Voice Of The Customer Will Go Unheard Without Voice Of The Employee

While many organizations acknowledge the importance of customer experience and employee engagement programs, it is rare to see them harmoniously aligned.

While many organizations acknowledge the importance of customer experience and employee engagement programs, it is rare to see them harmoniously aligned. In most circumstances, these programs sit in different parts of an organization, never to intertwine.

However, as Darwin’s theory of evolution states, all living organisms must adapt to the times or become extinct; it’s critical for businesses to adopt this same line of thinking. For those companies toward the top of the development curve, the future development of Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs will depend on the ability to seamlessly integrate with Voice of the Employee (VoE) programs. A convergence of these two separate efforts will help organizations make a giant leap to the next level of customer experience.

Sorting Myths From Facts

Moving from VoC research to a true business tool is the first stage in the evolutionary process. This transition involves an abundance of changes, including, most notably, the move away from infrequent, lengthy surveys asking the same question five different ways. It is critical for organizations to look for convenient opportunities to request that customers give short, succinct feedback. From there, this data can be brought back into the business, and not in a 50-page PowerPoint presentation, but in a real-time format that allows people to act on information relevant to their part of the business. Most businesses understand this now.

Many organizations, however, have taken longer to evolve their VoE programs. Many are still conducting yearly (or longer) surveys, which is often followed by three months of analysis, several months of discussion around the results, and then confusion about what to do with said results.

However, VoE programs can now harness a wide range of other methods to capture employee feedback that can be accessed and acted upon in real time. Interestingly, some of the misconceptions about employee engagement programs are identical to the misconceptions of customer engagement. I’ve tried to debunk some of these myths below.

Myth: The more data the better.

Reality:It’s not about more data; it’s about the right data to make a positive change.

Myth: The goal is to improve score.

Reality: We are not chasing scores but an engaged and productive workforce. The scores will reflect this.

Myth: Benchmark to understand against norms.

Reality: Benchmarking is fine, but your comparisons need to be meaningful.

Myth: The mere act of using data is strategic.

Reality: Using data should go further than the strategic bunker. Why not give everyone that power?

Myth: Survey tells us what to do next.

Reality: A survey does not tell you what to do next; the employee does. Make sure you are listening properly.

Breaking Down Silos

We are increasingly seeing VoC programs span across several departments within an organization. This is a significant evolution. For organizations that are still keeping the VoC program in a silo, a good next step is to move away from the traditional practice of customer experience sitting within a specific function and toward incorporating a position such as the chief customer officer.

In terms of employee engagement, ownership was historically seen to belong with the human resources department. Unfortunately, that view has meant that those not in HR see employee engagement as something outside of their concern–which could not be further from the truth, as ongoing research has revealed. For example, according to Gallup, only 13% of employees worldwide reported being involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace.

Imagine the impact on your business if this number was turned around: lower staff turnover, reduced recruitment costs, improved efficiences, and, most importantly, happier customers.

In order to drive improvement, it’s important to look at your own organization from the perspective of your employees. A 2012 employee engagement taskforce study, “Nailing the Evidence,” found a firm correlation between employee engagement and high organizational productivity and performance across all sectors of the economy. Companies in the top percentile of employee engagement had 40% lower turnover, 12% higher advocacy, and 18% higher productivity.

A standard (and, to be honest, outdated) practice in organizations is to run a client or customer survey one to two times a year, and the same for employees. In both cases, the findings are then assessed and turned into strategic process improvements. Oftentimes this practice resulted in no day-to-day tactical changes made by the frontline. It was all about upper and middle management.

In the new world of multichannel commerce, this method is too fragmented and complex. The ability to listen across every channel, every geographical location, and all key touchpoints is critical. Feedback needs to be captured in a way that makes the most sense to an organization and its customers. Then, all the data must be integrated with other sources of information that are key to a strong analysis, such as financial and HR data. Once this is complete, organizations will be able to drive action at every level.

The beauty of technology is that organizations can automate the process of knowledge sharing and insight to different stakeholders across the organization in a format that makes sense and helps users understand what they need to do to address problems.

So how do we accelerate the process of bringing these platforms together and developing a joint program? As we have already discussed, engaged individuals drive more profitable companies because employee engagement and customer advocacy tend to go hand-in-hand. Thus, organizations need to seek the customer experience from an employee perspective. Ask your team: What do you think customers would say about your service? The results are often fascinating. Organizations either see complete alignment, which adds a layer of confidence to the data, or, alternatively, organizations see a divergence, either because “we’re not as bad as we think we are” or “we’ve totally misjudged how good we are.”

Nevertheless, either of these outcomes are good early signs of future customer feedback. This can (and should) be a collaborative effort where those closest to the customer (frontline) and those closest to the boardroom get to work together, creating ownership and engagement.

To conclude, this evolutionary process can become an organization’s navigational system if used to its potential–revealing opportunities for improvement and innovation, and also becoming a strategic tool to ensure every interaction with the customer is as positive as possible.