The traditional customer retention ecosystem focuses on digital interconnections, SaaS and app technologies, brand loyalty programs, and more. The “more” includes a driving influence that stakeholders frequently underestimate – customer-facing employees.

This article will show that in the B2C marketplace, staff in technical support, live chat centers, after-sales service, in-store selling, accounting (for billing queries), and online or telephone sales cover several crucial touchpoints shaping the customer experience (CX). They can instantly kill or make a deal – create or dissolve customer loyalty.

The content will demonstrate how brand-loyal customers respond positively to employee enthusiasm, conviction, and positive feedback while emotionally disengaging when faced with negative body language and brand disconnection. So, read on to learn how and why your company’s efforts to establish employee loyalty will compellingly foster customer retention.

What do CX and EX have in common?

Employees and customers (the parties) share a similar journey within the company, traversing a series of touchpoints from onboarding (both parties) to voluntary or involuntary termination (employees) or brand abandonment (customers). Emotions and thoughts drive EX and CX, illuminating the parties’ journey from beginning to end. These include:

• Employee interactions with superiors, peers, and the corporate culture.
• Customers connecting to marketing, sales, services, and brand touchpoints.

Maintaining an immersive EX and CX is the open door to dual-party engagement – the gold standard of commitment being loyalty and retention in the workplace and marketplace. This brings us to the next critical juncture of our conversation: CX and EX interdependence and its consequences.

Customers come first! Or do they?

Actually, it’s not a race between employees and customers for company attention, but if there were, it’d be a tie. Why? A happy, productive, and satisfied team is the frontrunner in establishing the same with customers. Think of it another way; consider the consequences of allowing disgruntled, dissatisfied staff to deal with your consumers. Here are some mind-bending insights:

• In a 2022 report, Harvard Business Review discovered that customer-facing employees meeting only a handful of vital KPI engagement standards could accelerate revenues by 50%.
• Another HBR article cites a Glassdoor study showing a strong statistical link between reported employee-wellbeing and customer satisfaction.
• The same HBR article emphasizes that employee upliftment fuels customer engagement far more than the other way around.

For leaders across many organizations, the consensus is that employees add significant layers to loyalty programs, from marketing innovations to pain point insights. Engaged employee members provide a continuous connection to how well program structures work by pinpointing obstructive touchpoints before they gain traction and disrupt the objectives.

Is there an EX downside in creating a better CX?

One of the most concerning consequences of employee involvement in customer satisfaction initiatives arises from conflict of interest. Remember, employees are also customers and, as such, may have entry to loyalty program membership, immediately raising the question of rewards, winning contests, and an inside track to gaining extra points.

It boils down to the question of employees “gaming the system,” which, if it leaked out, would taint the purpose and image of integrity these programs strive to achieve. As a result, many companies exclude employees from loyalty program membership altogether or define strict rules by which they can participate. An open entry policy (employees and customers) must hold all members to the same terms and conditions with safeguards against the possibility of taking unfair advantage.

Employees who willingly enter a loyalty program on a level playing field emerge as exceptional advocates and customer engagement catalysts. Why?

• They get first-hand experience of:
  • Earning unique discounts.
  • Accessing exclusive brand events.
  • First dibs on brand introductions and freebies.
  • Benefiting from double and triple point allocations for specifically defined tasks and participations.
• It creates an infectious enthusiasm: For example, when customers hear staff saying, “You’ve just qualified for the same discount I get from the company,” it adds credibility and substance to the point allocations programs offer.
• Moreover, it opens a sense of sincerity that only comes from genuine employee loyalty, promoting program benefits on their terms, and, in the process, building customer confidence.

In short, when communicated outside traditional promotions, employee endorsement resonates as one of the highest possible influencer recommendations.

Focusing on the human connection

Undoubtedly, AI-driven SaaS and app tools have entered the communication mix, interfering with direct EX and CX interaction. Sophisticated technology makes the case for end-to-end virtual communication, which aims to facilitate a fully tech-guided customer journey without talking to a live person. Of course, it’s a viable possibility in many situations (e.g., mobile ordering), successfully removing CX from human interaction.

