A recent TNS (News - Alert) Global Panel Study conducted across 23 countries finds that integrating customer engagement, brand, and the customer experience is strongly connected to high performance. Employees who work for the companies that are “top” in the industry are substantially more likely to incorporate customer experience information into their work and to be focused on the customer brand experience.
Social media has gained significant relevance in today’s organizations as it has helped remove the boundaries between the insides and outsides of an organization. Companies have become adept at marketing tactics and building quality into their products, but at the same time have realized that the service experience is harder to replicate than the manufacturing of products.
With the explosive growth of social media, customers have been able to take greater control of the brand. Companies are wary of the consequences of spreading negative experiences by employees or customers via social media like Twitter (News - Alert), Facebook or YouTube. It proves that the exposure of disconnects between the rhetoric of the brand promise and the reality of customer experience is no longer only tightly controlled by the corporation.
"To manage these changing boundaries, organizations must break down the silos between human resources and marketing,” according to TNS consultants. “Examine the internal and external messaging for congruence, and look at employee and customer engagement measurement as facets of the same core identity. Look at social media and track what is being said about the organization, use social media more deliberately by leveraging the ambassadorship and passion of an organization's products and services."
More importantly the survey found that transparency requires authenticity and congruence between the brand promise and the customer and employee experience. The survey has established four key insights that aim to increase brand promise to customers.
First, organizations must develop better relationships with employees. Employees who perceive their company to be "one of the best" in their industry are 86 percent more likely to say they are satisfied with their employment when compared to 50 percent of individuals who feel their company is "average" in performance.
Also, employees who view their organization to be "one of the best" are also much more likely to say their workgroup has a clear understanding of customer needs. More than three fourth (78 percent) of those employees also said that they use customer feedback to improve products and services as compared to 40 percent of those who feel their company is "average."
Further, the survey showed that employees in "one of the best" companies are 81 percent more likely to report that their workgroup focuses on the brand experience and that is what sets them apart, compared to the 34 percent of "average" companies.
Lastly, TNS Global found that huge gaps exist between one of the best" and "average" companies in measures of pride, recommend products/services to others, promoted as a great place to work, and perception of organizational reputation. This substantial gap, according to TNS Global, supports the belief that brand promise has to be experienced by employees so they can live it with the company's customers.
A recent article from TMCnet finds that customer engagement is more than just listening; it’s about learning too. Read the full article here.
Edited by Carrie Schmelkin