The Hidden Power of Your Customers: Four Keys to Growing Your Business Through Existing Customers

ENGAGED EMPLOYEES EQUAL ENGAGED CUSTOMERS

What do you do to keep your employees happy, especially those who interface directly with customers? They may have the hardest jobs in the company, dealing with customer complaints day after day—and this is the part of an organization that most customers touch. A company can help orchestrate the best experience for its customers by first taking care of its employee experience.

“Marketing” to Employees

“Think about it,” says Stershic, “most products and services can easily become commoditized, but competitors cannot duplicate the relationship an organization's employees have with its customers.” Never forget, your customer-facing employees are the company to the customer, so a focus on internal marketing will ultimately help motivate employee engagement. Letting your employees know they matter to the company will go a long way toward making them feel they are part of something bigger.

And internal marketing shouldn't be executed solely by the marketing department! Human resources, marketing, and management teams should work together, in a strategic “blend,” to ensure that employees have the resources they need to successfully serve the customer. The objective should be to help employees connect to the customer—and to each other.

Making Employee-to-Customer Connections

For employees to truly appreciate how important it is to serve customers well, they first need to know who those customers are and what they need. These are crucial factors ...