1st Key Benefit of Engagement: Customer Satisfaction

One of our suppliers takes customer satisfaction to a whole new level. They like to say “we don’t measure customer satisfaction, we measure customer happiness”. They measure happiness by including in their email signature 3 face icons. One that means the interaction was good, one that means it was ok and one that means the interaction was not good. These icons are actually links and by clicking on them you can post an anonymous score into the “Happiness Report” which is posted for all to see: http://smiley.37signals.com/  

Research suggests that employee engagement is strongly linked to customer satisfaction, which many argue is the factor that most directly influences financial success of a company. The great Peter Drucker said that the purpose of a business is to find and keep customers. We can only do this in a sustainable fashion if our customers are happy.  

Having interacted with the customer support team at 37 Signals, we know what a difference it makes to work with an engaged customer care professional. Engaged team members help to engage customers and engaged customers help to build lasting businesses.

From our recent research on the engagement topic, we have found 3 common things engaged team members bring to Customer Satisfaction.

1. Engaged People Listen

Engaged team members take the success of their company personally. They listen to their customers, determine what they need and commit making it happen. Team members engaged in their work will tend to be more proactive and go the extra mile for a customer. This will increase a customer's likelihood of being a repeat customer and telling people about their experience.  

2. Engaged People Create Enthusiasm

As we mentioned in an earlier post, people who are engaged in their work are enthusiastic about it. Because they believe in their products and services, they will be able to translate this enthusiasm into getting their customers to buy more, use more, and tell more people. As engaged people are excited about their work, they become natural marketing specialists. Excitement breeds more excitement and has a multiplier effect on sales potential.  

3. Engaged People Respond

Engaged team members make an effort to respond to their customers faster - they tend to be both easier and friendlier to deal with. These are the sorts of team members who are committed to getting results for their clients, even if it means staying late and doing more than they are paid. When customers feel they can rely on a company to respond quickly, they are more likely to continue to do business with them.  

Successful business growth is the result of listening to and including customer input in decision processes. Engaged employees act on what customers want, rather than pushing/directing/telling them what they need. When employees are engaged they are able to engage customers – engaged customers are good for business because they are more loyal, provide more referrals, have better relationships, create more market trust, and build brand reputation - a series on dominos which ultimately leads to greater company success.

About This Series

There is extensive research on the topic of employee engagement. In its simplest form, employee engagement represents the relationship between an organisation and an employee. This series calls out some of the benefits of high employee engagement:

• 1st Key Benefit of Engagement: Customer Satisfaction (this article)
• 2nd Key Benefit of Engagement: Creativity and Innovation
• 3rd Key Benefit of Engagement: Productivity 
• 4th Key Benefit of Engagement: Retention