Customer Experience Starts With Employee Happiness
It's an exciting time, your headed out to a new place for a celebration of achievements. The restaurant you're going to is new and the menu looks great. You get there and the hostess seems to be a little off, it's okay, they could just be having a rough day. You wait for an extended period of time before your server shows up. Noticing they are not in the best of moods, short, and uncaring, you start to look around, you see a manager berating an employee, it all starts to make sense, no one is happy to be there. At this point you already know your service will be underwhelming at best, you have settled in and the celebration has lost a little wind in the sails.
How many times has this happened to you? How many times have you not gone back to a place that provides bad service? I'm not just talking about restaurants, I'm talking about anywhere you choose to do business.
If you are a business owner or leader in an organization, it is vital that your employees feel appreciated and needed. Keep in mind, they are the frontlines of your business. Plus, the happier they are, the less turn over you will have.
There are many things you can do to maintain happiness but the core of a happy employee starts with their path in your business. Promotion from within not only gives them something to strive for but shows how dedicated you are to their growth and professional well being. Lay out a path that can be measured and attainable. Give them a reason to be better.
The right kind of training shows your commitment to their growth. I am not saying, here watch this video type of training, but become interactive with them, invest in an outside source, or send them to workshops. If your employees feel that they are just a warm body to fill a position, that is the quality of work you will get in return.
Showing your appreciation goes along way. Yes, pizza parties are okay, but not what I am really getting at. Set goals for your team to achieve and if they meet or exceed them, reward them with a dinner and axe throwing. Depending on the size of the goal or achievement, send them on a vacation for a weekend. What you put out to make them better will come back tenfold.
Really investing into your teams well being and growth will lead to the best customer experience you can get. Setting the standard on how you treat your employees, sets the standard on how your employees will treat your customers. Happy teams make happy customers. Happy customers turn to life long customers. Life long customers create continued business, referrals, and advocate.
One big upside to all of this, you have created happier lives to those around you while creating a happier life for yourself. The environment that you spend every waking moment in doesn't have to be dramatic, stressful, or emotionally damaging if you choose for it not to be.