‘Delivering an optimal customer experience is, without a doubt, one of the most critical aspects of building a successful business. It is what directly influences the relationship between customer and brand, and helps drive loyalty.‘ BARE shares an article by Diana Serrano for Customer Think on “Want to Build Positive Customer Experience? Start with Your Employees.“
‘Many businesses are currently spending a majority of their time and resources on building a proper customer experience. This activity deserves to be a priority as it can lead to some truly unique connections.
However, before you can focus on a forward-facing customer experience, you have to look inward. Crafting an engaging employee experience (EX) must come first.
EX revolves around building a community, just like you would for customers, only it’s geared toward your workforce instead. Companies with great employee experience outperform the S&P 500 by as much as 122 percent. Today, an impressive 51 percent of business leaders say they have plans to create personalized employee experiences comparable — or better than — their consumer experiences. This illustrates that EX is the key for the future of business success.
THE PARALLELS BETWEEN EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Employee experience refers to the environment, events, and programs that you provide your workforce, as well as the internal outlook this generates. Once hired, is your average worker’s experience positive or negative? What processes influence that? These elements comprise EX.
There are many parallels between customer and employee experience. Both involve crafting an environment, community, and stream of events that shape the audience’s perception of a brand.
For CX, you want to boost reputation and influence the customer’s journey. You’re doing the same thing in EX, except there are no products or services you’re trying to sell. Therefore, the focus is less on marketing and more on building engagement within your internal teams. You want your personnel to trust in the company’s mission. Without employee buy-in, you cannot build customer experience.
Companies that actively engage employees will generate 2.5 times more revenue than their counterparts with low engagement levels.
Think of it this way: when your reps are selling, you want them to believe wholeheartedly in the product. For instance, if they are selling cleaning supplies, you want them to feel that the product literally outshines the competition, and will completely transform the user’s life in a whirlwind of fantastic cleanliness (or something like that). This does two things: it strengthens your salespeople’s pitches, and it also causes them to become more intensely connected with the brand. Their strong belief in the quality of the product comes across convincingly when making sales.
EX goes beyond product loyalty; it also boosts employee retention. Your workforce’s desire to stick around is driven by a belief that leadership cares and values their efforts.
The employee community delivers the company’s tailored value system. The stronger this community is, you can expect to see communication, collaboration and efficiency improve. This is similar to what happens for your customers after fine-tuning CX.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Beyond merely understanding what EX means for your brand, you must also consider what you can do to improve it. What are some methods for establishing an engaging experience program that resonates with your workforce?
Before we discuss the most influential elements of an employee experience, it’s important to point out that no two brands have the same footprint. The values, mission, and structure of your organization are unique. You should never try to copy exactly what the competition is doing.
When crafting the employee experience, look to the specific needs, desires and opportunities that your employees have and align with that. Remember, you’re creating this program specifically for them, so you want to relieve some of their pressures and improve their interactions with your company.
You’ll notice how similar this is to crafting a modern customer experience, which relies on personalization and more relevant campaigns.
1. DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
Nowadays, thanks to the mobile mindset, there’s a greater emphasis on digital, connected experiences through platforms like social media, instant messaging and work portals like Slack and Asana.
You should be asking yourself what kind of tools you are providing your employees. More importantly, how practical and convenient are those tools — do they make collaborating across teams easier? Can those tools be quickly and reliably accessed from anywhere?
The digital communications market has swapped from analog channels — like in-person meetings and phone conversations — to instant messaging, work-based social media, and collaboration platforms. The latter has seen an upswing in adoption, increasing at rates of 62 percent, 69 percent, and 70 percent respectively.
Communication is central to smooth operations within any company, so a proper mobile-friendly digital solution should be a high priority — if it isn’t already. Unfortunately, only 40 percent of the workforce claims to know their own company’s goals, strategies, and tactics.
2. INTERNAL MAINTENANCE
EX also pertains to internal processes and events that happen within your company. On-boarding for new hires, as well as training processes influence personnel’s outlook. Also, is the learning process ongoing, or does it have a more attainable endpoint?
Moreover, the average experience also includes interactions with the company culture. These interactions can consist of newsletters and information channels where people get proprietary information. Such experiences result in habits that your workforce picks up over time.
79 percent of employees at companies that are known for providing above average customer experiences are highly engaged in their job. Internal maintenance — providing strong, positive brand experiences for your workers — is paramount to building engagement.
