The customer experience (CX) is a critical component of business success today. Consumers aren’t willing to accept a poor customer experience and will not only seek out an alternative company to do business with when it occurs, but will also spread the word in online channels including social media pages and review sites. The customer holds the power and they know it. What companies must realize is that their business culture plays a large role in the customer experience. A positive business culture results in happy employees which can in turn create happy customers. Is your company doing all it can to create a business culture that’s set up for customer experience success? Here are four important rules to follow:
Provide ongoing training opportunities
Employees must feel confident in their roles in order to excel. Adequate training must be provided to employees across all departments on an ongoing basis. After all, the customer experience must be positive at every touch point and with every employee. Training opportunities allow employees to enhance their skill set and become greater assets to the company overall.
Create an employee professional development path
The goal of most professionals is to continue to advance their career by moving up within a company. If growth opportunities aren’t available, they’ll likely look elsewhere to pursue career advancement. By creating an employee professional development path, employees know what track they’re on and what they need to do to continue on the path to reach their goals. Employees aren’t kept in the dark or left wondering what the future holds, which can cause frustration (which is easily conveyed to customers).
Invest in modern technology
Employees who are armed with modern technology (and properly trained on how to use it) are able to perform their jobs at a higher level which contributes towards overall job satisfaction. Today’s technology provides greater access to important voice of the customer data that can be used to make business decisions that will improve the overall customer experience. For example, in a customer facing department such as the call center, basic call recording technology is no longer sufficient. A speech analytics solution that mines call data in real-time allows managers to make quick decisions.
Value employee feedback
Your employees, specifically within customer-facing roles, have a strong understanding of how the company is perceived and which areas might be in need of improvement. Allowing employees to address their concerns and speak about their experiences freely tells the employees that their thoughts and opinions matter which contributes to overall job satisfaction.
