Engaging Employees to “Engage Customers”

Date: 21/11/2010

Engaging employees may seem like a tall order for any employer, particularly in a time of necessary cost cutting, but there are steps that can be taken that really don’t cost that much. “Developing new skills” and “feeling you are making a difference” are usually high on a person’s wish list of what makes them happy at work. De Vere & Co’s training modules will help people develop new skills and hone existing skills, but have also been designed by and are delivered by trainers committed to helping people see the value of their roles in the bigger picture, and consequently helping them to feel that they can make a difference. So, what do we mean by “engaging employees” and why should we care about doing it?

Theodore Levitt (1925-2006) was an American economist and professor at Harvard Business School. He wrote about the need to “engage customers” so that loyalty can be built and “deep relationships” formed with new and existing customers. Providing products and services that only meet customer expectations, according to Levitt, was not going to engage them. Instead, he suggested a business must deliver a “Potential Offering”, described as “features, capabilities, and characteristics that meet unspoken or unanticipated customer needs that even the customer might not be aware of”.

Tom Roth, President of Global Solutions Group for Wilson Learning Worldwide believes that the engagement of customers can only be achieved by engaged employees: this means employees who are “committed, enthusiastic, and motivated to provide the interactions and experiences that keep customers close”.

A defining feature of an engaged customer might be the customer seeing themselves as extensions of the supplier’s organisation. To do this they would need to have consistently positive experiences of the organisation’s products, processes and relationships with its staff. Similarly an engaged employee (capable of engaging customers) would be loyal and committed to the organisation and its vision, and also willing to commit their full energy to their work.

Employees benefit from knowing the impact of products, processes, and customer relationships and how they contribute to the customer’s sense of engagement. Building customer relationships involves being courteous, but also creating a sense of trust and confidence in your organisation. Excellent products, services and processes are essential to the mix, but customer facing employees need to be empowered to solve problems quickly and use creative thinking to add value themselves. This then gives a personal experience to the customer.

A key ingredient in nurturing engaged employees is the quality of their leaders. A recent survey by Wilson Learning Worldwide questioned 1,500 employees across a number of organisations in the USA about what would influence their level of engagement. The most frequent responses included: working in an organisation with a clear sense of opportunity: being clear of what is expected of me: feeling informed and included: having a manager who takes a personal interest in me, and provides opportunities for me to develop new skills: having a manager who provides a positive leadership example and that I can trust.

Management and leadership styles need to be in sync with an organisation’s culture, and for the requisite leadership style for creating engaged employees the culture will need to be one where employees are: informed: involved and valued: personally accountability: encouraged to give their best: and supported by their colleagues and managers.

Rachel Illidge, Risk & Fraud Education Manager, De Vere & Co