When it comes to focusing on experience, most companies start by considering the customer. After all, if you’re not delighting your clients, then you can’t hope to thrive as a growing company. However, there are other forms of experience that business leaders need to consider too.
While keeping your customers happy is a must-have in today’s marketplace, don’t underestimate the importance of empowering your employees too. Without your valuable staff members, you can’t create the products and services that attract your clients. Additionally, failing to put the right effort into your employee experience efforts could mean that you end up losing the talent that helps to differentiate your brand.
So, which is more important, employee or customer experience?
Is Customer or Employee Experience More Valuable?
Customer experience is at the heart of every business strategy these days. In a world where your customers have hundreds of alternatives to your business available to them at the click of a button, you can’t afford to compete on price or features alone. Today’s consumers aren’t interested in buying the cheapest product or choosing items from the closest store.
If you want to sustainably differentiate your brand, and make sure that your clients keep coming back for more, then you need to deliver an experience that’s custom-made to their needs. This means considering every part of the customer journey carefully. You can’t just offer excellent service after customers have made a purchase. You also need to anticipate their needs with predictive analytics, assess their expectations with data, and even build omni-channel engagement strategies.
However, there’s an important factor that comes up in every effort you’ll make to strengthen customer experiences – your employees. Without the right staff members, you can’t ensure that your clients get quick answers to their problems when they’re seeking support. A lack of engaged team members means that your customers get a sub-standard experience at every stage of the journey, from the point when they first start interacting with your company, to the moment they’re asking for help.
Happy employees with excellent tools on-hand feel empowered and engaged, meaning that they can more easily deliver the kind of experiences that your customers expect. At the same time, reduced churn in your employees means less time spent filling talent gaps, and more time building your brand.
CX and EX Go Hand in Hand
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that customer experience is the most important factor in building a successful company. However, without a good employee experience, it’s impossible to deliver the kind of meaningful moments your audience is looking for. The path to a good customer experience starts with considering the needs of your employees.
The question for today’s companies isn’t whether they should be focusing more on EX or CX in 2021, but how they can use both of these elements together. Make sure your employees have the tools they need to deliver the right results for your customers, and both your teams and consumers will thrive.
