The Power of First-Hand Employee Knowledge

This post was written by James Bolle, VP Head of Client Services EMEA

There are many factors that go into making a customer’s overall experience a great one, but the impact of your employees might well be the biggest.

Employees are the face of your businesses and must play an important role in any CX programme. The widely accepted model “Value Profit Chain” states that if you have happy employees, you have happy customers.

However there are now many different variables that impact on this process. Customer experience will affect employee experience and vice versa. In order to understand your customers’ experiences you first need to understand your employees’ experiences.

This year’s EMEA Customer Experience Elevated conference (CXE17) highlighted the importance of employee engagement, and the huge part it plays in the CX journey. We welcomed CX experts from across the globe including Revolution Bars Group, and Tiffany & Co. Whilst each is a very different business, engaging employees was the unifying factor in all their presentations.

Employees are impacted every day by customers. They are the primary representatives of an organisation; they know what happens “behind the scenes” and can offer significant insights into what may be creating and impacting the customer experience. It is imperative companies listen to them and when they do so, they often find more specific and relevant insights to improve their business.

Revolution Bars Group told us at CXE17 that their core message is “to deliver an amazing customer experience every time.” Pearl-Plaza worked with Revolution to help the business review the entire perspective of their customer experience and listen to multiple stakeholders, not just customers, to gain a much greater understanding of the overall customer journey. Revolution introduced Pearl-Plaza’s Voice of Employee (VoE) programme alongside Pearl-Plaza’s Active Listening to collect data from both employees and customers to develop a holistic understanding of the customer experience.

The data collected from employees as well as customers has meant Revolution has been able to make changes to its business and has seen marked improvements in its customer experience due to the direct correlation between the employee experience and customer experience.

Revolution’s use of VoE is a clear example of how tapping into employee feedback on the customer experience can have a direct impact on your business.

Employees provide brands with actionable, success-driving insights – they should be considered a key part of the CX mix.