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How Does Employee Engagement Help Companies Deliver on the Marketing Promises Made to Customers?

Businesses spend enormous amounts of time, effort and capital building a brand to which people can relate. They use terminologies such as “dependable,” “on your side,” “you’ve got a friend,” “like a good neighbor,” “we treat you like you’d treat you,” “you can count on us,” and too many others to mention. But applying such warm human attributes to a company is a double-edged sword that can cut quick and deep when a customer’s experience with front-line personnel doesn’t live up to the expectations created by marketing.

A recent Aberdeen study revealed that successful customer interactions have more influence on customer satisfaction than any other factor—including product features and pricing. The challenge faced by every organization is to motivate its people to keep these marketing promises. 

In a 2016 report, the research firm The Temkin Group (since acquired by Qualtrics) noted the correlation between employee engagement and delivering a consistently superior customer experience. It found that 77% of employees are highly or moderately engaged in companies that are better financial performers than their peers, compared with only 49% of employees in companies which are not doing as well. It also found that highly engaged employees are more than four times as likely to recommend the company’s products and services and do something good for the company that is not expected of them. These employees spread their enthusiasm to customers and are more dedicated to providing the best possible service. One significant example of this is reported by the Bain Group, stating the “key ingredient” to JetBlue’s high customer ratings is that “JetBlue employees treat customers’ problems as their own.”

As noted in an article in Forbes, “…engagement comes from feeling good, from passion for the company, from believing that the work that one does is meaningful and from attaching part of one’s identity with their job.” But research indicates that employees in customer-facing roles are often less engaged due to the non-stop, day-to-day pressures of their jobs. One important way companies can inspire higher levels of engagement is to provide employees with the technology they need to improve communication and collaboration. When the right support is in place, employees tend to become more invested in the organization, which can double customer satisfaction rates when compared to others in their industry. 

While improving employee engagement is critical to bottom-line success, taking a “one-size-fits-all” approach does not work. “Employee Engagement – The Hidden Secret to Customer Engagement,” a CRMXchange webcast scheduled for Tuesday, September 24, sponsored by business communication and contact center technology provider RingCentral, will start you in the right direction. Omer Minkara, VP & Principal Analyst, Contact Center & Customer Experience Management, Aberdeen will delve into the key components in building a successful program. These include: 

• Top drivers of employee engagement
• The solutions best-in-class firms use to improve employee engagement
• How emerging technologies, such as AI, influence employee engagement and CX results
• Real-life success stories from firms that transformed their CX results through employee engagement

The webcast is complimentary and those unable to attend it live can download it approximately 24 hours after it is completed.