As employees and their behaviour are at the centre of business success (or failure), employee engagement is, more than ever, critical in every company.
The right customer experience is through your staff. Engaged employees deliver better performance, which is critical for business success. They understand their role in the business strategy, have a strong connection and commitment to the company, are more involved, and strive to go above and beyond in their jobs.
We spend lots and lots of time considering our brand messaging, and we even spend a lot of time teaching our brand stewards (our front line employees, in particular) how to message our brand.
But how much time do we spend ensuring our employees have the tools and the environment they need to effectively deliver our brand promises (as well as the actual desire to deliver the brand promises)?
Over the past three months marcusbrewster has worked hard at morphing the business to offer a more holistic service that includes managed communication services on all levels. This means we need to maximize our internal communication more than ever, ensuring that each staff member’s maximum potential is reached with an unequalled
You can’t expect business success without investing in your employees and listening to their needs. Ensuring that employees invest effort in the right behaviours will be critical in delivering the business results needed in conditions of recession, stagnation, or rapid growth.
For this to happen a strong company culture with service as a value needs to be developed and nurtured through a proactive and strategically thought through internal communications programme.
Employees shape the experience a customer has with your company each time they have contact, making employees the most memorable voice of your brand, as they constitute the actual brand experience. It’s people who ultimately deliver your brand promise. It does not make a difference what you tell your customers about your brand if those who actually encounter the customer don’t deliver the values consistently.
Case studies and company profiles repeatedly show that for employees to provide not just good customer service—but great customer service—they must first be driven by loyalty and enthusiasm from their employer.
In other words, you can’t force devotion or commitment on your employees, but you can foster it by creating a culture that invites pride and ownership in the job and company. Internal communications is the key to fostering success in this drive.”
When managers communicate effectively business outcomes improve. It also has an impact on employee behaviour. Each business has its own unique needs and culture. Firms that communicate effectively are four times more likely to report high levels of employee engagement and satisfaction. Top performing companies treat communication as a key business driver.
The bottom line is that employee engagement matters—now more than ever
Ingrid Lotze is Johannesburg MD of marcusbrewster.
