Building a good and loyal customer base for a business isn’t easy.

It takes time, effort, and excellent customer support that provides a hassle-free experience. To achieve such an important feat, it is crucial that your employees are driven toward their work and are satisfied with what they do.

With organizations focusing more on customer satisfaction, it has become equally vital to focus on employee satisfaction as well. In the long run, the satisfaction levels of your employees are going to reflect on how they deal with customers. The prime objective should be focusing more on keeping your employees satisfied, their workplace happiness, and dissolving any issues that they face during their time in the organization.

Why focus on employee satisfaction?

Each one-star improvement in a company’s Glassdoor rating corresponds to a 1.3-point out of 100 improvements in customer satisfaction scores – a statistically significant impact. Additionally, highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability from a business standpoint. From this, we can understand that employee engagement results in higher levels of employee satisfaction resulting in increased numbers of customer happiness.

Moreover, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for excellent customer service, an eye-opening statistic highlighting the fact that customer satisfaction is crucial for your business. It’s obvious: good customer service leads to higher ROI for you and your business. 

How employee satisfaction is linked to customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is based on two essential things: The products that your organization has to offer and the employees that handle your customers. There might be numerous other factors that lead to customer satisfaction, but one of the most driving factors is your customer service.

Excellent customer service is only achievable when your employees are eager to work and are convinced that it is the right job for them. As an employer, you should always keep in mind that your employees are happy with the job they have, leading to satisfaction at the workplace. A satisfied employee will always be engaged, successful in bonding, and full of positivity and energy.

5 ways employee satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction

Now that we’ve looked into how employee satisfaction is linked with customer satisfaction, let’s shift our focus into how you can build employee satisfaction in your organization.

1. Employee experience

Remember Bill Murray from Groundhog Day? If you’ve seen that movie, you’ll notice one thing; he does the same thing every day without any new outlook on his job.

Imagine doing the same work without career development, new challenges, and nothing to offer you other than a paycheck. It’d become quite monotonous for you or your employees, wouldn’t it? It results in a bad experience for your employees in the organization. As a leader, you don’t want that.

Employee experience is about the culmination of countless work-related experiences acquired over time. Building a sustainable system where employee engagement is focused on is quite crucial to bring the best out in your employees. To bring the best in them, employees have to have a good experience in the company. You need to create a pleasant working environment where cultural, technical, physical and psychological aspects are taken care of.

Once you've achieved that, your employees are likely to excel in what they do thus resulting in smoother customer-employee interaction. This will boost your customer service happiness and bring in more loyal customers.

2. Employee surveys

One of the most efficient ways of successfully achieving employee satisfaction is by conducting an employee survey regularly. An employee survey is basically a set of questionnaires to get real-time feedback from employees about their experience in the organization. It is an important medium to gain more insight into what your employees think of the culture and what their opinions are about the organization.

One of the essential parts of these surveys is the employee satisfaction survey also known as employee morale survey. It is used to gather opinions by the HR department to create a positive environment for the employees.

The main focus of this survey is based on the following: 

Once you get a clearer picture of what really the employees want from these surveys, you will be able to work on it right away. When swift action is taken to resolve problems then employees will feel valued in the organization increasing their morale and boosting their confidence. Thus, resulting in employees concentrating more on providing the best customer service and delivering a great experience. 

3. Employer-employee relationship

While we keep on talking about all the developmental changes going around the corporate world, we almost tend to forget one important aspect. That aspect is the employer-employee relationship.

The main purpose of the employer-employee relationship is to maintain healthy relationships between management and the workers. The focus is to remove any chances of conflict between the management and the employees and increase the efficiency of work within the organization. Improved employer-employee relationships are likely going result in an environment where collaboration is given the emphasis on.

With the rise in collaboration, organizations will be able to work on problem-solving without any hiccups and also opens up a wide field of learning and development. This, in turn, will enhance employee satisfaction and reduce employee turnover due to the fact that employees will be looking forward to a workplace where they are valued and respected.

4. Employee well-being

As an employer, the first thing you need to think of is your people. They are the ones that make your organization the way it is and form an integral part of your work. In simple terms, your employees are your backbone to success.

Employee wellbeing is about how your employee’s duties, expectations, stress levels affect their overall health and happiness. Wellbeing is not only about physical health, but it is also about the sense of purpose and the overall employee mood within the organization.

Increased levels of work, project deadlines, and workplace-related problems are some of the reasons that your employees get succumbed to burnout. This can pose a negative impression on your overall customer-centric business and can impact your employee’s wellbeing. When burnout levels are high, your employees will be least motivated to do their work and are likely to ignore your customers.

However, if there is a strong connection with your employees you will be able to understand their needs and how your organizational structure is playing a crucial role in hampering their well-being. When you have a clear understanding of what's been bothering your employees, it becomes easier for you to solve their issues.

Focusing more on solving their problems will see a significant boost in employee morale and satisfaction levels. This means employees will feel the desire to do their work and make a powerful impact on customer service.

5. Training and development programs

Employee training and development programs are crucial if you want to elevate the happiness and success of your employees. The modern workforce is changing and becoming more geared toward Millennial and Generation Z employees, meaning organizations need to emphasize what matters to younger workers.

One such aspect is development and training for career growth. The modern generations of workers seek constant improvement and career pathing, so it is of the utmost importance to provide these opportunities. Give your employees more challenging projects and incorporate a training program within the organization to assist with their advancement.

This will not only help enhance their skills, but they will be able to experience new dimensions of the corporate world. With adequate growth opportunities, employees will be satisfied with their workplace resulting in efficiency at tasks. Leading to satisfying customer experience without any hiccups and improving customer relationships with the organization.

Conclusion 

Employee engagement is the key to a satisfied workforce. There are numerous ways that you can achieve employee engagement in the organization. However, choosing the right option depends on you as a leader. Good employee engagement programs lead to a boost in employee morale and productivity. This is directly proportional to employees being satisfied with your organization.

Once you emphasize employee satisfaction more, you will see that not only it helps you retain your prized assets but it also helps you grasp a bigger customer base with some excellent services in the long run. Enhancing your brand value in the corporate market and making you a stand out performer amongst your competitors. 

Looking for an employee engagement solution to make sure your employees are fully engaged? Check out all available solutions on G2.