Experience is everything when it comes to retaining customers and keeping them satisfied with your business. When it comes to delivering customer service, however, it doesn't just start with ensuring that the customers themselves have a wonderful experience. If you want to create an exceptional environment for your customers, it starts with improving the employee experience.
Employees Set the Tone for Customers
From the moment customers walk through the door, they interact with employees. They may chat with salespeople in a store or the host at a restaurant soon after stepping inside. Satisfied employees who have a good idea of exactly what is expected of them usually create a better environment than employees who are bored, disengaged, and "faking it" just long enough to get through the day. When you create a solid employee experience, they typically pass that experience on to their customers--both because they are already satisfied and therefore in a better mood overall and because they are more likely to be loyal to your company, which increases their desire to create a positive customer experience.
Employee Turnover Decreases Customer Satisfaction
Are you struggling to keep employees in your facility? With unemployment relatively low, employees have their choice of where they want to work and who they want to work for. That makes a satisfactory employee experience critical to keeping employees in your company: if they aren't happy, they will go elsewhere. Leveraging technology for training and continuing education can help create a more seamless employee experience.
Long-time employees know the rules. They know what you are willing to offer dissatisfied customers and customers that you've kept for a while. Not only are they less likely to be scammed or pressured by a dishonest customer, they know what they can offer a customer with a complaint or a problem, and they don't necessarily have to turn to a manager for more information. That means they can make your customers happy faster, which can decrease customer complaints and make them happier overall.
Long-time employees provide consistency for customers. When you keep the same employees in your company long-term, they offer the same experience for customers every time they come through the door. Your customers want to know what they can expect from your company, and when you keep your employees, you provide the consistent customer service experience they're looking for.
Long-time employees care more about the company. Often, the longer they work for your company, the more your employees start to genuinely care about the customer experience. The bottom line matters to them. Therefore, they will put forth more effort and remain more engaged throughout the day.
Leveraging technology to create an excellent employee experience, from training to providing regular information to long-time employees, can go a long way toward improving not only employee retention but also the entire customer experience. By focusing on your employees, you can do a better job of meeting customer needs regardless of who is present in your organization. Want to learn more about improving the customer experience? Check out our guide, "Brick & Mortar Loyalty: How Brand and In-Store Engagement Strategies Go Hand in Hand."
