The Effects of Your Employees on Your Bottom Line

I've always enjoyed visiting my favorite small business. It's that Cheers kind of feeling, where "everybody knows your name." I walk in and the employees are sociable, friendly, helpful, and truly glad I came. It's this neighborly manner that differentiates small businesses from the big guys, and helps win loyal, repeat customers like me.

There is plenty of research that shows it's the customer experience your employees provide that has a major impact on your bottom line. According to RightNow's third annual Customer Experience Impact Report, published in 2008:

• When recommending a business, outstanding customer service is more important (58%) than low prices (44%) and top quality products/services (43%).
• 58% of U.S. consumers said that in a down economy, they will always or often pay more for a better customer experience.
• 87% of consumers have stopped engaging with a business due to poor customer service, up from 68 percent in 2006.
• 84% of consumers indicated they would tell others about a bad experience — up from 74% in 2007 and 67% in 2006.

To get repeat customers that spend more and bring in new customers, it's crucial to keep in tune with your employees. While the day-to-day interactions you already do are important, that doesn't give you a true view of what your employees are really thinking. There are often things that may bother employees and their perception is that you won't want to hear about them or they don't feel comfortable sharing. It's these underlying issues that can leave your customers disappointed with their visit and make them not want to come back.

Keep the pulse of your customer-facing employees by regularly enabling them to give you anonymous feedback. Make it easy for your team (and you) by creating an online survey. Put a link to this online survey on your website, on your intranet, in an internal newsletter, or in a weekly email. It's this easy:

Step 1: Ask the right questions. Here are some examples of key questions to include in your employee satisfaction survey.
Step 2: Keep it anonymous. Here is how to do that.
Step 3: Keep employees in the loop by sharing what you're learning from their feedback and telling them what you're going to do with that information.
Step 4: Have happy, loyal employees who will, in turn, have your customers walking away with a positive customer experience that will keep them coming back again and telling others about you.

Questions? Click the comment link below. Until next time, happy growing!