The Impact of Employee Performance on Customer Experience

>>by Daniela Guido

In times of crisis, several companies need a good knock on the head to come back to the basics and stop the search for the guilty. Instead of running in circles, saying the vows of never again and speculating about the competitors' strategies, the situation should be taken advantage of by reading the signs along the way in order to create brand authenticity. One example? Up-to-the-minute companies should be forward thinking by efficiently and accurately understanding the true value of all elements of their customer experience data.

The information given by customers through the firm´s contact points is more fertile than one can imagine. An ordinary complaint can serve as a rich resource to aid in understanding the entire corporation, not just the issues related to the final product. This is because, more often than not, a client protest is full of alive sub-messages that speak volumes about how the end users are advocating the whole attitude that involves a purchase. The daily messages provided by consumers can be the thermometer to comprehend different aspects of their experience. One such aspect is  how they perceive the employees' performance, which of course can influence whether the customer continue to buy or not.

Customer loyalty programs must be the radar of the success of a business, capturing even the most inoffensive dissatisfaction towards the trademark. The data gathered through dialogs between employees and clients, if intuitively decoded, provide the insights managers need to build, among several other things, a more conscious relationship with their staff. This knowledge represents a tremendous opportunity for the executives to find ways to fortify their brand both internally and externally at the same time. Knowing where the issue lies, they can make comfortable decisions and train the crew towards a more effective direction.

It is true that an increase on sales is the bottom line of any profit oriented business, but it does not generate in itself a positive brand image. In order to achieve the "top of mind" that leads sustainable strategies, analytical tools should continuously be used. It is essential to keep track of changes in the target market's behaviour and decipherer the customer's hidden attitudes to encourage them to espouse long term with the firm.

Satisfaction as the foundation for customer loyalty

Human beings naturally want to guarantee adherence to something, feeling a sense of security and belonging. Rewards, bonuses or a picture of the "employee of the month" can possibly bring on staff satisfaction and efficiency, yet this positive result does not subsequently promote engagement and quality of service. You cannot buy loyalty in such a "cheap" way.

Avoiding blunt truisms and instead starting a true value-versus-price equation creates conversational relationships between managers and subordinates, which generates insights for several vital departments such as Marketing, HR and Sales. Not to mention that at the end of the day, everyone is happy.

Closing remarks

It is a fact that customer commitment is often extremely correlated with staff productivity, particularly when they have the opportunity to direct access to the brand through various channels. Having said that, it can confidently be affirmed that listening to the customers, gives the data that must be had to understand the employee behaviour profiling, which guides the business to run effectively, satisfying both actors.

Finally, in order to transform this raw data into active knowledge, intuition is required by experienced professionals within Voice of Customer. It thereby becomes a unique closed loop feedback management tool.