3. LEADERSHIP INVOLVEMENT
How involved is the leadership within your organization? Do they lead by example?
Believe it or not, this has a profound impact on the employee experience. A workforce needs active support and guidance.
One component of building a proper system is to deliver regular insights to your workforce, through consistent content streams. This means a blog or online space only meant for your internal teams, not outside consumption. The blog can include informational videos and audio, articles, app-based content or even email newsletters sent via company networks.
Although 78 percent of company executives believe in the importance of digital and transformational leadership, only 5 percent have established strong digital leadership development programs.
4. FUN AND COMPETITION
Finally, we have the real entertaining portion of the employee experience. No one should be expected to work endlessly — after all, we are not machines. People need occasional breaks from monotony.
To boost the experience, why not introduce a friendly competition with some exciting prizes? Or, skip that and go straight for gamification — which makes the working environment more playful. 70 percent of the Forbes Global 2000 companies will deploy gamification strategies to help increase engagement, retention, and revenues.
There’s also the option to have company-sponsored activities like an employee field day or holiday parties.
Internal Satisfaction (EX) Positively Influences External Satisfaction (CX)
The most engaged employees are the ones ingrained in company culture; they are sharing insights, taking part in activities, and ultimately being very productive. When your workforce is engaged, overall collaboration improves across all channels — for partners, vendors, and customers.
Every CX project is a practice in organizational culture that starts with employees and stretches all the way to the top. What is the culture you are fostering for your personnel, the most important contributors to your business and brand? How are you giving back to them? Are you providing the tools and resources they need? Are you concerned with, and taking action to optimize their health –mental, physical and emotional?
The tools and space you provide for your workers are also encompassed in employee health. Did you know that employees who have a choice in when, where and how they work tend to have much higher levels of satisfaction? Higher satisfaction contributes in turn to more innovation and better performance.
A strong employee experience needs to be part your day to day. Once again, without proper EX, you cannot have a successful CX.’
Today, BARE International sets the industry standard as one of the largest independent providers of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. BARE’s customer experience research can provide you with critical data to make meaningful business decisions. Ask us how.
Read the full article at the source here
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH & INSIGHTS BY BARE INTERNATIONAL
Your business challenges are unique. Our proven success across industry categories stems from asking the right questions to help you address the challenges you face everyday. Each solution we offer is customized to meet your needs, providing actionable feedback to help you make critical business decisions. We treat you the way you want to treat your own customers, providing a dedicated project team to give you the attention you deserve and an infrastructure spanning the globe to provide the resources you need to understand your customers’ experiences.
- Customized Research Solutions
- Immediate, Actionable Feedback
- Dedicated Project Team
- Family-Owned, Global Capabilities
Get in touch today to receive a complimentary evaluation of your business. We look forward to working with you.
FOCUS ON DIVERSITY
THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN LUXURY HOSPITALITY
In the hospitality space, customer experience is everything. And in 2019 the increasing standard of living, high disposable income and a hunger for perfection has given the luxury hotel industry a list of high expectations to be met.
LUXURY HOTELS: KEEPING UP WITH FIERCE COMPETITION
Towel in Hotel Room, Welcome guests, Room service
The luxury hotel space is competitive but players are stepping up to the plate to keep up with rapidly evolving consumer demands.
When you think of luxury hotels, what comes to mind? Is it a mountain of soft pillows and ultra-high thread Egyptian cotton sheets, a room service menu that compares to a Michelin starred restaurant? Whatever your hopes and expectations maybe, hoteliers need to find unique experiences for every guest to stay ahead of the competition.
THE 5-STAR EXPERIENCE
Customer Experience is synonymous with hospitality, so it should be no surprise that CX is a defining characteristic of successful hotels. For luxury brands, hotels are another opportunity to enhance the customer experience.
The decision for luxury brands to expand into the hospitality industry of hotels boils down to taking advantage of an already existing brand reputation. However, how consumers interact with the human factor behind luxury brands can become more important than the physical products in some cases. In order to thrive, hotel businesses are seeing they need a unique angle to draw in customers. And it comes down to the personal touch.
STANDING OUT FROM THE “OVER-CROWD”
5-star hotels do not just get it right, but do so every time.
