Rising customer expectations are beginning to drive a new employee experience economy. Emails from executive leadership saying that the business is “all about the people” is not going to cut it in an age where tech talent is in short supply. Looking after employee talent so that they look after the customers has become an even bigger priority for businesses. These changes are ushering in new corporate strategies for improving employee experience and increasing productivity.
Understanding the Connection Between Employee and Customer Experience
A recent CIO article provided five useful strategies for improving the employee experience. The use of technology was listed as a key opportunity:
“The explosion of AI and machine learning, chatbots, automated self-service, and similar technologies can do wonders to help your employee experience, but only if you leverage them within your organization…”
Unfortunately, using technology to improve the employee experience is simply not enough to reach your objective on its own. The secret to success is understanding how to leverage the most appropriate technology and use it the right way. While this may seem like it goes without saying, it is important to look at how technology is used as a stop-gap measure versus a strategic tool.
Podcast: Balancing Artificial Intelligence Gains with Employee Expectations
It’s also crucial to understand that when an organization takes this strategic approach, it will not only positively impact the experience of the employee, but also the customer too. To do otherwise risks negatively impacting the employee experience, but also customer experience, and ultimately the bottom line.
For example, get the balance wrong, and 69 percent of workers could waste up to 60 minutes every day. That’s 32 days a year! Many workers feel that navigating apps is more annoying than household chores, losing weight, and even paying bills. This then carries over into the way these employees treat other employees and also customers. A recent survey showed that 89% of employees agree that unhappiness at work is inevitably passed on to customers.
When a customer’s expectations fail to be met, it could trigger a desire to shift to a competitor. In fact, a recent survey found that, on average, customers dropped 4 brands last year after a bad customer service experience! Can this impact the bottom line? Absolutely.
Upon closer inspection, 74% of employees will be forced to continuously toggle between apps to resolve every customer issue. Many employees also believe that disjointed comms apps are negatively impacting both workflow and job satisfaction.
Finally, an unacceptable 89% feel that broken workflow and low job satisfaction are impacting the bottom line. But, it’s not technology or even applications that are to blame. It’s the disjointed approach that encourages information silos rather than removing them.
Rising to the Challenge in an Experience Age
Albert Einstein once said that “Problems cannot be solved with the same mindset that created them.” Rather than rushing into the next must-have solution, it’s important to understand the problem before going straight into solution mode. The ideal approach starts with understanding the delicate balance between additional functionality and too many applications to perform tasks.
That’s why we advocate a solution that brings together both employee and customer experience solutions. By combining feature sets, it could also provide an opportunity to reduce your bulging application stack. Then, this core functionality can be integrated with critical business apps. This solution reduces the number of apps used to perform tasks, limits friction points, and creates a more seamless user experience. By simplifying workflows and delivering a team collaboration method fit for a digital age, you can boost both employee and customer engagement.
It’s time to retire cumbersome processes and information silos once and for all. A combination of technology and the right tools will improve the employee experience, which in turn will increase customer satisfaction, and business profitability.
To learn more, read our ebook on overcoming the digital age disconnect.
Originally published Aug 09, 2019, updated Jan 30, 2023
