Six tips on how happy customers make for happy employees

Dissatisfied, barely committed employees are the worst thing that can happen to a company: Work is left undone, morale is low and motivation is at rock bottom. Happy, satisfied employees are therefore essential for the success of a company. After all, they enjoy going to work, show more commitment, develop creative ideas, identify more strongly with their employer and are less likely to take sick days. But what makes working people happy, motivated and committed? And what role does customer satisfaction play in this?

Generally speaking, customer focus is often at the heart of employee engagement, as surveys show time and again. Praise from customers generates satisfaction among the workforce, although other factors such as salary, working atmosphere or promotion opportunities naturally also play a role here. Positive customer feedback ensures a high degree of fulfillment and supports the meaningfulness of one's own work.

1. recognize a good performance

For employees, recognition from customers is just as important as recognition from superiors and colleagues. Make sure that not only the positive feedback from the manager on internal matters, but also the positive feedback from the customer is visible in the company and among colleagues. Positive feedback should be acknowledged by superiors and improve promotion prospects. Employees who spend a lot of time on site with customers are often not perceived as such internally.

2. no false modesty

Make it clear to your employees that false modesty is out of place. Reticent employees sometimes find it difficult to talk about positive customer feedback or forward an email from a satisfied customer to their colleagues. This creates a false image of their performance, because more self-confident people do not show the same restraint and are often in a better position. Encourage everyone to be open about their successes.

3. stay in the background yourself

Managers, on the other hand, should be more modest and not claim all the successes for themselves alone. They should rather leave the credit for a good customer experience to their employees - customer teams are annoyed if a high level of customer satisfaction is not attributed to them, but to management alone.

4. publicize customer feedback on the intranet and in meetings

Set up processes that inform everyone in the company about good customer feedback. There's nothing worse than customer praise that nobody hears about. Make sure that the employee in question receives the recognition. One possibility: publish feedback or a report about enthusiastic customers on the intranet. Regular team meetings are also a good opportunity to share success stories. This lays the foundation for a culture of customer centricity among your employees and publicly demonstrates that customer commitment is recognized and rewarded.

5. obtain feedback from the entire company

Collect examples of excellent customer service at every point of the customer journey. In most cases, feedback is only collected for the teams that have direct contact with customers. If you don't want positive feedback to go unnoticed, you should survey customers across all channels and at every touchpoint. But what about the other employees who also contribute to customer satisfaction, or rather, whose customers are their own colleagues? Like the legal department, which is praised by the respective teams for its professional conduct during contract negotiations, or the HR department, which has filled a vacancy with a perfectly suited employee. The new colleagues are delighted with the new employee's good performance and pass on their feedback to HR. A more distant example is the environmental department, which takes care of the use of climate-friendly resources and thus strengthens the company's overall image.

6. communicate how important each piece of feedback is and why it is collected

Customer centricity is good - it forms the basis for the success of leading global companies. However, some teams feel that when something goes wrong, they are hit with the full force of customer complaints. For example, if there is an increase in complaints about the complicated payment process on a website, this falls back on the IT department. This feedback can help a company to bring in additional technical resources to support the IT team in solving problems. This way, problems can be identified in advance. It is important that you make it clear to the employees concerned that even the smallest piece of feedback is an opportunity to improve. Explain to them that you want to use the feedback you collect to improve their work performance and enhance the overall employee experience.