ProxyClick asked two respected 5 star hotel specialists (Egidio Marcat, Head of the Alumni Association of the prestigious Hotel Management school in Glion, Switzerland and Judith Schroeder, former Receptionist of the Year) to give us their tips. Their top 5 recommendations — and examples — included:
They concluded ‘Guest management is for companies what bread is for restaurants: a detail that makes all the difference between an average establishment and a star one. Corporations can learn a lot from the hotel business and hospitality spirit: how well they put those teachings into practice will be key to their company’s future success.’
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH
From the way guests are greeted to the way the dinner table is set, you can expect the same, excellent level of service delivery every time you visit. Many hotels offer luxurious rooms, fine dining, beautiful décor, and world-class amenities, but how do you really know you are delivering and exceeding your guests’ expectations? Partnering with the right research field force is a critical first step in seeing your business through your customer’s eyes.
Market research is or should be, an essential component to every hospitality marketing strategy. Properly done, research can provide invaluable insights into customer perspectives, decision drivers, competitive positioning, brand impressions, market disruptors, and many other significant influencers. Research-based decisions can ultimately determine the success or failure of a product, service or organization. Inaccurate, incomplete or poor quality data can have a more devastating impact than no data at all.
QUALITY MARKET RESEARCH FROM BARE INTERNATIONAL
The Hospitality industry has been the cornerstone of BARE’s business since launching in 1987. Since then, management professionals at locations including hotels, resorts, conference centers, restaurants, bars, and spas have leveraged BARE’s deep understanding of the Hospitality industry to customize research programs allowing clients to streamline operations, increase integrity, and improve the quality of customer service.
How do we ensure your customers are receiving the best possible customer service? A customized formula of mystery calling and shopping, in-store and online audits, e-mailing, and mystery leads reveals how well your employees were trained and brand standards are executed.
Contact us today to receive a complimentary evaluation of your business with BARE International.
WHY IGNORING YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION COULD BE FATAL.
As a business, your online reputation is incredibly precious. As more consumers rely on online research, your brand’s reputation can make or break your business.
In 2019, online reputation management (ORM) is not only applicable to every business with an online presence; ignoring it can cost you customers and money. Are you paying attention?
YOUR REPUTATION ALREADY EXISTS
Whether you like it or not, if your business is online, your reputation is also. With more than 90% of consumers now looking at online reviews before they buy from a company, you have the potential to gain, or lose that 90% based on what your consumers can find…
MANAGING YOUR REPUTATION
Reputation management is the process of taking your online reputation back into your own hands. By investing in Online Reputation Management, you’ll create an active online standing to help boost your brand’s legitimacy and credibility.
As you’ll see in the infographic below, courtesy of WebpageFX, online reviews and reputation management is crucial to a business’ long-term well-being.
ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT FROM BARE INTERNATIONAL
As you can see by the above infographic, consumers will not patronize a business that they don’t trust. To ensure that your company is benefiting from a current online standing, taking back control is the first step.
With BARE’s Online Reputation Management services, you can view all reviews by real customers across multiple review and social media platforms including Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, and more. What’s more, you’ll be able to strengthen relationships with your customers and monitor feedback, allowing the resolution of issues quickly for unhappy customers.
Social Media Reviews are aggregated into your dashboard with the rest of your program, allowing a seamless view of how different outlets in your business work together to provide your customer’s experience.
If you want your business to be successful in today’s world, you simply can’t ignore online reputation management. Contact a customer research expert at BARE International today for a complimentary evaluation.
Meet the Resource Management Team!
BARE International Named a “Top CX/UX Research Company” from Quirk’s Media
Quirk’s Media writes, ‘There are many different ways to measure and gauge customer and user experience. Companies that specialize in CX and UX use a range of tools and methodologies – from more traditional methods like surveys to more tech-based techniques like eye-tracking and biometrics – to give insight into how to your users and customers interact with your brand, products and services and provide ways to improve those experiences.’
From UX to CX (or both), there are companies ready to provide expertise on how to optimize the way users and customers experience your brand. Whether you need assistance with your customer experience, user experience or both, these companies have the tools and techniques to help.’ Read the original digital magazine article here.
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About BARE International
BARE International sets the industry standard as the largest independent provider of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. Founded in 1987, BARE International is a family-owned business with global capabilities. BARE is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia with ten offices around the world. On any given day, BARE International is doing business for clients in more than 150 countries, completing more than 50,000 evaluations/audits each month. To learn more about BARE International’s customer experience research services and their dedicated field force of evaluators, visit http://www.bareinternational.eu
BARE INTERNATIONAL HONORED AS “2019 ELITE COMPANY” FROM MYSTERY SHOPPING PROFESSIONALS ASSOCIATION
Congratulations to BARE International for earning Elite Company status from Mystery Shopping Professionals Association Americas. This will be the fifth consecutive year BARE has earned this prestigious title.
