Employee engagement is the emotional involvement an employee has in your company and its goals. It means that engaged employees care about their work beyond their paycheck and work on behalf of your company’s goals.

Nowadays, employee engagement is an important metric that businesses track because it plays a significant influence on customer satisfaction and, with that, on the overall business success. Simply put, if your employees are more engaged with your business, they will be more committed to your customers’ needs.

This article will walk you through the process of securing employee engagement and discussing how it affects the customer experience.

Guide to Employee Engagement and How It Affects the Customer Experience

Strategies to increase employee engagement

#1 Elevate your employee’s experience
Elevating your employee’s experience with different and creative employee engagement strategies is the best way to ensure your team’s engagement in the workplace is on the desired level.

For example, consider involving employees in decision-making. Collect actionable insights from them, such as feedback on an initiative or sentiment on an offered training, and be able to identify their thoughts and opinions more deeply and proactively. By giving them a voice, you will foster a positive work culture, gain exciting new ideas and transform their experience with your company.

#2 Facilitate communication
Efficient organizational communication is an essential aspect of employee engagement and customer satisfaction. However, to ensure frictionless internal communication, you need to provide channels that your employees and customers feel comfortable using.

Recognizing the exceptional success of instant messaging in customer relationship management, consider offering them a WhatsApp business multiple users solution. It can help your team assign messages between them, have internal discussions, and help more customers simultaneously. Furthermore, they can easily automate and monitor conversations and control closing times, frequently asked questions, and more.

#3 Encourage flexibility
Another way to increase employee engagement in the workplace is by giving flexibility to your employees. Allowing them to make arrangements about working conditions that suit them with you helps employees maintain a work/life balance and improve the productivity and efficiency of your business.

For example, you can give them the freedom to adjust their work schedules instead of the rigid 9-to-5 workweek; or allow them to choose where they will work from. Not many employers trust their employees to get the work done without their managers’ in-person monitoring. However, by providing them with appropriate communications solutions, they will be more productive, content, and engaged at the workplace.

#4 Offer mentoring
A mentorship program is a great way to boost employee engagement while also lowering turnover rates. The idea of a mentor is to help your new employees quickly understand and learn your company’s organizational, cultural, and social norms. Furthermore, it allows experienced employees in your team to progressively grow in their current position and become ready for new projects and career opportunities.

Employees with mentors are likely to be better paid in the long run. In addition, they feel more valued for their contributions at work which is a significant factor in overall workplace happiness and engagement.

#5 Be clear on expectations
Employees who understand their employer’s expectations can be more easily motivated to give their best in performing their job. That, in turn, will have a positive impact on customers. Employees that are knowledgeable about the company’s products, services, goals, and objectives can communicate value to the customer.

In addition, employees motivated to be effective company representatives take time to listen, provide information and advice, and solve problems for their customers. That can help your company attract and retain a loyal customer base.

Guide to Employee Engagement and How It Affects the Customer Experience

The relationship between employee engagement and customer experience

Customers today have access to more information on you and your competitors. As a result, they expect an impressive experience when purchasing from your company. So who is responsible for providing it? The answer: Every single employee!

That means no one department is wholly responsible, but all have a critical role to play. So, if you want to provide an amazing customer experience, you have to look across the entirety of your customer-facing functions — from marketing to sales to service and most importantly, as well as how satisfied and engaged those employees are.

That being said, employee engagement differs from employee satisfaction. Satisfaction means that employees are happy at work; engagement, on the other hand, means that employees are fully absorbed in and enthusiastic about their work.

This emotional attachment indicates that your team members will go the extra mile to resolve your client’s problems or work late to close a sale. Engaged employees contribute to a culture that consistently delivers excellent service. They take ownership, deliver on their commitments, in and outside your company, and are passionate about satisfying the customers because they own the results of their work.

The bottom line

A great customer experience initiative needs to start with the employees for every company that strives to succeed. Engaged employees are a prerequisite for building a high-performance team within an organization.

The more your employees share an emotional bond with your organization, the better their service to your customers will be. That means creating an environment where your team is motivated and inspired is the first step to ensure an excellent customer experience.

Also Read: 6 Ways to Improve Employee Satisfaction for Better Company Success