Unidirectional and top down models for customer and employee engagement are not working.
Digital has upended the way companies must engage with customers. Customers, who in the past were passive receivers of commercials and jingles, are now active participants in conversations that hold brands accountable to being authentic and share their best and worst customer experiences.
This shift does not stop with the customer. Now companies must also provide employees with ways to share knowledge and support the type of immersive interactions they want to bring customers.
In my last post, we explored why employee engagement is essential to the success of your digital customer experiences. These front-line representatives of your brand connect with customers in-store, online, over the phone, and through mobile channels. The more passionate they are about what they are doing, the better they will communicate your brand culture. Employees can often share the benefits of your products or services in a personal, relatable, and memorable way than even the best copy and advertising. But the question remains: How do you effectively engage your employees, creating loyal brand advocates who know how to meaningfully relate with customers?
Characteristics of the Engaged Employee
Employee engagement goes beyond keeping employees happy, to motivating them to work passionately and productively. The end goal of your engagement techniques is to reach the end users: your customers, visitors, subscribers or clients. Casual Friday and free lunches may keep employees happy to show up at work, but it’s not enough to drive sincere and advantageous customer interactions. To reach your visitors, subscribers and customers, employees must believe in your business mission and know they are an important part of your brand.
An engaged employee uses what Kevin Cruse calls “discretionary effort.” They care about and personally identify with your business goals. They work overtime when deadlines are looming; they are attentive to details, going out of their way to take care of things no one has asked them to do; they take initiative; and they maintain open, productive communication with higher ups. This type of true engagement leads to as much as 6 percent higher net profit margins, and high levels of engagement have been tied to improved stock market performance and shareholder returns.
What Digital Makes Possible
Build Employee Communities for Knowledge Sharing
Although digital has forever upended the brand-to-customer relationship (including the one your customers have with your employees) digital can also be the key to a more engaged employee. Intranets that are personalized and socially enabled can’t replace having a great work culture and authentic mission, but digital employee engagement can help you share brand values more directly with employees.
Employee engagement goes beyond interaction between the brand and employee, and includes employee-to-employee connections. As employees begin to form their own dynamic culture and communications, they will share knowledge and sharpen one another. Smarter, more in-tune employees are critical in today’s era of smart consumers. If the employee doesn’t have the same information that has drawn the customer in thus far, the customer will be confused and disillusioned with the interaction. On the other hand, if your employee has all the information and more, they can further the customer journey with useful insights and solutions.
Employees can access company materials and content through a mobile app, e-learning modules, social forums, and more. Put on your digital marketing hat and reach out to employees with targeted content marketing that is flexible and adaptable enough to reach them across different locations, channels, and roles. The same tactics you use to create epic customer experiences can be applied to creating engaging employee experiences.
Engage Employees to Tell the Brand Story. . . as It Evolves
Just as customers flock to brands that are authentic, employees want to work for companies that communicate openly. Employees want to feel included in organizational change and growth. They don’t want surprises that make them feel like an afterthought in corporate decision making. This can be more challenging in the digital age because information moves lightning fast and is difficult to contain. If they’re let in on your strategies and breaking news first, they will feel valued and respected, and motivated to take a more proactive role in the company’s success.
Use engaging, multimedia content, like a video message from the CEO, to speak personally to employees. And if you’re a large organization and don’t want to inundate people with every memo, make sure employees receive the most relevant information by segmenting your workforce according to roles and responsibilities.
Just be sure to communicate with employees in real time before information leaks. Update them using the same targeted personalization you use online and in mobile apps to speak to customers. Only make sure you tell them before news reaches the outside world. You can then engage employees to share the most current information through social channels, empowering them to be the messengers of exciting news.
Welcome Employee Ratings and Reviews
Today’s digital tools and technology make it easier than ever to solicit upward feedback and peer reviews from your employees. Just as people routinely leave ratings and reviews for restaurants, products, services, and experiences, your employees can give valuable opinions on their company’s latest marketing campaign, social content, or customer outreach efforts.
If you already gather and analyze customer data, why not apply similar techniques to collect and examine employee data? Create a platform for ongoing feedback, self-ratings, peer review, manager assessments, and customer interaction stories. Front-line employees can share their best and worst experiences in customer engagement across various channels to help you craft some tried-and-true best practices, and ultimately make your brand persona more consistent and trusted.
Another benefit of giving employees a safe, shared, transparent place to voice their questions and lessons learned is that personalized training and guidance can take place, and be well received. Make employees understand they are an integral part of your brand, and have direct superiors set standards and goals around digital customer engagement. It will impact your digital presence as employees become more engaged in lifting your brand on their own social platforms and participating in social campaigns and mobile utilities.
Engage Employees to Engage Customers
Today’s workforce overwhelmingly values openness, transparency, and inclusion. And they are writing internal blogs, editing wikis, and participating in corporate social networks. What’s in it for employers? Workers who feel “highly included” have been shown to work 80 percent harder than workers who don’t.
Employee engagement can be as crucial as customer engagement. Make employees feel heard, valued, and important. Challenging employees to have and share insight fosters a sense of commitment to and ownership of a company. It’s an empowering strategy for tying employees more meaningfully to your bottom line.
The post 3 Ways Digital Is Shifting How Brands Need to Engage with Employees appeared first on Digital Marketing Blog by Adobe.