Employee Satisfaction Can Affect Customer Retention

By Chris Truitt
 
The age old saying, ‘happy employees are productive employees’, rings true. In fact, a recent study conducted by University of Missouri has linked employee satisfaction to improved morale, reduction in turnover and customer satisfaction. The connection between employee and customer satisfaction is one that may be often overlooked. According to another study conducted by Sears Roebuck & Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings, between 40 and 80% of customer satisfaction and loyalty was in part attributed to the attitude of employees and other customer related variables. Other variables such as the competency of the customer service rep and technical limitations such as outages or service disruption also played a huge factor in customer satisfaction.
 
These studies, though insightful, only serve to confirm what our customers already know. The customer service rep is the ambassador of the organization. They are the face and voice that represents our business aptitude to adequately service consumer demand. Since we have confirmed the connection between customer and employee satisfaction, and we can conclude that happy customers are likely to become return customers and bring in referrals for new customers, which leads to increased revenue, it seems to me that it is in our best interest to ensure our staff is adequately supported.
 
Unfortunately pizza parties and excess of coffee and soft drinks will not suffice. Your support team is smart and they are wise to this act. They know the quiet strategy of keeping them wired on caffeinated drinks is a business method to boost productivity. And sadly, food is only a temporary solution to address issues of employee morale. In fairness, I have partaken in a number of lunches where expenses were covered. These lunches were a good way to say ‘thanks for the hard work’, and I appreciated them, but what I appreciated even more was a leader that was open to hear, and at times act, on feedback provided by the staff, and one that wasn’t afraid to crawl into the trenches with us.

Chris Truitt is a seasoned Email Deliverability Manager.As Manager of Deliverability, Chris has tripled the size of his team, written policies and processes to improve inbox delivery to enhance the customer experience.

As a pragmatist, Chris has a result oriented approach to business. If a process does not render desired results, he will not hesitate to alter course or tweak his procedure. He is a proponent of interdepartmental cooperation and sharing resources. His community philosophy is appreciated by his colleagues, as he looks to assess how the change he implements affects others. Chris knows that strong decisive leadership is the cornerstone of a thriving organization.