Happy Employees, Happy Customers: It's Not Just a Myth

Imagine a world where your employees are so excited about their jobs that they can't wait to come to work every day. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, it's not just a dream. According to the Gallups ‘State of the Global Workplace. The Voice of the World’s Employees’ 2024 report, there's a direct link between employee satisfaction and customer happiness. And the benefits are huge. Think about it: unhappy employees can lead to poor customer service, lower productivity, and even higher turnover rates. On the other hand, engaged employees are more likely to go above and beyond for customers, leading to increased loyalty and sales. But there’s much to be done by the organizations if they wish to enhance the employees’ experience and translate it into their customers’ happiness.?

But what exactly is employee experience (EX)? It's essentially the sum total of everything an employee feels and experiences while working for a company. From the initial job application to the final day on the job, EX encompasses everything from company culture to work-life balance. And in today's world, where social media can make or break a brand, how employees are treated can directly impact how customers perceive a company.

So far many of the executives had the perspective that it’s enough to offer flexible work arrangements, alluring rewards built into incentive systems coupled with some well-rounded wellness initiatives and other fancy perks. However, this way of thinking is the way of the past as it lacks the secret spice: honesty. People are looking for transparent and honest interactions in their private life and naturally, as employees they also want transparency, respect, and a sense of purpose. Successful organizations who can boast about their high EX are organizations that managed to build a unique company culture which in turn shapes how people interact with one another on a daily basis. And there is a reward waiting for the companies willing to go the extra mile. MIT researchers found that companies with high EX were able to develop more successful innovations and their Net Promoter Scores (NPS) were twice as high as their competitors. One of the ways to bring EX to the next level is to create an overarching program that takes care of every stage of an employee’s life at a company. In our experience at OpsTalent this approach works well as it gathers all initiatives under one name (for us it’s OpsUp Your Life Employee Journey). This way, it’s possible to address the challenges OpsTalenters are facing and find solutions that are fit for the occasion.?

But that’s not everything. Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy 8.9 trillion U.S. dollars, or 9% of global GDP. It also states that 20% of the world’s employees experience daily loneliness. This is also highest for fully remote workers. When we look at managers as a group, Gallup’s report found that they account for 70% of the variance in team employee engagement. And yet despite their important role in motivating employees, managers often experience more stress and are more likely to job hunt. Further still, one of the most important insights from Gallup’s report is this one: ‘[...] when organizations increase the number of engaged employees, they improve a host of organizational outcomes, including profit, retention rates and customer service [...]’. In fact, as Gallup’s report has shown, there are clear advantages of having engaged employees as their involvement drives factors important to any business, such as: customer loyalty/engagement (+10%), productivity-sales (+18%), productivity-production records and evaluations (+14%), profitability (+23%), wellbeing/thriving employees (+70%) and organizational citizenship/participation (+22%). That’s why it’s important to measure your employees’ satisfaction regularly. So… Do you know what your numbers are? At OpsTalent we are proud to sport 86,42% overall employee satisfaction (results for 2023).?

All the above data supports the notion that it is crucial for any organization that wishes to strive on the market to make sure that their employees are satisfied with their jobs. And yet, according to Gallup’s research, ‘[...] actively disengaged employees — i.e., workers who actively oppose their employer’s goals — comprise 15% of the global workforce [...]’. This clearly shows that there is still room for improvement.?

Moving forward, let’s focus on what organizations and leaders can do to ensure that their employees are engaged and the customers are happy. According to Denise Lee Yohn one of the ways is to start viewing employees and customers’ engagement as two sides of the same coin and design EX so that it aligns with Customer Experience (CX). This sentiment is actually supported by the similarities between the two as CX is defined as the sum of all interactions a customer can have with an organization. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Remember, it’s the front lines support teams who are best informed about the challenges? your customers are facing day to day. But there has to be mutual trust for the organization to be able to tap into their employees’ knowledge. Here leaders can make a huge difference mainly by ensuring that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and by creating opportunities for personal development. Among other factors that play a huge role, different sources list: constructive feedback, autonomy, creating an inclusive work environment and helping employees with work-life balance. Recognizing that your employees are experts in their fields can make a difference for your clients as well. Get curious and ask for their suggestions for improvements, instead of relying solely on the industry trends. Your customers will be grateful for that!

Denise Lee Yohn in her article points to several steps that when implemented can be a real game changer. First, it seems that the best option for the organizations is to find a way for their employees to connect with customers even if their job title has nothing to do with customer experience. This way the employees can see the true value their daily work brings to the customers. Weekly or monthly meetings during which CX representatives are present and are given the opportunity to voice their opinions can go a mile in making sure your end customers end up with products that better answer their needs - at least that’s what our experience at OpsTalent shows. Also, aligning customer and employee journey maps can help with identifying some challenges that can affect customer satisfaction. Some of those challenges originate within outdated systems and/or policies which can have a negative influence on the employees’ attitudes toward their work and thus toward customers. Especially challenging can be any changes in CRM used by CX teams. As they are the main users it should be natural to consult them on the new tools, but that’s often something companies don’t get right at all (even more when the CX team is outsourced). The changes are being decided at the executive level without much consultation prior to the implementation. And that can backfire easily. We went through a couple of changes like this one where they were dictated mainly by searching for more cost-effective tools. What helped us then was the fact that we had engaged teams of OpsTalenters who knew their opinions and expertise matter to us. And thus with their help and intricate knowledge of our clients processes and procedures they were able to face the challenges head on and find solutions rather quickly. ?

Another piece of advice is to make sure that executives have at their disposal a single view of performance across both EX and CX. This could be a dashboard or just a report that integrates KPIs from both areas that are linked with one another. This type of reporting also helps managers with diagnosing and tracking potential issues. If we ended here, this would already be a good base for building a solid EX and CX, but there’s yet one more option to consider and that is to create a separate position at a C-level. Denise Lee Yohn proposes that it should be called a Chief Experience Officer (nomen omen a CEO) and be responsible for overseeing both EX and CX, thus guaranteeing that there is a coherent strategy linking the two.?

So what are your thoughts? Are you ready to make a change? It might not be easy, but the rewards are worth it. If you are hesitating because you don’t know where to start, we are here to help! At OpsTalent we focus on in-depth analysis of customer experiences. We can perform a CX audit for you that combines the implementation of innovative technological and process solutions, adapted to the dynamically changing market and individual customer expectations. As part of the audit, we create detailed customer journey maps and we can take a step further and help you measure your employees’ happiness. Let us know if that’s something you are interested in and we will make it happen.?