Customer experience expert Colin Shaw shares his views on why he believes that by keeping your customers happy, you will also keep your staff happy.
Colin Shaw, founder and chief executive of Beyond Philosophy, says:
"Running a customer experience (CE) consultancy, I see a variety of approaches to CE that range from the awesome – Mandarin Oriental Hotels springs to mind - to the abysmal. I won’t name names but the stereotype is the used car salesman - you drive away from the lot and the engine falls out but the dealer isn’t interested, the customer is merely the root of money. This is what we would describe as a ‘naïve’ organisation, while the Mandarin is moving towards the goal of becoming a ‘natural’ company, where they are truly customer centric without jumping through any hoops. So far, so good, you may be thinking, but how does this relate to HR?
Why would a personnel manager take an interest in customer experience? Well, who delivers the majority of the customers' experiences? How are these people identified and recruited? Through HR. How are they trained? Again with HR’s input. HR has a massive effect on the customer experience.
Unfortunately there are no quick fixes when it comes to improving the customer experience. While those in sales or service roles can be trained to be charm personified, there is little use in them piling on the platitudes if those behind the scenes can’t or won’t deliver.
The car salesman relies on his mechanic to ensure the product is fit for purpose and thus be able to deliver his promises to the customer. Similarly, if the finance department is slow and makes mistakes, the upset customer will take it out on the first point of contact. Therefore, establishing a customer centred culture; again the domain of HR becomes critical.
Without this the result will be a high employee churn rate in customer interfacing positions. This puts immense strain on HR and affects the company’s profit margin. Furthermore, it is a vicious cycle as customers will fail to build up relationships with the company resulting in even poorer relations and a greater propensity to complain vehemently about small problems that may otherwise be put to one side.
The solution is not to view the customer experience as 'something that they do'. It is something that everyone does. HR plays a critical role and with forethought and training, a great relationship with the customer can be achieved that will boost customer loyalty, reduce employee turnover and significantly improve the bottom line.
Colin Shaw is also author of: Building Great Customer Experiences, Revolutionize Your Customer Experience and The DNA of Customer Experience: How Emotions Drive Value.
