ABSTRACT
If the kitchen where the “soup” is made is a miserable work environment, then it’s likely the tears of your employees are going to make their way into that soup. Customers are going to be able to taste those tears! The way employees feel at work has an immense impact on the experience of your customers. The reason is twofold. First, really bad things happen to your company when employees don’t feel engaged at work. When the people who are building your products and services every day stop caring about the quality of the product, the quality inevitably suffers. It’s possible to draw a correlation between low levels of global employee engagement and the state of customer experience. In 2016, Gallup reported that only 32 percent of employees in the United States were engaged-that means they are “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace.” Worldwide, that number drops to a shocking 13 percent. 1
The second reason happiness levels affect customer experience is more obvious. If a frontline employee hates his job, he’s certainly not going to refl ect a positive attitude to the customers he is serving. Most of us have been served by a grumpy frontline worker, whether it’s a salesperson, an agent (on the phone or in person), or even a health care employee like a nurse or doctor. If an individual isn’t happy at work, he’s probably not going to smile at the customer, go the extra mile for the customer, and or be empathetic toward the customer. We’re all human. We all understand what it feels like to have a bad day, but when all the company’s employees appear
to be having bad days all the time, one has to wonder what’s going on in that company. On the other hand, happy employees have more energy for customers. They smile easily, are sociable, and are more prone to be empathetic to the customer.
