Meaningful customer engagement doesn’t happen in a bubble. It means building the type of customer relationships that lead to a deeper understanding of their needs and goals to attract, satisfy, and retain them.

A large part of this development falls on the shoulders of your employees. Naturally, this begs the question: what are you doing to build meaningful relationships with them?

Build Solid Relationships with Workers

According to these 2011 statistics about engaged employees:

• 70% of engaged employees indicate they have a good understanding of how to meet customer needs (Wright Management)
• 78% would recommend their company’s products of services (Gallup)
• 86% of engaged employees say they very often feel happy at work (Gallup)
• 75% of leaders have no engagement plan or strategy even though 90% say engagement impacts business success (ACCOR)

A large portion of the problem comes from the fact that although company leaders often realize there is a connection between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, they frequently focus more heavily on the customers, forgetting that the internal customer is as important.

Additionally, a vital element of any relationship is trust. In the 2010 Inc. article, “How to Build a Corporate Culture of Trust,” writer Lou Dubois offers four ways to measure the level of trust in your organization.

• Client focus. Help employees see that it is all about the customer, not profit.
• Collaborative. Demonstrate to customers that your goal is to work toward the best solution.
• Transparency. Make sure to keep the relationship “open and visible without hidden agendas.”
• Timeframe. Don’t focus only on the immediate sale. Think long-term relationship building.

Build Solid Relationships with Customers

Once every employee develops a good relationship with their internal customers, they will be better prepared to develop good relationships with their external customers. That’s when you can focus on the activities needed to further develop and strengthen your customer engagement.

The Inc. article, “The New Rules of Customer Engagement,” suggests customer engagement:

• Is an ongoing dialog
• Needs to have a purpose or goal
• Happens 24/7
• Is mutually beneficial
• Is driven by the customer

When you put control in their hands, you’re more likely to be able to meet their needs, but you also win their trust, and ultimately, you build the loyal customer base you need to grow and succeed.

Customer engagement must embrace all customers – internal and external – to be successful. That’s where we come in. USAN offers hosted contact center products and optimization solutions. Make it easier for your internal customers to provide the best service to your external customers. Contact us today for more information.