Happy Customers Create Happy Employees with Sean Crichton-Browne

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This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:   

1. What’s more important, happy customers or happy employees? 
2. How does starting with the end goal of happy customers encourage better customer service? 
3. What role does leadership play in creating a strong culture of customer-centricity? 
4. How can a company’s internal culture directly impact the quality of the customer experience? 
5. How does employee engagement influence customer loyalty and retention? 

Top Takeaways

• Whenever you’re working to improve customer experience, it helps to begin by picturing how you want your customers to feel at the end. Imagine what you want the customer’s experience to be. Work backward from your goal, which is happy and loyal customers, and figure out what is needed at every level of the organization to achieve it. 

• Happy employees create happy customers, but flipping this idea on its head can create great results for your organization as well. Making customers happy can actually make employees feel better about where they work.  It leads to a better work environment that motivates and engages employees. 

• When customers are satisfied with the product or service, employees don’t have to respond to as many complaints or stressful situations, which makes their jobs more enjoyable and fulfilling. Happy customers often give positive feedback, creating a sense of pride for everyone on the team and encouraging even better service. 

• Listen to your customers. Ask them what they want and what’s important to them. When you focus on understanding and meeting those needs, you create a connection between leadership, employees, and customers. 

• Empowering employees, especially those who deal directly with customers, improves the customer experience. When staff can act quickly to solve issues or offer solutions, without always needing a manager’s okay, problems get fixed faster, and customers feel seen, heard, and valued.

• The stories told inside a company, whether big or small, have a lasting impact on culture. When employees hear about coworkers going the extra mile for customers or leaders making decisions that put customers first, they inspire similar behavior that can be operationalized for consistency. 

• Plus, Sean shares more “golden nuggets” from his latest book, The Human Culture Imperative. Tune in! 

Quotes:

“Put the customer at the center of the business and focus on their satisfaction. Because if we don’t have a customer, we don’t actually have a business.” 

“When customers are happy, employees are happy too. Their satisfaction drives engagement and growth, far more than anything else.” 

“Strong organizations keep leadership, employees, and customers connected. One doesn’t work without the others.” 

Read more about the interview in Shep’s blog.

About:

Sean Crichton-Browne is the co-founder of Market Culture, a company dedicated to helping organizations understand and implement customer-centric cultures. He is the co-author of The Human Culture Imperative: The Leader’s Playbook for Innovation and Sustainable Growth. 

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.