Employee engagement is a major challenge in modern businesses. You may have heard business and human resources (HR) managers talking about employees being a company’s greatest asset. There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that this claim is accurate, and that employee engagement improves customer service and financial performance. Too many business leaders neglect the customer experience of their employees. Most businesses never include their employees in customer experience surveys, but this could be a huge mistake — affecting both profitability and the customers service your regular customers are receiving. Whether you like it or not, your company is delivering a service to its employees; and if that service is not up to scratch, your organization will suffer.
Test Subjects for Your Products and Services
While you might be selling products and services to your employees at a discount, there is probably an opportunity to make a profit through regular employee engagement. For a start, your employees are easily accessible every day. You also know a lot about this specific group of customers, and that sort of information is very valuable. For instance, you already know their income, details of their lifestyle and how old they are. This data can be used to develop your company’s approach offerings. Use your workforce as a testing ground for new products and services. Finding out why the general public aren’t buying from you involves a huge amount of research at a significant cost — but your employees are there to talk to every day. Once you understand the flaws that could damage the commercial success of your products and services, you can modify them accordingly before going to market. This hugely valuable group of customers is right on your doorstep; do you really want to ignore it?
Brand Ambassadors
As a manager or owner of a business, you probably already have an idea of how important employee engagement is to the success of a brand. Employees with a positive experience of your products and services could become important ambassadors for your brand — without really trying. There are several ways to get your employees excited about what you’re selling, and one of them involves giving them a great customer experience. Imagine you’ve really impressed one of your employees with a great product and exceptional customer service. That person will not only be happy with their purchase, he or she will take an enormous amount of pride from the fact that they represent the company responsible for delivering it. Your employee will probably tell their friends, family and anyone who will listen about how fantastic your company is, and this news will spread. Effective employee engagement will help you to promote your goods and services through word of mouth — helping you to grow your brand organically.
Customers with a Vested Interest in the Business
Unlike all of your other customer groups, your employees have a financial stake in the success of your business. At the very least, their salaries and pay rises are linked to the commercial success of the brand. And you might have increased that stake through the issuing of shares, bonuses, stock and profit sharing incentives. Your employees are, it could be argued, your most important group of customers. Look after them, and they’ll become very loyal to your company.
Reach out to your staff at every opportunity for feedback on your products and services. Are there aspects of your company’s offer that can be improved on? What is needed to increase sales and drive profitability? The financial success of your employee customers is directly linked to the financial success of your company. Leverage this natural incentive to improve your products and grow your business. While your employees might be a little biased, an open and honest dialogue with them should give you valuable information about how you’re doing.
I’m in the B2B Sector — That’s Me Out, Right?
If your business sells products or services to other businesses, you may think that employee feedback isn’t that important — but that’s not necessarily the case. If you use your own products and services in the same way your customers do, the experience of your employees is just as valuable. In fact, there is probably no better endorsement than using your own goods and services in a productive way. In this respect, your employees can give you an idea of what your corporate clients think about your company’s products and services.
Effective employee engagement produces engaged brand ambassadors, provides valuable insights into your business and contributes directly to the bottom line. You can improve employee engagement within your own business by utilizing the digital HR solution from Swibeco.
Available as a web application and a mobile app, Swibeco enables employers to offer various benefits and discounts to employees as a way of rewarding engagement. Sign up for this multi-faceted HR tool to bring all of your employee engagement methods together within a single, user-friendly platform.
