Do engaged employees matter for excellent customer experience

Engaged employees are those who emotionally connect to their work and performance goals. They perform beyond their call of duty to enhance their employer reputation and derive satisfaction. Engaged employees display a positive attitude towards work and always strive to provide the best in their delivery of work

Gartner defines customer experience as “the customer’s perceptions and related feelings caused by the one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s employees, systems, channels or products.” Forrester Research defines customer experience as: “How customers perceive their interactions with your company.” Primarily, in a nutshell, customer experience refers to gatherings from interaction and consequent perception formed in the minds of customers. Customers form an opinion about the Brand in isolation and also compare it with the competition. If their view is superior to the one they have on competition, the positive experience gets established in the minds of the customer.

Let us, for a moment, think which channels are responsible for creating a better or bitter experience in the customer’s mind? It must be either digital or physical interactions or a combination of both. Whichever be the channel, it is the human mind that is behind the creation of both. In physical, human plays a predominant role in creating a pleasant experience. In digital, human indirectly plays the role of designing it for an enjoyable experience. When an employee is fully engaged and motivated to perform beyond his normally expected lines, she/he strives to create a good experience for the customer. The moot point to understand is how employee engagement drives creating an excellent customer experience

To have engaged employees, Retailers must have a robust Human Capital Management system, that is not only transparent but also fosters an open culture of exchange. In designing Retail ViVA, we kept these critical criteria in mind and integrated several tools that will foster collaboration, open communication, peer learning and trust creation. The modules and tool also indirectly bestow corporate cultural impartation.

Retailers need to create an environment that kindles employee engagement proactively. Driving engaged employees to pursue the mission of excellent customer experience becomes a simple self-derivative in the minds of every employee. Customers then start sensing a good feel at every touchpoint and start gaining positive experience. In conclusion, if a Retailer can create an atmosphere for employees to be engaged with the enterprise deeply, a sound foundation is laid for establishing excellent customer experience. I firmly believe that if we can take care of employee engagement first, they will, on their own, strive for creating an exceptional customer experience

Written by
(Ragu)nathan Kannan