4 Tips for Engaging Employees in the Customer Experience

Teamwork makes the dream work. This cliché phrase rings true in many areas of our lives. The customer experience is no exception. That’s because the best and most effective customer experiences involve every person in every position within an organization. However, from the C-suite to the front lines, most employees are paid to focus on one particular job function, whether that’s accounting, marketing, sales, IT, HR, operations or another area within an organization. This can be problematic for something like customer experience, which should be all encompassing.

While one person within an organization – like a Chief Customer Officer (CCO), CMO or a head of sales or operations – is likely to own the customer relationship, every employee plays a part in ensuring the health of that relationship. So, how do you get your employees involved in being a part of creating a memorable customer experience? Here are four tips:

1. Make it a part of job descriptions. The message should be clear for all employees: caring for the customer experience is a part of your job. In the job descriptions for every position within your company, emphasize the importance of the customer experience within the organization as a whole and outline how each role contributes to making that experience great. Whether someone is customer-facing or not, they have a role to play in customer satisfaction. Convey the message that customer experience is a vital part of your company’s mission and culture.

2. Make employees a part of the conversation. Frontline employees have some truly impactful insights about customer wants and needs, and whether a company is meeting them. Make it known to employees that they are welcomed to share these insights and give them a path to follow in order to do so, whether that’s directly through their manager or another channel. Also, share regular updates related to the customer experience such as progress made towards organizational goals or new initiatives being launched. That way, everyone is invested and on the same page.

3. Empower employees. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, employees need to be empowered with the resources they need to best serve customers. These tools may vary across positions and functions, but they should all allow employees to take action in order to improve the customer experience. For example, an employee might be empowered to offer a perk like a discount on a purchase, expedited shipping or escalated support when a customer encounters an issue with the company. This empowerment also helps contribute to a sense of ownership of the customer experience and demonstrates that this individual ownership is paid more than just lip service by the organization.

4. Treat your employees well. Unhappy employees generally don’t make for happy customers. In order to give their best to the customer experience, ensure that employee satisfaction is a priority in your organization as well. Use surveys or feedback during performance reviews to gauge how employees feel about their jobs, their department, their salary and benefits, the company and more, and proactively work to improve upon employee satisfaction based on this feedback. When possible, make regular tweaks as necessary based on the trends you see in employee feedback.

Happy Marketing!