbeing.

Organisations also need to align their employee-engagement strategies with the customer experience that they desire to deliver. If employees are to deliver a superior customer experience, a company would need to provide them with the tools, resources, policies and processes necessary to cater to customer needs.

In addition to enhancing the employee experience to deliver a seamless customer experience, companies can also leverage employee feedback to identify customer problems. Front-line employees interact directly with customers; therefore, their knowledge of customers is generally better than that of anyone else in the organisation. Such deep customer insights combined with a positive employee experience would offer a myriad of benefits.

Benefits of delivering a positive employee experience

Employee retention leads to quality customer service

Delivering a positive employee experience increases the likelihood of employees staying with the organisation. With employees constantly looking for new opportunities and amid high costs of employee turnover, a high employee retention rate is of value. High employee retention also helps organisations create an experienced and knowledgeable workforce that can better understand customer issues/requirements and provide reliable and consistent quality service, foster trust and credibility and build long-term customer relationships, improving the overall customer experience.

Increases employee engagement and productivity

A positive employee experience results in increased employee engagement, motivation, productivity and commitment to the organisation. Happy employees would be more invested in delivering a superior customer experience, resulting in more satisfied customers. Employees that were part of inclusive teams outperformed their peers in less inclusive cultures by 27% and team performance decreased by 23% when managers were less resilient, according to a 2022 report by BetterUp.

Increases customer satisfaction

Happier and more engaged employees deliver a superior customer experience, creating a ripple effect that leads to more satisfied customers. Since satisfied employees have a sense of belonging towards their organisation, they tend to be more invested in the organisation, its activities, products and services, customers and eventually its success. A positive employee attitude also leads to healthy conversations, transparent communication and effective resolutions to customer issues, enhancing the customer experience.

Enhances customer relationships

When employees respond to customer queries promptly and adopt the right attitude to helping customers with their issues, they create stronger and meaningful customer relationships, increasing customer affinity to the company and specific employees.

Helps resolve customer challenges innovatively

When employees feel valued and cared for, they tend to go out of their way to care for the organisation and its customers. They not only resolve customer complaints, but also strive to be creative and provide innovative solutions.

Builds brand advocates

Satisfied employees tend to be more tolerant of and loyal to the organisation. They are more concerned about its reputation and showcase the brand in a more positive light when interacting with customers.

Considering the value that employee experience adds to an organisation, focusing on delivering both a superior employee experience and a superior customer experience would result in more benefits.

How Acuity Knowledge Partners can help

We provide customer experience research and insight support to stakeholders in the B2B and B2C space and help companies comprehend needs of new-age customers. Equipped with a 360-degree view, we understand how customer data can be captured and analysed and how the results can be leveraged to deliver a seamless customer experience and achieve better business outcomes. We help Fortune 500 technology corporations, mid-tier companies and startups leverage customer feedback on people, products and processes to remain flexible and better serve their customers.

Sources:

• The Employee Experience & Customer Experience Connection | IDC Blog

• What Is Employee Experience? Definition & Proven Strategies | Great Place To Work®

• What is Employee Experience (EX) and Why Does it Matter? (betterup.com)

• 10 Benefits of Employee Experience for Business (lumapps.com)

• 8 Reasons Why Employee Experience Is Important – Workleap

• Engaged Employees Create Better Customer Experiences (hbr.org)

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