How Employee Satisfaction Drives Customer Satisfaction

Measuring the satisfaction of both a company’s employees and its customers reveals a direct correlation between the two and should therefore be managed carefully.

Forbes has referred to employee engagement as “the wonder drug for customer satisfaction.”

Foresee, a customer-service analytics firm, echoed this sentiment with findings from its study to see how employee satisfaction contributes to customer satisfaction, also called symetry of attention. The firm issued two surveys, one to employees and the other to customers from two dozen global businesses including consistently high-ranking companies like Ann Taylor, Apple, and Costco.  

After comparing and contrasting the results, Foresee found that businesses that scored high in both surveys reaped the most rewards. A company with a high level of employee satisfaction proved to have a direct and positive influence on customer satisfaction. If employees felt engaged, trusted and empowered to deliver strong customer service, that is exactly what they did.

Likewise, if employees didn’t trust their company, or felt like the company didn’t trust them, they were less likely to feel motivated to help a business meet its customer service objectives.

Employee’s satisfaction global influence

Foresee’s findings suggest that employee loyalty and commitment influence customer satisfaction, further supported by a Gallup survey of nearly 50,000 employees at various worldwide companies.

The Gallup survey even took the research a step further, demonstrating how employee satisfaction resulted in higher profits.

Foresee and Gallup’s research both highlight how a satisfied employee will likely:

• Help a company develop a positive, friendly reputation, a reputation which will spread and attract new customers.
• Retain customers since satisfied employees are more likely to meet or even exceed customer service expectations.
• Reduce churn as customers who repeatedly receive the same friendly service are likely to become or remain loyal customers. 

We have mentioned before how important customer satisfaction is, so if you feel like you are doing everything right without the expected results, perhaps your employees’ happiness and involvement is the missing piece to the puzzle of success.

A business’s efforts can so easily be ruined by a general bad social climat within the company, you need to insure everything is going okay from within by defining a fine-tuned strategy.

Employee engagement is key to sustainable success

The Foresee study suggests that if employees don’t feel committed to fostering the company’s mission, they will do little to contribute to a company’s success. Lack of personal or professional satisfaction with an employer will result in lack of incentive to help the company present itself in the best possible manner

The research suggests that if a company wants to ensure customers receive superior service, it must foremost provide a high level of service to employees and empower them.  

Employee satisfaction and engagement must be built into a business’s culture, you need to make sure they are being customer-centric in every aspect of their professional behavior and work.

Managers must actively work to create an environment in which employees feel committed and recognized for their efforts to help a company meets its goals.

In fact, a company that is, or would like to be, deeply committed to customer satisfaction would benefit from extending the same courtesies to its employees:

• Make trust and loyalty an ongoing top priority.
• Clearly and consistently articulate its commitment to making employees feel valued.
• Recognize that high levels of turnover will have a debilitating financial impact on the company (hiring expenses, training labor, productivity loss, etc.).

Keep in mind you are on the same journey with your employees and by creating a good working environement, you will diminish employee stress levels, developp a team working spirit but also autonomy and many other positive impacts.

Employee Satisfaction Survey is a perfect tool

The best way to improve employee satisfaction and engagement is through communication, you need to understand what your employees expect and need from you, but also what their concerns are, how attached they are to the company or not and why so. The same way you seek knowledge of your customers, you should seek knowledge of your employees, because they are the ones that will have the most direct impact on your customers.

An employee satisfaction survey, for example, can communicate to employees that a company cares and wants to help them perform as well as possible their job duties.

Here are some general questions which might be worth asking:

• Do employees understand the company’s mission? Its long-term vision?
• Do they feel recognized by their superiors? Are their contributions valued?
• Do they trust the people they work with and for? Do they feel colleagues and management are committed to helping them succeed?
• Does their work provide them with a sense of accomplishment?   

Ask them the right questions, analyse the data and share its outcomes, then take the necessary steps to improve employee satisfaction.

While measuring customer satisfaction is, undoubtedly a priority, so is measuring employee satisfaction. This data could strengthen the backbone of internal operations: nurturing highly engaged employees, will lead to more efficient business performance which can only result in improved customer satisfaction.