We find all
the recent attention given to the importance of linking a satisfied customer
and an engaged employee to be quite startling. Why? Well because for as long as we can remember
didn’t we all just know that when we have pleasant, happy and engaged employees
helping the customer that a positive customer experience followed? “The customer was always right” was the model
which exhorted the service staff to give high priority to customer
satisfaction. We traded where we were
given the kind of service that pleased us; we usually avoided places where the
experience was less than desirable.
Don’t we still do that?
I guess
not. Now it would seem that marketers
are just waking up to the critical role that employees play in business. Certainly the advent of the non-human
connection built into the digital age has something to do with it. We can literally stay in our own small
cubical world, doing almost everything we need to do to live, and never
interact with another human being unless it’s a call center employee we finally
get to after going through three robots.
In a
recent article from CMSWire.com, the author Phil Britt found that companies
feel that a motivated and fully equipped workforce may have been critical to
the customer experience in the past, but that employee engagement and
enablement was at the bottom of their priority list, not the top.
It is so
easy today to let all the bells and whistles of the latest “app” or platform do
all the work. The sale is conducted from
start to finish and you never connect with the customer. In a customer contact center where constant
turnover can be a major
challenge, a positive, talented and engaged employee is much more likely to
have a positive impact on the customer. In
many instances your customers often prefer
self-serve options for convenience, but this can also help with employee
engagement by allowing your contact employees the time to focus on more
challenging and value added customer interactions.
Recognition awards have long been a part of call center
strategies to increase employee engagement. They work, they always have. In most companies call center positions are
entry level, fairly low salary or hourly positions where a small recognition
award can be very meaningful. These
employees are usually the first contact point between the company and
customer. Every one of us has had the
experience of dealing with these hard working employees. And we know immediately which ones of them are
engaged and which are not, which are tired and just going through the motions
and which sincerely want to help.
Recognition, respect and meaningful thanks for good performance will go
a long way in maintaining and even improving their engagement and corresponding
customer satisfaction.
For more information on
Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services please contact us at
Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net
