Businesses around the globe now know the importance of customer experience in customer retention and brand loyalty. So companies are currently working towards creating a customer experience that makes their clientele want more. But did you know that an essential factor in your customer experience is your Employee experience?

There's a saying around the business world: take care of your employees, and they will take care of your customers. This statement is quite true. The way you treat your employees will affect the customer experience. So if your employee experience is lacking, you can see that lack reflected in your customer experience. The people who manage customer marketing can see this trend once they have connected that happy employees make for satisfied customers.

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How does a positive employee experience lead to positive customer experience?

It's simple. Your employees are the people who serve your customers. They are the face your customers see, the voice they hear when they interact or do business with your company.

If you have an employee who feels unmotivated and undervalued, it will reflect their work. When they feel like their inputs do not matter and their work is not something that genuinely impacts the company, their productivity suffers, and this affects how they provide service. When the quality of service is concerned, your customer experience is also affected. When talented employees feel they are not essential or are not appreciated, they will take their talents elsewhere. Somewhere where they are valued as crucial contributors to the company's overall success. As employers, you need to find ways to help your employees feel more valued at work. They need to know that whatever their work is in your company, every bit of it matters.

How do you boost employee experience?
 

Improve training and onboarding

You need to arm your employees with the skills and information to improve themselves and upgrade their skill set. Your employees cannot be stuck with outdated knowledge because that ancient knowledge will affect their productivity and the quality of service that your company provides.

Providing proper, ongoing training to your employees empowers them to serve your customers better. This will improve their skills or even develop new competencies to leverage if or when they want to advance their careers within your company. In addition, empowered employees are more confident in their service level to their clients.

With the improved service also comes better customer experience. For example: if you provide business communication training to your employees, their communications with your customers will significantly improve. You will see fewer incidents of misunderstandings due to miscommunication. They will also learn to navigate the communication potholes that come with providing customer service. They will learn how to handle angry customers better, address questions, and provide a level of service that is above their usual.

Improve communication

You need to ensure that everyone knows the same thing. For example, suppose there is an update to anything — a new product or service, a change in your app, or even a change in company verbiage — everyone affected needs to know of it. Because chances are, if an employee is not included in that communication and they have outdated knowledge, they might relay that ancient knowledge to the customer when performing their duties.

Imagine that your company has changed the inclusions of one of the service packages that you offer. Unfortunately, some employees were left out of that email by mistake. A customer then calls in asking about that service package. The employee who takes the call is one of those who was unaware of the change. So the employee relays the outdated inclusions. The customer then buys the service package based on the inclusions relayed by your employee, only to find out that they are not getting what they were promised. That right there is a negative customer experience. And once the employee receives negative feedback from that transaction, they will feel demotivated and probably unpleasantly surprised. This is why you need to develop an effective internal communication strategy. 

Employee appreciation

Everyone likes a pat on the back for a job well done. However, recognition has a considerable role in employee engagement and improving employee experience. When an employee is recognized for their performance, this encourages them to, as they say, keep up the excellent work. Coupled with new training opportunities, this can even help your employees set the bar higher for themselves. 

Recognition is not just an ego boost, either. It makes your people feel seen and valued. It makes the hard work they put in, day after day, worth it. When people feel valued, it creates a culture of innovation and growth where employees take the initiative for process improvement. They will not be afraid to share their ideas because they know that their ideas will be valued. 

Because you have created a culture where employees can freely share their ideas, you have improved employee engagement. People are more engaged when they know that management listens to them and values their input.

Takeaway

When you take care of your employees and provide them with the tools they need to better themselves and improve their skills, it will positively impact your customer experience.