MC: 0:00

Experience Action. Let's stop just talking about customer experience, employee experience and the experience of leaders. Let's turn ideas into action. Your host, Jeannie Walters, is an award-winning customer experience expert, international keynote speaker and founder of Experience Investigators, a strategic consulting firm helping companies increase sales and customer retention through elevated customer experiences. Ready set action.

Jeannie Walters: 0:31

You know what. You all ask some really great questions that make me think, so I hope that this one makes you think too.

Listener Question: 0:42

Hi, Jeannie, my question for you is what do you think are the top three things that make for a good quality employee experience?

Jeannie Walters: 0:57

All right, here we go. So when we talk about experience, we are talking about all of the experience. It's not just customers, it's employees, it's partners, it's suppliers, it's basically everyone who interacts with our brand, and so this is such an important and powerful question, because employee experience absolutely drives success for customer experience. We cannot take those two things apart. They are completely connected. So when we talk about what makes a great employee experience, part of that is really taking that step back and thinking about what is it we really want to do here. So I'm going to give you three ideas that make a great customer and employee experience, but we're focusing on the employees today, so let's get started with why we're doing this.

Jeannie Walters: 1:55

You know, when we talk about employee experience, it's really important to mention that this is not just for human resources or learning and development. This is about everyone in the organization. This is about a business strategy that directly impacts the customer experience and bottom line results. When employees feel valued and aligned and empowered, that energy flows through how they treat customers, the ideas they have, the way they feel empowered to really look around and make real change. So here are the top three things I believe help your employees feel more empowered to deliver on that customer experience and to have a great experience themselves. So number one probably won't surprise you if you've listened for a while. Number one is purpose-driven culture, which is grounded in a clear mission. Now employees want more than just to be told what to do. We all have our to-do list, we all have our task list, but really, if we're just going through the motions, that doesn't really feel good after a while. What we want as humans, we want meaning, and so having that clearly defined customer experience mission statement that is socialized and communicated throughout your organization, that really gives employees something bigger than themselves to work toward, to aspire to. When employees understand how their daily work connects to the why of the organization and the why of what you deliver for customers, that's when you see them more engaged and committed and, frankly, their eyes light up.

Jeannie Walters: 3:42

We talk a lot about it's not just the products and services that you sell, it's what your customers do because of those products and services. Many of you are creating incredible experiences just by selling what you do. If you are selling a widget, what does that widget do for your customers? It might help them achieve a goal. It might help them feel more empowered or more energized or simply prouder of the work that they do. If you're in B2B, you might be helping other organizations succeed for their customers.

Jeannie Walters: 4:19

The list goes on and on, but when we understand the why, that makes everything else have more meaning. We owe that to our employees. That's why we always start with mindset. When we talk about the three big pillars of customer experience work being mindset, strategy and discipline we always start with mindset because that's where we get that alignment around the mission. Just as customers align with brands that align with their values, employees do the same thing. We want to work at places that align with our personal values, making sure that we can commit because we have a personal connection to it, and one of the best ways to attract those people is to have a CX mission statement that you can use in your job postings, in your interviewing, in your onboarding to make sure everybody understands this is the why of our organization on behalf of our customers. So make sure, if you have that CX mission statement, that you are socializing that throughout your organization, letting everybody know that they play a role in delivering on that mission. And if you don't have a CX mission statement yet, what are you waiting for? We have all the resources for you at experienceinvestigatorscom or, of course, you can invite us in and we'll help you.

Jeannie Walters: 5:37

So, number two there is clarity around success and, specifically, each employee's role in it. I have seen so many organizations that spend so much time asking their employees to track, to report, to make sure that we are, you know, getting that graph out there in the world. But when you ask them what does that do for the organization? They can't necessarily answer. And this is why it's not only important to have that mindset and clarify that with a mission, but we want to have a strategy, we want to have a real definition of success that will help us actually prioritize the right efforts, the right movements, the right people to make sure we can deliver on that. It's a lot easier to prioritize when you know where you're going. So employees thrive when they know what success looks like, not just for the customer or the employee, but for the team, for the company, for the entire organization. And we wanna make sure that we are not delivering inconsistent customer experiences because we have inconsistent or unclear internal expectations for our employees.

