Employee engagement, company culture, customer experience: These three components can’t exist in a vacuum. A company with a strong culture has highly engaged employees, who therefore positively impact the customer experience. Where to start?
Culture
You can start by building a culture of recognition. The culture of a company is a shared set of beliefs and values. When employees are recognized for living the beliefs and rewarded for excellence, they feel appreciated and valued. Employees who feel valued and understand the role they play in the company’s success are more emotionally engaged and become advocates for the company. When employees understand the mission and values of the company, they interact more authentically with customers, necessarily improving that experience.
Employee Engagement
Tied closely to company culture are the ways in which you can increase employee engagement. A strategically structured rewards and recognition program will ensure that the program is fair to all participants, that it will achieve company goals and is one more way to communicate company beliefs and values. People pay attention to what is measured; a properly structured employee program will demonstrate which behaviors are most important to the organization.
Support from the top is critical, as is training managers on the administration of the program. Input from employees during the goal-setting phase as well as reward options is equally important. Partnering with an experienced recognition and incentive professional will avoid the missteps and headaches that many companies encounter when they try to design programs in house.
Customer Experience
The customer experience encompasses every interaction with every employee of the company; it includes the customer’s perception of the products or business and is influenced by their feelings about the brand, what they believe the company values and the social responsibility that the company demonstrates.
It makes sense that a company with clear values and beliefs that are carried out by employees in every interaction with their customers will improve that experience. Employee recognition programs are an excellent way in which to communicate those values internally, show employees what is important to the company and reward them for exhibiting those values in every interaction with the customer.
Contact us today to discuss how a reward and recognition program can improve your business and your customer’s experience.