FAIRFAX, VA. (PRWEB) JANUARY 08, 2019
Bare International is honored to be a five-time recipient of Elite company status, as designated by MSPA Americas.
MSPA Americas (MSPA) is the trade association representing the customer experience industry, established to provide timely, actionable and impactful resources for shaping the future of business communities. The MSPA Elite program is an awards program designed to recognize the leading companies who are shouldering the advancement of the customer experience industry.
Mike Bare, President, Jason Bare, Global Vice President, and Guy Caron, Vice President of the Americas were in attendance to accept the award at the Annual CXE3 Event in Cleveland, Ohio.
“Innovation, excellence, and passion are the pillars on which we base our business upon,” adds Guy.
New services offerings were introduced throughout 2018, allowing BARE to provide insights for companies that better reflected the current climate of urgency and the importance of online reputation.
“This past year, we focused on providing services that gathered the kind of data our client partners needed in order to make forward-thinking decisions,” Guy continues. “One of the most popular services was Online Reputation Monitoring which allows our client partners to view over 200 review platforms, live, in one dashboard.”
The demand for other BARE International service offerings, including Voice of Customer Video Insights and Digital Customer Journey Mapping, has only increased with the need to reach customers on a more personalized level, and more quickly and frequently.
“For over 30 years we’ve been committed to providing the best insights to our client partners,” says Jason. “We continue to do that by leading the development of the customer experience research industry, and we’re honored and able to do so as an active member of the MSPA.”
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About BARE International
BARE International sets the industry standard as the largest independent provider of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. Founded in 1987, BARE International is a family-owned business with global capabilities. BARE is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Fairfax, Virginia with ten offices around the world. On any given day, BARE International is doing business for clients in more than 150 countries, completing more than 50,000 evaluations/audits each month. To learn more about BARE International’s customer experience research services and their dedicated field force of evaluators, visit http://www.bareinternational.com
MYSTERY SHOPPER MAGAZINE INTERVIEWS DALE BARE, CEO OF BARE INTERNATIONAL
‘BARE was founded in 1987 by Dale Bare and Michael Bare. At the time, Dale had her own public relations and marketing business and Mike was a regional director for a chain of Mexican restaurants.
Today, the company provides services for 4,500 clients in the following industries: financial, retail, automobile, health and wellness, housing, restaurant, mailing services, transportation, country club, hotel and resort and casino.‘ BARE shares an interview with CEO Dale Bare byMystery Shopper Magazine.
MSM TALKS WITH DALE BARE, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER OF BARE INTERNATIONAL:
MSM: We’re always curious about what motivates people, to the point, where they are willing to abandon successful business careers, to assume the risk of a new business venture. What were the circumstances that convinced both you and your partner, Michael Bare, that it was worth doing exactly that?
MSM: From its inception in 1987, Bare International operated under the name of Restaurant and Hospitality Services (RHS) and focused primarily on the hospitality industry. In 1999, the company changed its name to Bare International (BARE) [and] opened its first overseas office in Antwerp, Belgium. How did the company evolve during this period and how did it happen to begin operating globally?
Dale: Yes, correct. We did begin as RHS and our entire focus was hospitality – restaurants, hotels, bars and then health clubs, spas and casinos. As for the overseas operation in Antwerp, we were approached by someone who had heard of us and was very interested in opening an office for us there. After some thought and preparation, again we went with our idea of “you don’t know if something will work until you try it” and opened the Antwerp office. The next two international offices were opened in China and India, and in both cases, by individuals who were shoppers for us.
MSM: Being bigger is not always better. What are some of the advantages and the disadvantages to being a global company?
Dale: Like anything else, there are advantages and disadvantages of any pursuit. The main advantage is that BARE is truly a global company and can assist most every potential client by being able to do work for them anywhere and everywhere. Many companies would prefer to hire one company to do all of their mystery shop work, rather than have different companies all over the world. In rough economic times, it is also helpful to us as a company to be able to continue to grow in areas that are economically sound, while perhaps another country is having economic problems. I am not sure I would use the word “disadvantage”, for some other factors. Perhaps the word “challenge” is better. And it is definitely a challenge to work with all of the different currencies, cultures, legalities, labor laws, etc. that you deal with internationally, but, both Mike and I would tell you, it has been an amazing educational experience.
