Want Engaged Customers? Then Engage Your Employees!

In today’s challenging economy, companies must deliver a truly compelling and differentiated customer experience if they are to survive and thrive. Indeed, most companies understand that they need to actively engage their customers to build loyalty, deepen relationships, and gain access to insights that inspire future actions.

While companies have had “close to the customer” initiatives for years, it is increasingly clear that true customer engagement depends on the simultaneous engagement of employees. In fact, research from ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) reveals that 83 percent of managers consider engaged employees a critical factor in attracting and retaining customers.

The reality of the workplace, however, is quite different. Only 21 percent of employees are fully engaged, according to research by Towers Perrin. Thus, while organizations need engaged employees to engage customers, organizations are not rising to meet this challenge or taking the steps needed to engage employees.

This creates a significant challenge for all organizations, particularly as an uncertain economy has forced them to make moraledraining cutbacks. To continually excel and win, organizations must accept that engaged customers are necessary but not sufficient to create success, and must work simultaneously to actively engage both customers and employees. The critical question is not whether there is a link between employee and customer engagement, but what to do about it. Click here to read on.