Using Feedback To Engage and Empower Frontline Employees

With so many frontline employees working from home right now, employee engagement is a hot topic. Yet many companies are overlooking a key resource that can be used not just to engage staff but to empower them as well. That resource?

Customer feedback.

It’s often said that “feedback is the breakfast of champions” and it’s true. Every individual that ever improved their performance received feedback along the way telling them what they were doing right and wrong. A good manager will be constantly providing feedback to their teams. When done in the correct manner, it’s not seen as criticism; it’s seen as support.

Yet when it comes to allowing frontline staff to hear customer feedback, particularly when it’s directed at an individual, many organisations won’t allow it.

Their concern is that the employee will be negatively impacted by the feedback; that they will hear something from a customer they will perceive as criticism or a personal attack and as a result their performance will suffer.

However, the vast majority of feedback left by customers about employees is positive and this provides critical context to the small amount of actual criticism. Customers are also more knowledgeable than they’ve ever been and are very good at differentiating product, price and service. They know when an issue is product-related and an employee is doing everything they can to help them and they appreciate it. Customer feedback helps employees feel valued and appreciated by the very people they interact with everyday.

But the benefits of sharing customer feedback with employees don’t stop there. When employees are able to engage with the feedback, it can be used to empower them.

A feedback management tool like CentraCX that allows frontline employees to comment and engage with customer feedback not only provides context to that feedback but adds a further level of depth and richness to what is being said by customers. Importantly, it amplifies the frontline employees voice within the organisation and makes them feel heard which is incredibly empowering.

The knowledge and experience of frontline workers is a goldmine that is left untapped in many organisations. Bi-annual internal surveys don’t cut it. They could never hope to capture what is happening daily on the front line and the lag between the event and when it is reported is enormous.

So let the customer’s voice ring out within the walls of your organisation and use it systematically to not only engage your employees but to empower them as well.