MSM: Since that day in 1987, when you turned your vision into a reality, what have been your biggest challenges and most satisfying rewards along the way?
MSM: Today, BARE enjoys a major presence in the mystery shopping industry. It seems to consistently appear on Inc. 5000’s “Fastest Growing Private Companies” list; the Company has five full-service offices covering the entire globe and actively does business in 100 different countries; and even has been recognized with an entry on Wikipedia.com. There must be days when you and Mike sit back and smile and say, “We did it!” Could you comment on this, please?
Dale: Yes, you are correct that BARE does have a major presence in the mystery shopping industry. As for Mike and I sitting back and saying “We did it!” Yes, we do say that and reinforce it all the time with our employees, because we could not have done it by ourselves. We know we are where we are because of the talent and dedication that supports us. Both of us are still 100% involved in the business, so we are always on the go…and always busy thinking about what’s next!
MSM: In what ways do you think mystery shopping will change over the upcoming years?
Dale: I think there will always be a need to observe customer service. As we have already seen over the years, the biggest change (and I think it will continue to be a change) is in the technological ways of reporting observations. Immediate responses will be the key to staying ahead of things. No longer the days of waiting for a report to be mailed to you and receiving it ten days after an evaluation!’
This article was first published January 2016. Since then, BARE has opened additional offices in the Philippines and Dubai, and celebrates 32 years this year of being a leader in customer experience research. BARE’s customer experience research can provide you with critical data to make meaningful business decisions. Ask us how.
Read the full article at the source here.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH & INSIGHTS BY BARE INTERNATIONAL
Your business challenges are unique. Our proven success across industry categories stems from asking the right questions to help you address the challenges you face everyday. Each solution we offer is customized to meet your needs, providing actionable feedback to help you make critical business decisions. We treat you the way you want to treat your own customers, providing a dedicated project team to give you the attention you deserve and an infrastructure spanning the globe to provide the resources you need to understand your customers’ experiences.
Get in touch today to receive a complimentary evaluation of your business. We look forward to working with you.
BARE SHARES – HIRING THE SPIRIT OF HOSPITALITY
‘Team members must be “people persons.” In the hospitality industry, we are always interacting, whether it’s with co-workers, guests, or vendors. If we cannot do our job with a spirit of hospitality, executing genuine guest service, we will fail our team and our guests.‘ BARE shares an article by Larry Stuart for Forbes on “Hiring The Spirit Of Hospitality.”
‘Herb Kelleher passed away a few weeks ago, and it is a significant loss to those of us who knew him. There was a magic about what he did as founder and CEO at Southwest Airlines. But he would be the first to tell you that what they have done there can be replicated anywhere. It starts at the top, with a leader who hires the right people people and then lets them be who they are.
The airline business is a service business. Herb knew to stress the “serve” part of that word in every day and every deed and every interaction with every customer. He needed to hire a smile and a sunny disposition, no matter how quirky they may have been otherwise. He wasn’t intimidated by their quirks. In fact, he embraced them. It’s been duly noted that he had a few quirks of his own.
Let’s face it. Everybody is not blessed with a sunny disposition, but Herb knew that a sunny disposition is a must for those who serve in the hospitality industry. Team members must be “people persons.” In the hospitality industry, we are always interacting, whether it’s with co-workers, guests, or vendors. If we cannot do our job with a spirit of hospitality, executing genuine guest service, we will fail our team and our guests. Someone who is personable will work with a whatever-it-takes, lay-down-my-life-for-others attitude. These are the people who willingly go the extra mile without thinking twice about what it will cost them.
So, how do you find those diamonds, those people who create a growing tribe of engaged customers? We’ll spend a lot of time on this in this space over the next few weeks and months, but let’s begin with a couple of crucial building blocks of a successful service industry hire.
HIRE A SMILE
I’ve always said that you can buy someone’s back and hands, but you can’t buy their smile. Many will be willing to do the physical work, but they may not be passionate enough that it transfers to their presentation and execution. It’s easy to hire individuals who have it all on the outside but don’t have a clue how to serve their fellow man.
