How do you capture what your employees see and hear? This could be examples of what delights or frustrates customers. It can also be their ideas about how your organisation can help them deliver better experiences. As companies transition to remote working and digital customer service, your employees perspective is going to be vital.
The missing point of view
Why? Because your employees have a different perspective to your senior managers. They are the ones interacting with customers and with your business. They are uniquely placed to link the customer’s experiences to the processes and attitudes that drive it. But too often employee feedback is driven by HR departments. It asks important questions about managers, engagement and training needs. But these surveys only focus on the individuals career and relationship with the company.
What never seems to get asked about is their perspective on the customer’s experience. Or how the company could better support them to consistently deliver on their brand promise. Even if it comes up in the ‘any other comments box’, the feedback can be up to 12 months out of date.
Are you really listening to your employees perspective?
Of course employees aren’t just waiting to be asked. They are sharing their feedback, frustrations and ideas in a number of different places. But where do these golden nuggets go in your company..? For example, are they:
- discussed in team meetings
- discussed during annual reviews
- collected in spreadsheets
- collected in suggestion boxes
- asked about in annual staff surveys
Or do you have a completely different approach? Is your company one of the innovative ones that realise that customers and employees live in parallel worlds? If so, I’d love to hear how you are combining your customers and employees perspectives to gain a competitive advantage.