3 Steps to align your customer and employee experience

As we found in our previous articles in this series of blogs about the employee experience, creating a positive employee experience is vital for companies who wish to attract and retain the best personnel. And designing that experience should be approached with a methodical, results-based process that looks at the experience holistically.

We have looked at the factors that have the greatest impact on employee experience and how using the service design process is key to uncovering opportunities. It quickly becomes clear that while customer experience may seem to be entirely separate from the employee experience, it is in fact closely linked.

Designing a World Class Employee Experience

Getting ahead in the experience economy

“Employees who are not engaged cost their company the equivalent of 18% of their annual salary."

- Gallup

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Organisations who identify the factors which have the greatest impact on employee experience, have the key to creating not just a world class employee experience, but also a world class customer experience, and that is how to get ahead in today’s experience economy.

What would be possible in your business if you could purposefully design an employee experience that enabled you to truly differentiate from your competition?

The customer experience and the employee experience are linked

The employee experience needs to be aligned to a company’s values and purpose for that to reflect in the way they behave. As we have discussed, the impact of COVID-19 has led to employees reassessing their wants and needs and making changes in their lives. The best personnel will be looking for the employee experience that most closely suits their own values and needs, and this will reflect in their engagement and productivity at work.

When embarking on a service design project for the employee experience there are three steps an organisation should take for the greatest chance of success:

Step 1 – Ensure you have a clearly defined vision and purpose

• A company’s vision and purpose should be clear and easily understood by employees. Without an understanding of what a company stands for or what their goals and purpose are, employees have no meaning attached to their work. This is likely to result in lower productivity: people need meaning to engage properly. Vision and purpose need to be strategically aligned to promote engagement and drive.

Step 2 – Ensure you have the right input

• To create a meaningful service that addresses the needs of both the business and the employee, the more insightful, impactful information there is to work with, the better. There are various ways in which this information can be gathered. Companies should already have channels of communication open with customers and clients for feedback. Feedback should be solicited from all members of staff, not just management.

Step 3 – Ensure alignment on the desired outcome

• A company that says one thing and does another will quickly get caught out. Employees will soon become resentful, and this will show in their work (or lack of it). It may also become apparent to customers that the company is not embodying the values it is trying to sell, risking company reputation and future profits. Customers will look elsewhere for a product or service, and employees will look elsewhere for more meaningful work. Aligning the customer and employee experience will improve both: employees will be more engaged and motivated to provide a better experience, which means the customer experience naturally improves.
  Service design offers a collaborative approach that considers all aspects of the journey.

If you think your company could benefit from the service design process to align your employee experience to your vision and customer experience, please get in touch. If you have any questions or would like any further information about how service design works, or how it can be used for your customers or employees, we would love to hear from you.