Jeannie Walters: 6:50

Employees need to know what it means to deliver a great experience. They need to know what are they held accountable for and there needs to be a universally understood alignment around the definition of success. We do that with a CX success statement or a more robust CX success blueprint, and really that's about defining where are we trying to go, how are we going to get there and what are the most important steps. That way people can see how they fit into that bigger picture. And then we also, of course, for the third piece. Here we need empowerment. Empowerment through support, tools, trust. We have to make sure that our employees know that we trust them to make the right decision because we know they have the tools to do that. If we don't have a CX mission statement, if we don't have a strategy, then we're asking every single employee to basically make a judgment call, and then they could get in trouble if they make the wrong judgment call. What does that mean? It means we have to have a universal way of looking at the world, and so that's why we can say this is our North Star.

Jeannie Walters: 7:59

Use the CX mission statement to make decisions, to feel empowered. Sometimes you have to decide how can we deliver for the customer in a way that lives up to our mission. Sometimes you have to also make trade-offs in your strategy. We can't always innovate all the time if we have customers who are unhappy with what we're offering today. We have to prioritize based on where we wanna go and what success looks like. So if we give them the tools, if we give them the training and support and coaching that they need in order to deliver, that they will feel more and more empowered. And they will not only feel empowered to serve the customer in the right way and to serve internal customers the right way, because that has an impact on the customer experience, but also to see when things maybe aren't working the way they should and make suggestions and fix things that are broken and pick up that piece of trash in the parking lot because they know that does not align with who they want to be.

Jeannie Walters: 9:03

This is where we get into the discipline of the day-to-day work. If we can provide the right tools, the right training, the right support, the right coaching, then we can move into a world where we are truly a customer-centric organization. We are thinking about the customer and the employee at every step of the journey. If we can have that alignment around the mindset, strategy and discipline, if we can reward people for doing the right thing, if we can help them to find success, that's what really creates a great employee experience. Now, yes, the perks, the benefits, the pay all of that has to do with the employee experience, and I don't want to act like it doesn't. What I'm saying is those are table stakes, but what we want to do is elevate. We want to elevate the employee experience. We want every single employee to understand that customer experience is everyone's business, no matter their title or their role, and when they deliver on behalf of that customer experience, amazing things happen. The meaning is connected and I don't think there's anything humans want more than that.

Jeannie Walters: 10:19

So, if you are curious, how are we doing here? I would encourage you, think about a cultural audit. Look around, ask yourselves if I asked a few people what is our customer experience mission, would they all say the same thing. If you don't have a defined strategy and goals, where are you going? And if you have not empowered other employees with the right tools, the right training, all of that, then it might be time to revisit. What are we saying is important here? Because it's not about tasks, it's about accomplishments, it's about results. So I encourage you to think about is our employee experience living up to the same mission, the same ideals, the same values that we want for our customer experience? And if there's misalignment there, you have some work to do. We have a course all about a customer experience culture. You can visit that on your own or you can join our membership to have access to on-demand courses, just like that. I would encourage you to look at cximembershipcom to see if that could help you build an incredible employee experience and the resulting great customer experience as well.

Jeannie Walters: 11:38

A thriving employee experience doesn't happen by accident, just like we talk about. We need to be proactive and intentional, we have to design, we have to make sure we're listening to our employees. All the best practices around customer experience we can apply to employee experience. So if you're not sure where to start, another idea, check out an employee journey map. You can actually map what is the experience like and find those places to look where you can improve. This is such a great question. We have resources for you at experienceinvestigatorscom and, of course, I want your follow-up questions. What did this lead you to think about? Ask me at askjeannievip and maybe your question will be on the Experience Action Podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I can't wait to talk to you again soon. To learn more about our strategic approach to experience, check out free resources at experienceinvestigatorscom where you can sign up for our newsletter, our Year of CX program and more, and please follow me, Jeannie Walters, on LinkedIn.