When hiring the spirit of hospitality, a natural, welcoming smile is a priority. Without it, your guest won’t feel welcomed, cared for, or appreciated. One man I know has his human resources personnel judge a potential team member’s smile on a scale of one to ten. If their smile doesn’t score an eight or higher, they’re automatically cut. A smile cannot be trained. It comes from the heart. If someone can’t smile, they need to look for a job someplace else—outside of the hospitality industry where smiling isn’t a necessity.
A smile can create a positive moment in the midst of tears, unhappiness or stress. It brings an individual’s personality to life. It adds a special sparkle. It’s a universal connection here on earth. A smile will, most of the time, attract another smile. Smiles are gifts that don’t cost anything to give and are valuable to receive, especially for the person who is having a challenging day. Smiles are a sign of encouragement and love. A smile is key requirement when hiring someone who will be serving others.
The bottom line: if people aren’t smiling during the interview then they are not likely to smile when they are in the pressure cooker of the moment and the crisis du jour that inevitably happens in the service business.
LOOK FOR HUMILITY
Serving others doesn’t always come naturally, nor does a servant’s heart develop overnight. It cannot easily be trained later in life. Just as the cliché says, it’s difficult to teach old dogs new tricks. It’s even more difficult to teach a person how to serve with the spirit of hospitality if they haven’t grown up in an environment where that was taught and nurtured from a young age. But it is possible for someone to develop the heart of a servant if they have a willingness to learn to put others first. Note that it takes a very special, compassionate, patient person to accept this not-so-easy task.
Finding someone who possesses humility is all about identifying individuals who are sincere, love themselves enough to love others, are willing to do whatever it takes to serve each other, and most importantly, will hold themselves accountable to use their God-given talents to the best of their ability. Skill sets, education, and goals can be learned through various training processes. But team members cannot always learn to have a spirit of hospitality. It’s always best to hire someone who naturally walks in it already.
You’ll note that these two traits are inherent. You can train somebody how to do a job and all of the technical aspects that go with it. You can’t change who they are. And, as Herb Kelleher showed us, you shouldn’t try to change them. Let them soar. You and your organization will soar right along with them.’
Today, BARE International sets the industry standard as one of the largest independent providers of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. BARE’s customer experience research can provide you with critical data to make meaningful business decisions. Ask us how.
Read the full article at the source here
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE RESEARCH & INSIGHTS BY BARE INTERNATIONAL
Your business challenges are unique. Our proven success across industry categories stems from asking the right questions to help you address the challenges you face everyday. Each solution we offer is customized to meet your needs, providing actionable feedback to help you make critical business decisions. We treat you the way you want to treat your own customers, providing a dedicated project team to give you the attention you deserve and an infrastructure spanning the globe to provide the resources you need to understand your customers’ experiences.
Get in touch today to receive a complimentary evaluation of your business. We look forward to working with you.
BARE SHARES – WANT TO BUILD POSITIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE? START WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES
‘Delivering an optimal customer experience is, without a doubt, one of the most critical aspects of building a successful business. It is what directly influences the relationship between customer and brand, and helps drive loyalty.‘ BARE shares an article by Diana Serrano for Customer Think on “Want to Build Positive Customer Experience? Start with Your Employees.“
‘Many businesses are currently spending a majority of their time and resources on building a proper customer experience. This activity deserves to be a priority as it can lead to some truly unique connections.
However, before you can focus on a forward-facing customer experience, you have to look inward. Crafting an engaging employee experience (EX) must come first.
EX revolves around building a community, just like you would for customers, only it’s geared toward your workforce instead. Companies with great employee experience outperform the S&P 500 by as much as 122 percent. Today, an impressive 51 percent of business leaders say they have plans to create personalized employee experiences comparable — or better than — their consumer experiences. This illustrates that EX is the key for the future of business success.
THE PARALLELS BETWEEN EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Employee experience refers to the environment, events, and programs that you provide your workforce, as well as the internal outlook this generates. Once hired, is your average worker’s experience positive or negative? What processes influence that? These elements comprise EX.
There are many parallels between customer and employee experience. Both involve crafting an environment, community, and stream of events that shape the audience’s perception of a brand.
For CX, you want to boost reputation and influence the customer’s journey. You’re doing the same thing in EX, except there are no products or services you’re trying to sell. Therefore, the focus is less on marketing and more on building engagement within your internal teams. You want your personnel to trust in the company’s mission. Without employee buy-in, you cannot build customer experience.
Companies that actively engage employees will generate 2.5 times more revenue than their counterparts with low engagement levels.
