Is there a correlation between fostering a positive EX and achieving a great CX?
Research says yes. A report from Qualtrics XM Institute (formerly the Temkin Group) says companies that excel at customer experience typically have more engaged employees.
Here’s why EX and CX are interlinked and how a properly executed digital communication strategy will put you on the path to achieving both.
The idea that a positive employee experience feeds into a good customer experience makes a great deal of sense.
Every role in an organisation, no matter how many times removed from dealing with customers, has an impact on CX. Whether they’re customer-facing representatives, office managers, designers, or developers - a better employee experience will result in more engaged workers.
And, when people are engaged with their job, they put more care and effort into everything they do. As Richard Branson famously said, “I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers...”
But a positive employee experience doesn’t just lead to better customer experience. It also mirrors it, as many of the same fundamentals apply to both when it comes to building solid relationships.
Communication, for example, plays a major role in how both employees and customers feel about the organisation.
Relationships can’t be built in silence.
Customer communication needs to be proactively planned by the organisation in order to create the best possible experience across all customer journeys. It is not possible to build a successful relationship if the only communication a customer receives is their monthly bill.
Similarly, engaged employees are ones who feel like they have a relationship with the organisation they work for. A recent research paper by Gallup identifies company-wide communication as one of the four things that companies who have the highest levels of employee engagement get right.
But, as is the case with customers, employee communication has to be relevant, delivered at the right time, and using the employee’s preferred channel. Additionally, employee communication needs to encourage dialogue, by enabling employees to provide immediate feedback.
Far from seeing EX as something separate to CX, organisations should always view the two as complementary.
And by drawing on the same practices which have a proven positive impact on CX, especially when it comes to digital communication, organisations can boost their overall EX. This, in turn, will positively affect customers, bringing with it the attendant increases in engagement and loyalty.
Any organisation that really cares about customer experience needs to really invest in employee experience or risk being overtaken by competitors who have already realized the importance of the strong relationship between the two.
