When people talk about the way they feel towards a company, they’re really talking about how they feel towards a group of people who work there.
If they like the way the company manages returns, for instance, it means they appreciate the thoughtful way in which the company’s leadership developed its returns policy.
When they compliment the selection and pricing of the company’s products, it’s really a testament to the person or team within the brand responsible for merchandizing and negotiating costs with suppliers.
Even if someone is primarily interacting with a company through a chatbot, there were employees who helped train and arm it with helpful answers to their questions.
You don’t need to be chatting up shoppers face-to-face to have a direct impact on the customer experience (CX) a firm delivers. And whether the experience is happening in a physical setting or purely online, a strong employee experience (EX) is key to making customers happy.
CX and EX aren’t necessarily new disciplines. Companies have been delivering customer and employee experiences for as long as they’ve existed. The difference now is that CX and EX strategies tend to be more deliberate and intentional, given how leaders have come to recognize the way they can affect business outcomes.
When employees feel empowered to do their best work and are engaged with the company’s mission and values, for examples, they are often in a good position to address customers’ most complex challenges. When EX isn’t strong, on the other hand, it can pull down CX and lead to customer churn and stalled growth.
If you’re just in the process of linking CX and EX strategies, there are a couple of best practices that are well worth keeping top of mind:
Journey Mapping Yields Benefits Across Both CX And EX
One of the first stages of a CX strategy might be mapping out the journey a customer takes as they make a purchase. This includes how they first learn about the company, the digital channel they use to find the brand’s web site, the steps they take to buy something and their service and support expectations afterwards.
This kind of journey mapping is incredibly helpful in identifying possible areas of friction that lead to customers getting stuck somewhere, or why they might not come back for a second purchase.
The same thing works well from an EX perspective. Think through how prospective new hires learn about career opportunities with your firm. Once they’re hired, how are they properly onboarded set up for success? As they progress within the company, what kind of coaching do they get in order to develop their talent? An EX journey map would even include the moment an employee leaves, from exit interviews to how they pass on their work to a successor.
A Digital-First, Data-Driven Approach Is The Common Thread Connecting CX and EX
Great EX can take many forms, but one of the essential ingredients is arming team members with information that helps them learn, develop their skills and ultimately serve their customers more effectively.
Employees shouldn’t have to hunt down this data through an endless series of disconnected applications. The ideal is a platform that unifies customer data to provide a single version of the truth. When they have that, employees can then use digital tools to collaborate with each other, as well as partners and even customers.
CX, meanwhile, is continuously enriched by offering digital technologies to streamline the process of finding the products and services they want, making purchases and engaging with a company to get their questions answered. When those tools are infused with accurate and up-to-date data about each customer, CX becomes even better because customers aren’t repeating themselves over and over.
EX And CX Should Tie Back To Shared Values
Why should employees care about working for your company versus another? A similar question might be, why should customers buy from your company versus another? Though in some cases the products and services you offer are unique, the best CX and EX often reach us on a deeper level.
Given the ongoing challenges our world faces, many people are beginning to recognize businesses are the most effective platform for change. That means they are looking to businesses to become vocal and active in finding solutions to issues that concern us all.
A good example is climate change: a company that galvanizes its team to take an active role in contributing to its sustainability strategy can take employee engagement to a new level. When customers see a company acting as a role model in reducing its carbon footprint, their entire experience with that firm is enriched.
CX And EX Need To Be Measured In Order To Continuously Improve
The most successful companies have become laser-focused on using metrics like customer satisfaction (CSAT) to ensure their CX strategies are working or not. They might also use metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) to determine how many customers would proactively recommend them to their friends and family.
Executing an EX strategy needs to be supported by strong metrics too. Some firms have even begun using a variation on NPS to gauge whether employees would recommend their employer to others, for instance. Internal surveys and town hall sessions, meanwhile, can capture whether employee satisfaction is going in the right direction.
Experience is everything, whether you’re talking about the experiences of customers or employees. When you prioritize CX and EX in tandem, you are well on your way to creating a healthier future for your business and everyone it touches.
