Customer expectations have never been higher, so how do you keep up with the growing and changing demands of your customer market? In a Hubspot survey post-Covid, 93% of customer service teams say customers have higher expectations than ever before. Whether their experience is good or bad, they’re likely to tell friends and family, broadcast on social media or leave feedback on a public review site. Customers want to deal with businesses who are consistent, reliable, accessible, helpful and prompt. People want to work for companies who provide a great employee experience. But have you ever considered the link? There is a real opportunity for companies to recognise the importance of the employee experience (EX) and its profound impact on delivering exceptional customer experiences (CX).

Ethos Farm are award-winning employee and customer experience specialists, working with leading brands globally across multiple sectors including Airports, Rail, Travel Retail, Shopping Centres and Real Estate. Here they share their 5 stage approach designed to transform your organisational culture, develop a leading employee experience and in turn deliver truly elevated customer engagement.

1.      Understand your data

Do you really know what your employees and your customers think? How are they feeling? What are you doing well? What could you do better at? A mix of both quantitative data and the verbatim/qualitative data will help you to really understand what your customers are saying about your brand. While multiple customer data sources and platforms should be reviewed, it’s often your front-line customer facing teams who truly know what customers are saying, as they’re closest to them every day. Don’t forget to use them!

2.      Create a Service Vision

Most companies have an overall company vision, but a customer experience (CX) vision is the chance to create and focus on a common customer service proposition; the shared ‘why’, purpose and reason for all employees.

The customer experience vision should be underpinned by real data and insights (stage 1), with your front-line teams playing an active part in creating this.

3.      Bringing the Service Vision to life

Translate the service vision for front-line teams through service standards and behaviours. Consider an (ongoing) learning programme that can be enjoyed by all, so the service standards and behaviours are understood and embedded across the organisation. Learning that is fun and interactive works best, such as VR or the use of avatars to graphically represent the team and/or customers, and revisited on an ongoing basis.

Without this, you get a strategy that looks good on paper, but doesn’t get executed by the front-line teams and that becomes the missing link.

4.      Measurement

Set and agree customer service metrics, whether an increase in Net Promoter Score, a decrease in complaints – continue to monitor and track positive performance over time.

Communication is really important – both in ensuring that the customer experience (CX) vision is being delivered day in, day out, by teams who are engaging with customers, as well as agreed CX KPIs and metrics being a priority on the boardroom agenda for ongoing ownership, monitoring, review and improvement by all.

5.      The Golden Thread

A common service proposition (stage 2), standards and behaviours (stage 3) supports everyone to align to and deliver a consistent and expected standard, no matter what role they play. The Golden (CX) Thread should run through the entire customer journey, and internally from C-Suite to front-line delivery teams. Regardless or who with or where the customer comes into contact, their experience should be consistent throughout, with all front-line team members displaying the same behaviours and exceptional levels of service to delight.

Positively, results can be quick once started and those companies who are prioritising service over profit are recognising that service can be the biggest differentiator in today’s demanding customer market. Companies are also attracting talent, reducing turnover and seeing increases in employee engagement metrics.

In summary, there is real benefit to companies who recognise the vital link between employee experience and customer satisfaction. It is Ethos Farm’s belief that front-line customer facing workforces are the most important ‘make or break’ factor in many customer experiences, and with the right organisational culture and crafted employee experience, truly elevated customer engagement is possible.

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Ethos Farm, Forbes Business Council Thought Leader