{"id":39353,"date":"2019-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/employee-engagement-customer-engagement-report\/"},"modified":"2022-12-30T06:43:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T14:43:10","slug":"employee-engagement-customer-engagement-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/employee-engagement-customer-engagement-report\/","title":{"rendered":"New Research Reveals the Business Benefits of Connecting Employee and Customer Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Here’s a situation most people will find familiar: You buy a product, and when it finally arrives, there\u2019s something wrong with it\u2014for instance, it was damaged in shipping or doesn\u2019t operate as advertised. Mildly frustrated, you open the company\u2019s mobile app to send a message but discover no such messaging capabilities exist. So then, you reach out through Facebook, but nobody answers. Finally, you bite the bullet and try to find the company\u2019s service phone number on their website. Ten minutes after searching, you find it and call in. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once you get an actual human being on the other side of the phone\u2014which happens after navigating numerous automated menus\u2014their first response is to put you on hold. Then, someone else comes on the line, a specialist, who asks you to recount your story again before transferring you to a third person, the <\/span>right<\/span><\/i> specialist, who asks you to start all over again. There is no guarantee this will be the last person you talk to who can finally help resolve your issue. It’s safe to say that by now, your initial mild frustration has turned more severe, and you may very well consider taking your business elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dealing with customer service is often an exercise in frustration. It is easy to blame customer-facing employees for communication breakdowns or companies for poor service agent training, but the reality is more complex, according to a <\/span>global study we commissioned with CITE Research<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

After surveying 2,000 frontline employees across the US, UK, and Australia, we found that employees are equally frustrated with disjointed communications technologies that prevent them from providing great customer experiences<\/a>. The findings also uncovered a powerful connection between employee and customer experiences: Engaging employees with a seamless communications platform increases their productivity and helps delight customers, ultimately benefiting the company bottom line.<\/span><\/p>\n

The customer expectation gap<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s rapid expansion of digital channels has given customers higher expectations for service than ever before, as well as more opportunity to be delighted or disappointed in every interaction with a company. One particular challenge for companies is being responsive to customers in real time and through the channels of their choice. <\/span><\/p>\n

If communication and service expectations aren’t met, businesses face serious repercussions. The new research shows that customers stopped doing business with brands an average of four times in the past year after a bad customer service<\/a> experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disjointed communications technologies create a vicious cycle<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The study highlights that customer-facing employees continue to struggle with the communications technologies at their disposal, which is a major factor in the gap between customer expectations<\/a> and service reality. <\/span><\/p>\n

We found that communications technologies are deficient in two primary ways. First, outdated technologies prevent customers from communicating with companies via their preferred mode. Second, they don\u2019t enable employees to easily collaborate with coworkers for help in resolving customer issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

These fundamental challenges impact employee productivity and happiness, and result in poor customer satisfaction.<\/span><\/p>\n