How Employee Engagement Impacts Customer Experiences

Recently our own Andre Riley, CRO | Head of Growth had a chance to sit down with Statflo’s Scott McArthur for an insightful discussion on crafting customer experience, modern approaches to the commission model, and much more. Here are just a few of their talking points.

Employee engagement creates customer experience

Here at Arcade, we’ve long advocated the view that great customer experience starts with a culture of employee engagement. According to Andre, “As we look at customer loyalty… it all starts with your business, with the experience your customers have in interacting with your business… It really comes down to making sure your employees are engaged and are striving to provide that great customer experience.”

Andre brings up Chic-Fil-A and Southwest Airlines, both companies famous for their excellent customer experience. “That comes from instilling that culture from the top down.” It’s that internal culture of engagement that has helped so many Arcade clients get incredible results in customer loyalty.

Building a motivated sales culture

“It all starts with the KPIs,” says Andre. These are the Key Performance Indicators that you’re probably already using to determine how well your employees are doing their jobs. But according to Andre, it’s not just the results we should focus on. It’s also the behavior

that brings about those results.

Andre goes on to talk about micro incentives, contests, and games designed to reinforce the behaviors that lead to strong KPIs. This goes beyond simple commissions for three reasons. First, sometimes the loss of a sale is outside the rep’s control, often when prices are set by a distant corporate office, and someone else has them beat. Second, this system can be used beyond the sales world, incentivizing success-driving behavior in any type of business, or any other operation within a retail operation, such as reviews. Third, contests and games are just fun, and fun is motivating.

Getting info up the chain

Scott and Andre take a moment to discuss the best ways to get region-specific sales strategies from front-line sales reps, who often have specialized insight into their base, up to higher management, who might not. “Be specific with your team about what you’re trying to know,” says Andre. “Specific details about what you’re looking for.”

Being clear about the data you need won’t just help you get it. It will also help your middle management feel like they’re part of the big picture. Detailing how you’ll use that information, how it will benefit the company, is important. Arcade, with its built-in chat feature, is the perfect platform for this communication.

No chores allowed

Scott brings up the important issue of front-line workers not seeing customer engagement as a chore. Andre, again, reinforces communication. “It’s not just telling them, ‘Do it because I’m telling you to do it.’ There’s a why behind it.” It’s important to effectively relay the impact of their efforts. But even that only goes so far. Gamification picks up where that drive for company-wide impact leaves off, providing an element of fun and reward that transforms chores to opportunities.

Keeping it personal, even from a distance

Scott asks, “What’s your take on creating a personalized customer experience, even in this new era of Covid?” Andre’s answer, once again, is data. Tracking customer preferences and reviews is an important function of a system like Arcade, which rewards sales reps and customer service reps for taking the time to gather that data.

Check out the rest of the podcast for more helpful insights.