Are Your Employees Really Your Most Important Asset?

 “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

–Richard Branson

Does your organization believe in this approach?

Do you make an effort to enhance employee experiences (EX), or do you focus all your energies only on delivering amazing customer experiences (CX)?

While customer experience management is vital for every company (including Indian call centers) employee experience management is also crucial. Many organizations say that their employees are their most valuable asset. But for most of them, these words are nothing more than lip service – spoken at a seminar or added to some marketing collateral, and then promptly forgotten.

Here’s why your organization should put these words into practice and pay more attention to employee experiences. 

The Connection between CX and EX

For 76% of executives, improving CX is a high priority. And spending on CX technology is expected to reach $641 billion in 2022. This is because great CX engenders greater customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty. This then drives organizational revenue and growth and also separates the industry’s low performers from the superstars.

But while several companies focus on improving CX, many also ignore the role of EX in enhancing CX. Employees in customer-facing roles are the people who actually deliver CX. And employees with poor EX cannot be expected to drive great CX. If anything, their experiences directly affect the efforts they put in to improve CX.

By empowering employees with the right tools, by trusting them to do a good job, and by following it up with the right training, you can deliver amazing experiences to them. In return, they will collaborate and ideate better, come up with breakthrough solutions, and help accelerate innovation to improve CX and create tremendous value for the organization.

Brand Advocacy Starts from Inside

In any organization, every employee is the first and most important customer and brand advocate. No company can expect to build its brand value in the broader world – much less sustain it in the long term – without the genuine support and “fanship” of its workforce. If the workforce believes in the brand, the company already has a captive audience that will talk about it in positive terms, promote it, and even build a community of other loyal fans around it. On the other hand, even one unhappy employee or ex-employee can create chaos on social media, and affect how the organization is viewed by both future employees and customers.

But to earn employees’ trust and brand advocacy, it’s important to design and deliver great EX. Just like you create customer journeys to understand where customers interact with the brand, create employee journeys as well.

Where are the gaps between what employees expect and what the organization actually delivers?

What are their common pain points?

What motivates them? What brings them down?

Find the answers to these key questions, and you will be able to deliver EX that employees appreciate. The reward for you will be a fully engaged workforce that is committed to your organization’s success because they see it as their success.

Aiming for Growth? Start with Employees!

Rising growth, increased revenues, healthier profits – every company has these goals. But to achieve these goals, it’s not enough to simply enhance the quality of your products or services, compete on price, or improve CX. It’s also crucial to remember that without employees, organizational growth is impossible.

The work of employees determines what customers see and experience, which in turn determines the results for the company. Employees also contribute to the company’s worth and almost always determine its value. These intangible benefits also have a tangible impact, in terms of growing the customer base, improving vendor relationships, and increasing revenues and profits.

Each worker also brings unique skills and competencies that cannot be easily replaced. Further, employee talent is an intangible asset that determines the pace and growth of the organization. That’s why you must recognize the value your employees bring to the table. Show them they are appreciated and make an effort to deliver great experiences, and you will surely have a more motivated, more driven workforce.

Conclusion

In the digital economy, competition for the customer’s attention – not to mention their pocketbook – is fierce. No wonder every company believes that their customers are gold. Yes, customers are gold, so you must make every effort to place customer experiences at the center of your organization’s operational philosophy.

But this doesn’t mean that you forget the role of employees in sustaining and growing your company. Instead of thinking of them as replaceable, homogenous “resources”, start considering them as the valuable assets they are. Understand, trust and support them, and go the extra mile to create experiences that show them you care. Invest in their growth and success, and they will go the extra mile to invest in yours.

Key Takeaways

• To earn employees’ trust and brand advocacy, it’s important to design and deliver a great employee experience.
• Employee experiences directly affect the efforts they put in to improve customer experience.
• Great employee experience results in breakthrough solutions to improve customer experience.
• Understand, trust, and support are the three tools to create a great employee experience.
• By recognizing employees’ unique skills and competencies organizations can accomplish great employee experience.