Guest Post: Improving Employee Experience for Your Customer Service Team

This week we feature an article from Emily Lavin, Content & Social Executive at Oak Engage. She shares a 3-step guide on how to improve the employee experience while maximizing customer engagement.

Where would a business be without a customer service team? There’s no denying that without an effective customer service team, a business would fall apart. They’re on the frontline of a company day in, day out, dealing with customer requests, resolving complaints, and striving to deliver exceptional service at every turn. It’s their job to make sure that their customers have the best experience possible. Seems like a lot to have weighing on your shoulders, right?

Of course, there are positives to being in a customer service team; they get to see the many successes of the business and it can feel rewarding when working directly with customers. However, they also have the deal with the aspects of the business that aren’t so great; dealing with customer complaints, resolving issues and striving to keep customers on your side when a crisis strikes. Therefore, it’s essential to put customer service engagement at the top of your priority list.

Ensuring all employees are engaged with your business is essential but making sure your customer service team is engaged is paramount to retaining a strong customer support team and increasing productivity. Thanks to the advancement in technology there are plenty of ways to monitor employee engagement and track employee satisfaction; employee engagement apps, HR software and Intranets to name a few. So if you are struggling to monitor engagement for your customer service team, fear not, we’re going to bring you a simple 3-step guide on how to improve employee experience and maximize customer service engagement.

Step 1: Implement Employee Engagement Software 

The world of internal communications has changed, sending your communications out via email just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. You need a system where you can track employee engagement, monitor employee wellbeing and promote social interaction between teams all in one place.

Whether you’re looking for specific HR software to store information or you want an engagement app to promote social interactivity, they’re all key to improving employee engagement. You’ll not only get better communication between departments but you’ll also see a rise in productivity levels. So, expect an influx of positive feedback from your customers complimenting the level of service from your customer service team.

Step 2: Recognition is Important 

Want to improve employee experience and enhance job satisfaction for your customer service team? Then recognize their hard work and efforts!

Working hard towards a goal only to have it dismissed by your leadership team can be incredibly disheartening and can lead to a dip in performance levels and confidence. In fact, the lack of recognition and engagement in the workplace is causing 44% of employees to look for another job.

Your customer service team are the ones that spend the majority of their time with the people important to your business, your customers. So, why not get some feedback from your customers and ask them their opinions on the service they’re received recently? If you get some positive responses (which you will), you should always share these with your team. It will boost morale and give a confidence boost to your customer support team.

Step 3: Offer Support 

The final step is to always offer support to your customer service team when needed. Being on the frontline of a company can be tough. If a customer isn’t happy with your product or service, your customer support team has to face the brunt of it.

If you notice that someone in your customer service team has an unpleasant experience with a customer, try to offer support instead of questioning them on where things went wrong. A bad interaction with a customer can knock confidence in your customer service team and leave them feeling unhappy at work.

Checking up on your customer service team regularly will give your employees the feeling of support they most certainly need. We’ve all had a bad day at work and sometimes a little pick-me-up from a teammate is all we need.

Summary

Obviously, in business we put a lot of time and energy into our customers, they are the ones detrimental to your company of course. But from time to time it’s important to give recognition to the ones that strive to deliver the best service and give your customers a great experience. Remember, if your employees are happy, your customers will be even happier!

Emily Laven is the Content & Social Executive at Oak Engage. Emily is passionate about employee engagement and often writes articles relating to internal communications and employee wellbeing.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes article: The New Economy Is The Meconomy