Still, high-tech configurations miss vital ingredients such as empathy, encouragement, kindness, enthusiasm, and addressing reservations when most needed. Without these qualities, customers are unlikely to connect engagingly to the brand culture or gain a sense of belonging to an exclusive club that provides unorthodox and unique solutions. Expecting inspirational technology to fill these “human-centric gaps” is a step too far. EQ, emotional intelligence, is critical to delivering exceptional HX, human experience.

Encouraging team involvement in the loyalty programs introduces a deeper appreciation of securing customer engagement by conveying first-class experiences at critical CX touchpoints. It adds dimensions to strategies technology can never achieve. For example, it creates first-hand, direct insights into:

• Loyalty program leadership
• The KPIs signifying success or failure
• The effort behind creating sign-ups
• Points allocation around various activities
• Converting points into rewards

In summary, employee inclusion is the energizer loyalty programs require. It’s so vital your success depends on it. Simultaneously, it accelerates employee loyalty, work ethic, productivity, and enhanced customer service.

How can you build an EX that works to improve CX?

Firstly, stakeholders must cover fundamental employee engagement drivers (such as fair compensation, healthcare, remote work accommodations, constructive job descriptions and reviews, etc.) before higher EX initiatives can work in the company’s favor. Once the basics are in place, the following tactics can make a massive loyalty program impact:

1. Focus on loyalty program training: Create a resource pool that revolves around how employees can contribute to improved CX touchpoints and, by doing so, simultaneously enrich EX. In other words, it’s not a collision course but a mutually beneficial and engaging one.
2. Encourage employees to be proactive, freely contributing ideas and suggestions for improving loyalty programs and erasing obstructive touchpoints getting in the way.
3. Recognize your employees by adopting their ideas and involving them in the initiation while communicating these contribution values to the rest of the team.

Measuring Employee Engagement KPIs

Brands that include employee engagement in their loyalty programs must install data analytics and KPIs to track the impact on ROI and customer engagement. There’s no better indication of success than irrefutable signals confirming it. Consider the following as the most revealing and insightful loyalty program metrics:

• Monthly membership enrollment rate
• Monthly churn rate
• Customer retention rate relative to monthly enrollment and churn
• Profit margin changes relative to monthly enrollment and churn
• Growth or decline in revenue per client
• Pulse survey results taken after loyalty program events or special deals, including NPS and CSAT scores
• Profit margins
• Client retention rate

How does all this circle back to employee engagement? As mentioned above, it provides the foundation for better results, raising the critical metrics to acceptable levels. So, stakeholders with the vision to reward employees as the KPIs rise to greater heights create even more commitment and participation in brand loyalty success.

As a result, one will discover that the employees involved monitor the metrics more closely than management, inserting themselves emphatically into the process. It’s a surefire way to participate in loyalty initiatives without coercing or forcing the issues. Thus, when thinking about their own advancement and welfare in the company, engaged employees simultaneously ask, ‘What’s in it for this customer.’”

Who created the churn?

Companies that fail to cover the influence of employee engagement on CX loyalty and retention will forever remain guessing who’s at the root of disappointing results. While some key drivers can be predicted, others can come out of nowhere.

For example, was it a rude customer support agent, an impatient in-store salesperson, an untrained live chat consultant, or a lax distribution manager creating unnecessary angst? Employee disengagement creates all kinds of undesirable touchpoints that ultimately knock holes in one’s customer loyalty intentions.

• The EX impact on CX in modern times integrates with buyers, sales, marketing, HR, engineers, finance departments, transport, warehousing, and legal stirring the pot.
• Everyone should be on the same page – to consolidate and accelerate customer engagement – in a networking process that requires knowledgeable, customer-centric, and motivated participants.
• Conversely, dissatisfied staff send things in the opposite direction, cratering loyalty program objectives.

Conclusion

Employee engagement benchmarks are vital customer loyalty indicators. There’s little tolerance for disenfranchised customer-facing staff in marketplaces where a single obstructive touchpoint can derail an entire brand loyalty strategy. In other words, the “domino effect” of neglecting staff involvement can strike a devastating blow, negatively impacting retention and profitability.

So, ensure your KPIs cover the arena from corner to corner of employee satisfaction and its connection to customer loyalty.

Ready to learn more? Sogolytics will help you better understand your CX/EX integration with a comprehensive array of interactive surveys, insightful analytics, and proven techniques. Sogo’s experienced team will help you interpret and act on the metrics, showing you the difference between success and failure.

Contact us today for a free consultation and demo!