Nowadays, customer experience (CX) has become the primary focus of companies trying to gain an edge over the competition. However, in the desire to create a loyal customer base, they often neglect the importance of employee experience (EX).
This article explores the concept of EX and how it can be the first step toward a stellar CX.
Table of Contents
What is employee experience (EX)?
Employee experience (EX) is the sum of everything an employee learns, does, observes, and feels in all the five stages of the employee lifecycle at a particular organization. EX is not merely about perks, free lunches, and nap pods in the office. It is clearly not about companies trumpeting that their organization is a great place to work.
Employee experience is about creating a healthy relationship between the management and the employees. It is about nurturing an employee-centric culture. It allows the employees to learn new skills and grow in their careers while succeeding in the workplace. This makes your employees feel heard and seen to provide a better experience to the other most important asset — the customers.
How is EX linked to CX?
Understanding how EX relates to the customer experience is not difficult.
How would you feel about a company’s quality of services if you discover that it is a terrible place to work?
Apprehensive right?
Customer touchpoints, be they salespersons, technicians, or customer service representatives, customers can feel a sense of frustration, apathy, and indifference when dealing with them. Hence, the expectations for service and quality also get low, which can drive companies out of the competition. Alternatively, if the employees seem vibrant, engaged, and dedicated the customers automatically get a positive experience. Hence, working on employee motivation management becomes an imperative step toward a business’s success.
The secret to engaging employees
So, how do you get engaged and happy employees to promote a better customer experience?
The key is to build a great company culture to earn the desired engagement. A corporate culture where the employees feel to be an integral part of the company can be a game-changer regarding EX. Thus, cultivating a culture where the company values resonate with the individual values becomes paramount for the company’s success. According to the author of The Employee Experience Advantage, Jacob Morgan, “Companies that invest in employee experience are 4x more profitable than those that do not.”
How employee experience boosts overall customer experience?
The success of any brand depends on its competence regarding customer experience (CX). CX is the new marketing battlefront where most companies expect to compete in CX. Happy employees = Happy customers, the equation is simple. So, beginning to improve employee experience can help your audiences distinguish your company’s values and purpose from other brands. Companies which invest in EX are more likely to perform better in the following areas. These companies are seen:
- 11.5 times more often in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work
- Featured in LinkedIn’s list of North America’s Most In-Demand Employers 4.4 times as often
- Secured a place in Forbes list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies
- Has twice as many presences in the American Customer Satisfaction Index
How to build a superior employee experience in your organization?
Creating a corporate culture where employees feel valued, respected, and trusted is not inherently simple, especially for large organizations. Below are five top tips you can apply immediately in your organization to see a positive change.
- Alignment of company’s values with individual employee values.
- Recognizing and addressing the grievances of the employees, and resolving them, so that they feel included.
- Investing in employee training for their career growth.
- Analyzing operations data and executive data to find new ways of improving EX.
- Using cutting-edge technology in the workplace for better employee motivation management.
The role of HR in improving employee experience
HR executives can bridge the gap of understanding between employees and C-level executives. Now, as the connection between EX and CX is apparent, the HR leaders need to shift their focus from mundane employee management processes to understanding what the people actually need, to start building an ecosystem for improved employee engagement. They can utilize cutting-edge employee engagement software and HXM (Human Experience Management) tools to expedite the process.
Final words
Increasing employee satisfaction does not just positively impact customer retention but also gives the business a competitive advantage. Therefore, an ambitious company must embrace the best EX practices to fuel growth in the workspace and increase its brand image to the customers.
