Employee Engagement: The Key to Unlocking Customer Satisfaction
How does employee satisfaction relate to customer satisfaction?
When employees are engaged, they walk the extra mile to do their job well and serve customers in the best possible way. And when customers are happy with the service they receive at a business, they'll return again and again. Increasing customer satisfaction is in the best interest of any business. Research shows there is a link between employee engagement and customer satisfaction.
You may be wondering how employee engagement affects customer satisfaction. There are several ways employee engagement in service industry positions can improve customer experience. The relationship between employee experience – customer experience is strong. So much so that sometimes, the best way to improve the customer experience is actually to measure employee experience and continuously improve it.
The following list covers five ways employee engagement can positively affect customer satisfaction.
1. Decreased absenteeism
Absenteeism is a huge problem in businesses with a low level of employee engagement. Highly engaged employees who want to be there, who are absorbed in their work, are far less likely to be absent. Absenteeism has a large impact on customer satisfaction. When employees are absent, there are fewer workers to service customers.
The remaining employees feel overworked. This often results in a poorer quality of customer service provided. Employee engagement leads to a decrease in absenteeism, leading to more and better quality customer service and improving customer satisfaction. This in turn improves customer loyalty.
2. Decreased employee turnover
When employees are not engaged, they tend to quit their jobs more often. High turnover has a big impact on customer service for a business. Every time an employee quits, someone new must be hired. Current employees must spend time training new employees, which leaves them less able to provide high-quality customer service. Having many new employees that aren’t as experienced leads to overall poorer quality customer service
Having low employee turnover leads to greater customer satisfaction. Keeping employees engaged and satisfied in their work decreases turnover.
3. Better customer service
Customer service is one of the most essential components of customer satisfaction. Engaged employees who feel fulfilled and satisfied in their work are more likely to go above and beyond when it comes to customer service. It’s simple; the more engaged an employee is, the more satisfied your customers will feel with the services they receive.
4. Increased productivity
Employees that care about their work will be more productive. Engaged employees will care more about completing tasks correctly and on time. These enthusiastic employees will be more focused and motivated to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and have higher outputs. More productivity leads to your business running more smoothly. This leads to more customers having their needs fulfilled and feeling more satisfied.
5. Customers feel valued
When employees feel valued, customers feel valued. How does one lead to the other? When employees don’t feel overworked, unfulfilled by their jobs, and unappreciated, they perform their jobs better. Satisfied employees are better equipped to meet the needs of customers. This leads to each customer having a personalized experience and having their issues addressed, and feeling valued. A customer that feels valued will return again and again.
Invest in your people
Richard Branson is often quoted saying "take care of your people, and they'll take care of your business". And in the context of employee experience and customer experience, this quote rings especially true.
Employee engagement and customer experience are closely linked together, and helping employees be engaged leads to higher customer satisfaction. Eletive is a complete People Success Platform that helps you measure and improve employee engagement and performance in your organisation. With a complete toolkit of employee engagement surveys, OKRs, 1:1 templates, 360 feedback surveys, AI & analytics, and much more, we can help you build a workplace where people thrive – and take the best possible care of your customers.
