How Employee Experience Affects Customer Experience

What are Employee Experience and Customer Experience?

First, let’s understand what employee experience is.

Defining Employee Experience

Employee experience refers to the interactions and elements within a company that determines how employees perceive their jobs. 

These include things, such as:

• cultural norms, 
• leadership styles, 
• work environments,
• onboarding techniques, 
• training programs, and 
• compensation. 

These encounters can be both negative and positive.

Defining Customer Experience

Customer experience describes how businesses interact with their customers during every step of the buying process from marketing to sales to customer service.

It’s not just a set of actions. It also focuses on feelings and how your customers or prospects feel about your brand when coming across your company.

Now, while these two matters look different to you, it’s essential to understand how one can affect the other.

Employee Experience Factors That Directly Affect Customer Experience

Employees who are engaged and empowered have a significant impact on customer experience and growth. In fact, empowered employees are 1.5x more likely to admit that they are the top CX supporters in their organization. 

Let’s quickly move forward to employee experience factors that directly affect customer experience.

1. Work Culture

Transparency and trust in the work culture and communication from the employer promote diversity and provide a space where employees feel empowered.

A transparent work environment and a trusting employer increase the likelihood that employees will trust the organization. This mutual trust keeps employees satisfied and acts as a critical element in enhancing the overall customer experience.

2. Alignment

Another important factor that can enhance the customer experience is making sure that your employees’ goals are aligned with the company’s vision. The vision of your company describes what you want to accomplish on a larger scale.

When your employees understand them, they can work better and more confidently. Ultimately, this results in a better customer experience.

3. Bottom-Up Communication

In bottom-up communication, employees and management contribute their ideas and perceptions of the business to make the most informed decisions.

As a result, you get a frictionless and collaborative work environment, which enhances the overall employee experience in an organization. Employees who are part of such a work environment tend to love their work and feel the importance of their efforts. 

4. Digital Transformation

Co-founder and partner at SMB Group, Laurie McCabe says, – “Providing staff with the right technology and equipment will go a long way toward attracting and keeping strong talent.”

The right tools will ensure better management, a more efficient working team, a healthy work environment, and a happier, more satisfied team. So make sure you are investing in the right tools and systems, such as – 

• HR compliance and management for employing and managing your workspace
• Project management platforms for keeping track of work and projects
• Communication tools for smoother and faster sharing of information
• Employee time tracking tools for maintaining the productivity of your team
• Recognition tools for building a better work culture
• Marketing automation, CRM with email marketing, Sales automation tools, and more for helping each department get better results

5. Rewards & Recognition                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Rewarding good behavior and excellent work ethics are very important for establishing a healthy and fair work system. 

Employees want to be recognized and rewarded when they put effort into their work and outperform others. This makes the employees content and feel valued, which encourages others to adopt better work habits and give their best efforts.

As a result, when employees are valued, they reciprocate by valuing the organization as well. This translates directly into a better customer experience.

Ways to Measure Employee Experience

Take an in-depth look at your data to determine the key metrics of employee experience. Assess whether your company’s culture fosters a sense of value, trust, and respect among employees. And if you can forge a link between employee experience and customer experience. 

Here are a few things to do:

1. Employee Engagement Surveys

Being able to interpret employee feedback is the first step in increasing employee experience. Conducting an employee engagement survey is the best tool for understanding employee feedback. 

These surveys can be used to determine which employees feel appreciated and engaged and why. It can also assist you in comprehending crucial organizational challenges and opportunities.

2. Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) Surveys

Employee net promoter score (eNPS) surveys help you understand how likely a certain employee is to suggest your company as a great workplace. A higher rating in this category suggests contented and dedicated employees.

3. Performance Review Surveys

Performance review surveys are useful for collecting specific qualitative feedback from your employees. Using this data will assist you in improving training, planning for mentoring and promotions, and identifying skill development opportunities.

Be sure to gather feedback frequently so you’re aware of their changing feelings over time. Also, you should collect feedback at the beginning, during, and end of the employment process.

Impact of Employee Experience on Customer Experience

1. Better Customer Service

79% of service professionals say it’s impossible to provide great service without a complete view of customer interactions. 

When your employees have the right set of tools, they find it easier to provide the right assistance and guidance required by a customer. Hence, investing in your employees’ work experience can help you provide better customer service.

2. Greater Customer Satisfaction

CX leaders have 30% more engaged employees.

Employees with an encouraging and open workspace and all the equipment that helps them get over the obstacles in their way tend to be more satisfied with their work. 

when this is the case, you have a happy team. A happy team leads to more quality work, better product results, better customer service, and eventually, greater customer satisfaction. 

3. Higher Customer Loyalty

Companies that actively engage employees have customer loyalty rates 233% higher than those that don’t.

It has been proven that employees who are actively engaged and more productive are more likely to deliver their best work. Having the desire to do their best work leads to better customer service and satisfaction, which ultimately enhances customer loyalty. 

4. Increased Sales & Revenue

Companies with highly engaged workers report 20% higher sales.

Customers who are loyal to you are more likely to make repeat purchases and even recommend your business to others. Due to their trust in you and what you have to offer, it is also simpler to upsell to existing clients than to new ones. 

In fact, even after making a mistake, 78% of customers will continue to do business with these businesses. 

Moreover, since you do not have to continually spend money on acquiring new clients and start from zero every time, your customer acquisition expenses are likewise reduced.

Improve Employee Experience to Enhance Customer Experience

Customers and employees are equally important to your business. While having a “customer is king” philosophy is good, it’s also crucial to remember the other people who are crucial to the success of your business. 

Keep in mind – If a happy employee makes a happy customer, then you can be sure that an unhappy employee can make an unhappy customer.

It is always worthwhile to become a customer-centric business.

If you want to gain an edge over your competitors, focus on providing a great employee experience first. Employee and customer experience are two sides of the same coin, and you can reap unlimited benefits.

This blog was written in collaboration with SmartTask.