Think of it this way: when your reps are selling, you want them to believe wholeheartedly in the product. For instance, if they are selling cleaning supplies, you want them to feel that the product literally outshines the competition, and will completely transform the user’s life in a whirlwind of fantastic cleanliness (or something like that). This does two things: it strengthens your salespeople’s pitches, and it also causes them to become more intensely connected with the brand. Their strong belief in the quality of the product comes across convincingly when making sales.
EX goes beyond product loyalty; it also boosts employee retention. Your workforce’s desire to stick around is driven by a belief that leadership cares and values their efforts.
The employee community delivers the company’s tailored value system. The stronger this community is, you can expect to see communication, collaboration and efficiency improve. This is similar to what happens for your customers after fine-tuning CX.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Beyond merely understanding what EX means for your brand, you must also consider what you can do to improve it. What are some methods for establishing an engaging experience program that resonates with your workforce?
When crafting the employee experience, look to the specific needs, desires and opportunities that your employees have and align with that. Remember, you’re creating this program specifically for them, so you want to relieve some of their pressures and improve their interactions with your company.
You’ll notice how similar this is to crafting a modern customer experience, which relies on personalization and more relevant campaigns.
1. DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
Nowadays, thanks to the mobile mindset, there’s a greater emphasis on digital, connected experiences through platforms like social media, instant messaging and work portals like Slack and Asana.
You should be asking yourself what kind of tools you are providing your employees. More importantly, how practical and convenient are those tools — do they make collaborating across teams easier? Can those tools be quickly and reliably accessed from anywhere?
The digital communications market has swapped from analog channels — like in-person meetings and phone conversations — to instant messaging, work-based social media, and collaboration platforms. The latter has seen an upswing in adoption, increasing at rates of 62 percent, 69 percent, and 70 percent respectively.
Communication is central to smooth operations within any company, so a proper mobile-friendly digital solution should be a high priority — if it isn’t already. Unfortunately, only 40 percent of the workforce claims to know their own company’s goals, strategies, and tactics.
2. INTERNAL MAINTENANCE
EX also pertains to internal processes and events that happen within your company. On-boarding for new hires, as well as training processes influence personnel’s outlook. Also, is the learning process ongoing, or does it have a more attainable endpoint?
Moreover, the average experience also includes interactions with the company culture. These interactions can consist of newsletters and information channels where people get proprietary information. Such experiences result in habits that your workforce picks up over time.
79 percent of employees at companies that are known for providing above average customer experiences are highly engaged in their job. Internal maintenance — providing strong, positive brand experiences for your workers — is paramount to building engagement.
3. LEADERSHIP INVOLVEMENT
How involved is the leadership within your organization? Do they lead by example?
Believe it or not, this has a profound impact on the employee experience. A workforce needs active support and guidance.
One component of building a proper system is to deliver regular insights to your workforce, through consistent content streams. This means a blog or online space only meant for your internal teams, not outside consumption. The blog can include informational videos and audio, articles, app-based content or even email newsletters sent via company networks.
Although 78 percent of company executives believe in the importance of digital and transformational leadership, only 5 percent have established strong digital leadership development programs.
4. FUN AND COMPETITION
Finally, we have the real entertaining portion of the employee experience. No one should be expected to work endlessly — after all, we are not machines. People need occasional breaks from monotony.
To boost the experience, why not introduce a friendly competition with some exciting prizes? Or, skip that and go straight for gamification — which makes the working environment more playful. 70 percent of the Forbes Global 2000 companies will deploy gamification strategies to help increase engagement, retention, and revenues.
There’s also the option to have company-sponsored activities like an employee field day or holiday parties.
Internal Satisfaction (EX) Positively Influences External Satisfaction (CX)
The most engaged employees are the ones ingrained in company culture; they are sharing insights, taking part in activities, and ultimately being very productive. When your workforce is engaged, overall collaboration improves across all channels — for partners, vendors, and customers.
The tools and space you provide for your workers are also encompassed in employee health. Did you know that employees who have a choice in when, where and how they work tend to have much higher levels of satisfaction? Higher satisfaction contributes in turn to more innovation and better performance.
A strong employee experience needs to be part your day to day. Once again, without proper EX, you cannot have a successful CX.’
Today, BARE International sets the industry standard as one of the largest independent providers of customer experience research, data, and analytics for companies worldwide. BARE’s customer experience research can provide you with critical data to make meaningful business decisions. Ask us how.
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