When your employees love your business, they’ll love your customers

By Isabelle Harris

Customer experience is at the front of every organisation’s mind; from small businesses that work intimately with customers to large organisations that have hundreds of clients. It’s integral to driving business development and engagement.

Among CX professionals, the connection between employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) is being viewed as increasingly vital. And to deliver a truly exceptional customer experience, companies must ensure their employees are passionate about their mission and well supported in the workplace.

Meeting the needs of customers

In this age of technology and particularly in the aftermath of COVID-19, today’s customers are demanding more. Naturally, organisations have to rise up and meet these expectations. For savvy organisations, this is where cultivating strong EX is key. Employees that are nurtured and valued at work inherently perform better, which in turn encourages them to go above and beyond for their clients. Lisa Dowie, Chief Customer Officer at PEXA, speaking at a recent CXFocus event, shared that employee experience needs to respect everything from individual differences and home lives to mindsets and capabilities.

“Just like we segment customers, we need to do the same with employees to ensure we are addressing their needs, attitudes and behaviours. “The pandemic reminded us and illuminated that work is not a place we go, but something that we do. If our customers are the heart of our business, it’s our employees that make that heart beat,” she said.

Putting the spotlight on EX

In sharing these insights, Lisa also explained that while PEXA’s digital business remained open through lockdowns, maintaining existing employee support networks meant customer commitment never waned.

“Supporting our employees was key in empowering them to play their part in supporting our customers, and indeed the property industry. “We understood early on in our journey that to attract customers and build long-term loyalty, we needed to create a culture where we put our employees first. Enduring COVID-19 only served to reinforce this belief.”

Customer and employee experience connection insights are rapidly progressing and will likely be integrated in more organisations as the pursuit of true customer centricity continues.

Successful organisations will have to nail EX to enhance CX, particularly in our new post-COVID setting as both experiences have been profoundly changed and are unlikely to ever be the same.