Happy Employees Make Happy Customers

Let’s start with some bad news!

• 70% of American workers do not commit to their work fully. (Gallup)
• Disengaged employees cost U.S. companies around $450 to $550 billion a year. (HR Dive)
• 100 unhappy employees cost $390 000 per year due to lost productivity. (Kansas State University)
• Negative employees scare off your customers. (Gallup)

Businesses started realizing that to achieve success, setting up a customer-first policy is a must.

Even though prioritizing your customers’ needs will most certainly increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, under no circumstances should managers forget about equally important assets of their company – employees!

Yes, measuring happiness might be a bit challenging but it is worth the effort as you don’t want to have dissatisfied employees sloppily doing tasks they don’t enjoy.

Negativity is an airborne infection. The lack of happiness of one of your employees will cause dissatisfaction in another. This cycle will then reach your customers, and your staff’s low supply of energy and motivation will take root in them.

If the above-provided statistics were not enough to convince you to start caring about your employee happiness, in the following sections we will provide more details and benefits of happier employees.

In other words, we’ve listed bad news, and now it’s time for some good news!

Benefits of Happier Employees

1. More Creativity

Employee-customer interaction is not scripted roleplay. In a world of rapidly changing customer preferences and increasing competition between the organizations, creativity becomes important when determining success.

Innovative thinking is a critical skill for your employees as your customer service staff is the first representative of your business that customers interact with. Happiness contributes to the creativity because it increases the mental flexibility of people and promotes the positive reception of new challenges, as stated in the article by Alice Isen.

These qualities are exactly what you want your employees to possess if you want to increase the positive attitude of customers towards your business.

2. Better Service

Employee that is satisfied and happy with the company is more motivated with provided products/services, which helps serve customers with more information and enthusiasm.

According to Gallup, companies that have happier employees show 147% higher earnings per share than their competitors.

This makes sense. If a happier employee is more informed about the product and presents it to the customer with enthusiasm and positive energy, certainly the latter will find the informing service preferable and will be willing to visit the business again.

3. Saved Money

Employee that enjoys the workplace is more likely to stay. Think about the additional costs you will have to face when hiring a new worker such as the cost of advertising or interviewing, the cost of onboarding and training, the cost of errors as well as time for adjusting and etc. It is too much of a headache and most of the times not worth the hassle.

4. Better Customer Relationship

A warm smile, a positive attitude, attentiveness and motivation. These are all the qualities of an engaged customer service representative and also the qualities necessary for making a customer happy.

Human emotions, regardless positive or negative, are easily transmittable. Make sure that the only emotion that your employees are communicating with your customers is positivity. Invest in the happiness of your workers and see yourself how it will pay back with happy customers willing to shop with you more.

How to Promote Employee Happiness

Now you understand the significance of satisfied staff but might still be wondering how do you make your employees happy?

Well, there are several things that you can do and the best thing about it is that it comes from the employees themselves!

1. Innovate With Technology

92% of employees indicated that technology would increase their work satisfaction. New technology makes the work easier for your employees and transforms repetitive tasks into a more enjoyable experience. With an increasing number of millennials in the workforce, innovative gadgets should be a must at your workplace.

Such innovations will promote clearer communication between the workers and fewer errors. It might sound counter-intuitive but the implementation of technology might promote more human interaction.

Tools that automate the sing-in process of your customers, for example, will give your workers more time to interact with customers and build a genuine relationship with them.

2. Productive Workplace

The physical state of the office or a shop is an important aspect of promoting productivity. Make sure that the working space is organized exactly the way that would promote positive energy while providing the necessary things for your employee’s needs.

One of the best ways to do so is letting them personalize the workplace. Who would know how your employees want their working place to look like if not your employees themselves? Give them the freedom to organize things as they wish to and have a place that they can call their own.

3. Valuing Their Effort

Nothing kills the motivation more than someone not appreciating your hard work and dedication.

But also, on the contrary, praising your employees will motivate them for better future performance. Companies, where managers focused on the strength of their employees, showed more than double worker engagement compared to the company where the weaknesses of the employees were highlighted.

Don’t be quick to criticize your employees for committed mistakes. Rather, provide a feedback that will benefit the person for future performance and encourage by additional training or motivation.

4. Ask for Feedback

Just because your employees have a smile on their face today does not mean that it will be there forever.

Don’t think that your employees are satisfied or that it will stay fixed like that forever. Keep monitoring your employees’ attitude towards work and their level of satisfaction.

Set monthly or quarterly meetings with your workers do discuss their satisfaction and feelings regarding the work. Going the extra mile will prove itself being beneficial!

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You should need no more convincing how important employee satisfaction is for you, for the customer and for employees themselves!

It is a concept that is beneficial for all parties involved. A concept that will reward greatly if you address it appropriately, however, will punish severely if you will ignore it.