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There are fewer guarantees successful business, but this 1 is certain: If you don't support customers, you won't person a business for long. Yet, astatine a clip erstwhile astir companies are desperately trying to maintain customer loyalty (retention is more profitable than acquisition, aft all), there's often a missing nexus successful their efforts: Understanding nan powerful relationship betwixt customer satisfaction and employee engagement — and really to unlock it.
As a Chief People Officer presently overseeing my company's customer organization, I've seen first-hand really connected they genuinely are. At its astir basic, losing customers tin person a nonstop effect connected worker morale and moreover lead to regrettable talent turnover. But there's much nuance to this connection: nearly everything labor do has nan imaginable to profoundly effect customers. In turn, customer feedback and outcomes tin person a powerful effect connected an employee's consciousness of purpose, accomplishment and satisfaction.
Related: 7 Surefire Ways to Turn Your Low Customer Retention Rates Around
I've witnessed really establishing a customer-centric approach crossed nan full statement tin lead to growth opportunities that use some labor and customers. But to get there, businesses request to leverage that relationship by making customer occurrence nan forefront of each employee's experience. Here's how.
Make customer occurrence everyone's work
Most companies return a siloed attack to customer success, relegating it to a azygous department, while others stay mostly insulated from customer interaction. But I've travel to recognize that nan much we empower all of our cross-functional teams to lend to customer success, nan much purposeful, impactful and engaging their roles become, and nan much they tin thrust customer loyalty and retention.
For a much holistic approach, I americium a instrumentality of nan bowtie model. In opposition to nan accepted trading funnel, which ends erstwhile a customer converts, nan bowtie provides a much end-to-end practice of nan customer journey. It's a amended measurement to guarantee everyone successful nan institution is maximizing engagement pinch nan customer complete nan agelong word — whether done strategical ongoing connection and trading efforts aliases much integrated processes and practices designed to deepen this relationship.
One measurement we do this astatine my institution is by encouraging each section to measure each task — and each inquire — from nan position of really it benefits nan customer. Whether it's marketing, sales, merchandise aliases engineering, this select is applied to each decision-making. Of course, we besides look to metrics for illustration Customer Satisfaction Score, customer retention, and gross description pinch existing customers to guarantee our efforts construe into results.
Supercharge customer touchpoints
I precocious traveled overseas to meet pinch a customer, and arsenic I was leaving, their CFO turned to maine and said thing I'll ne'er forget: "Don't get maine fired." It's a powerful reminder that our position connected customer occurrence must beryllium broader than conscionable ensuring merchandise integration aliases stability. Everything we do has a ripple effect connected their company's success, which tin effect their individual reputation, too.
The conception of radical empathy isn't caller successful customer service. Cultivating a deeper knowing of customer needs is important for effective merchandise development, trading and sales, but it tin easy get mislaid erstwhile a customer is onboarded. Building much proactive touchpoints pinch customers —and moreover baking them into nan early stages of product development — tin thief flooded this oversight.
For us, that intends attending manufacture events and building retired strategical channels and information-sharing communities to amended understand their sticking points. We've besides established customer segments and verticals to place and interact pinch nan unsocial needs of different types of customers to present a personalized work approach. When we understand really customers are utilizing our merchandise — and peculiarly their symptom points — we tin amended target everything from our trading and income campaigns to each product-focused initiatives
Everyone successful our statement knows customer retention is simply a squad sport. Reaching retired to customers to thief lick merchandise issues aliases erstwhile launching thing caller is not only imaginable but preferable. That's precisely why we launched a customer retention program that treats formation risks arsenic a pipeline and leverages tightly coordinated collaboration crossed departments to present effect to those customers.
Most importantly, these predominant and proactive touchpoints besides let america to study what is moving for our customers, which we've seen beryllium a powerful motivator for our team.
Related: 3 Ways Founders Can Connect With Their Customers to Drive Sales
Don't place nan nexus betwixt worker acquisition and customer experience
Being connected nan receiving extremity of an exceptional customer acquisition tin radically displacement nan measurement we comprehend a business. It turns retired that erstwhile an worker has a manus successful making that happen, it tin beryllium conscionable arsenic impactful for them.
This shouldn't travel arsenic a surprise: today's employees are looking for intent successful their work. Who doesn't want to make a quality successful nan lives of others? Connecting this desire to customer occurrence initiatives only makes consciousness — it improves nan expertise to present connected customer promises and makes nan workplace much satisfying for all.
And I judge organizations tin return this relationship a measurement further: pouring nan aforesaid power into worker acquisition that they do successful fulfilling customers. In 1 of my erstwhile roles, we would actively measurement customer retention against worker retention and recovered a beardown relationship betwixt nan two. These results were absorbing but not shocking: prioritizing worker acquisition leads to much engaged employees, who, successful turn, are motivated to create amended customer experiences. Simply put, boosting restitution successful 1 campy can efficaciously raise retention and productivity levels for both.
Of course, this equilibrium isn't ever easy to get right. But successful my experience, incremental improvements are what adhd up complete time. Starting mini is amended than not astatine all. At nan extremity of nan day, nan much your labor know, understand and attraction astir your customers, nan amended they'll service them (and nan much they'll bask nan results) — sloppy of nan domiciled they are in. And that's a existent win-win for nan bottommost line.