delivering the “internal customer” experience
DESCRIPTION
While organizations make all kinds of efforts to enhance the experience of their external customers by investing in numerous training programs and marketing initiatives, the outcome is most often disappointing to say the least. Customer loyalty continues to elude us and “Customer advocacy” remains a distant dream. More often than not its sheer “inertia” that prevents customers from switching. One key aspect that could perhaps unlock the door to conquering the above challenge is by having a robust set of practices that will boost the level of “Internal Customer Centricity”. This is because empirical research conducted by leading industrial psychologists clearly establish the link between the two aspects. In other words, it emphatically states that the extent of external customer centricity can never exceed the extent of internal customer centricity. As a part of our endeavor to constantly partner with organizations such as yours to create customized customer centric solutions to business challenges. I am pleased to share a framework that I believe will serve as a useful filter to evaluate the relevance and efficacy of the numerous employee engagement efforts you are already making. The framework is a synthesis of the best research that has been conducted in this area. Tags: customer experience,internal customer,customers,training programs,Customer loyalty,Customer advocacy,Internal Customer Centricity,external customer centricity, customer centric,employee engagement,framework Application Form For PGPBM Program : http://www.aegisglobalacademy.com/application/application-formTRANSCRIPT
Delivering the “ Internal Customer” Experience by
Creating and Sustaining Employee Engagement
IndexTopics Slide No.
Our Vision & Mission 3
What is Employee Engagement 4
Facets of Engagement 5
Basic Conditions Required to Create Engagement 6
The Engagement Pathway 7
Hygiene Factors 8-9
Progress Aspects 10
Reward Mechanism 11
Recognition 12
Purpose Lead engagement 13-14
Measures/Indicators of Engagements 15
Acknowledgement 16
Institute of Customer Experience Management
Our VISION
To develop the study and application of the science of Customer Experience Management, to address challenges of growth and profitability of Consumer intensive businesses.
Our MISSION
To promote and enhance the culture of customer-centricity by equipping all persons across organization levels engaged or wishing to be engaged in the consumer intensive businesses with the right mindset, skill set and knowledge or processes, thus enabling them to contribute to the maximization of customer life-time value and profits.
Enabling
Internal Customers
&
External Customers
What is Employee Engagement
Employee engagement can be defined as the feelings of
enthusiasm, urgency, intensity and focus people display towards their work
and the mission of the organisation.
Employee engagement is very distinct from employee
satisfaction as satisfaction denotes satiation where as
engagement connotes activation i.e. desire to make bigger & bigger contribution.
Reflected in employees wanting & acting to make the
business ever more successful and also a better
place to work.
Facets of EngagementTr
ait E
ngag
emen
t
• Driven by basic mental make up of the person i.e.. Either optimistic or pessimistic
• Is intrinsic & inherent in the person
• How could this criteria be used while screening people for specific jobs? E.g.. Optimistic people for sales /pessimistic people for audit
Stat
e En
gage
men
t
• Reflected in the energy and enthusiasm of the person
• E.g. Degree/frequency which a person volunteers to take additional responsibility
• E.g. How easily are locational transfers or role changes accepted or resisted?
Beha
viou
ral E
ngag
emen
t
• Willingness to make discretionary effort by going that extra mile
• E.g. Resourcefulness displayed by employees to solve complex issues where repeated unexpected hurdles are being encountered
Feelings & Attitudes do not identify engagements, as without visually demonstrated behavior there is no engagement.
Basic Conditions Required to Create Engagement
Employees must rarely if at all invest any time in speculating regarding the stability of their job.
Driven by degree of trust with their superiors arising out of fair treatment.
Safety
Distributive fairness: degree of transparency in the manner in which rewards are distributed
Interactional fairness: Basic manner of engaging all juniors remains the same: e.g. No discrimination displayed in basic courtesies/ civility shown
Procedural fairness: Demonstrated consistency in process of reward, punish and allocate resources
Fairness
Availability of resources to do the job well
Flexibility to take decisions within limit i.e.. Degree of self determination. E.g.. Ability to consider special customer requests related to refunds, give complimentary merchandise, availability of budgetary allocation for team motivation
Degree of Empowerm
ent
The Engagement Pathway
Monetary compensationWorking conditionRobust InductionQuality of life benefits
Role enhancementDesignation EnhancementCompetency Enhancement
MonetaryNon monetaryGroupIndividualStructureAdministrationCustomization
FormalInformalFrequencyStature of rewarder
Company visionAbility to impact lives of customers & colleaguesHygiene
ProgressRewards
RecognitionPurpose
Driven through sharing of money/ Time/ Words/ Thoughts/ Knowledge between leaders & their team members
Hygiene Factors• How transparent and lucid is the appointment letter?• How easily decipherable is the compensation structure in terms of “
monthly take home”?• Do employees feel their basic survival needs are met?• How does the compensation quantum & structure compare with
other firms of similar stature offering similar job profiles?• How much do employees speculate about “job Security”?• Are there avenues for recreation/ socialisation?• Are ‘quality of life’ benefits offered ? E.g.
Concierge services to take care of routine/ special tasks that arise on home front
Ability to combine day offs for out station employees to visit home
Health care related benefits gym/ routine health check ups/ on premise doctors
To be continued..
Hygiene Factors
Life & accident assurance related benefits Access to company merchandise on discounted terms/ special payment plans Acknowledgement of special occasions related to employees and their immediate
family members in both tangible & intangible forms like ability to leave office early on child’s birthday
Do you follow a robust induction process that is customized as per: Role & experience of a new joinee Contents that equally emphasize the value/culture vis a vis the hard knowledge aspects Is there an outer date by which each and every new employee must undergo an
induction from the date of joining What role does senior management play in the induction process? Is there an evaluation process to check the degree of internalization?
Progress Aspects
Is a career path defined and communicated to every employee at the point of entry and periodically thereafter?
Does the employee see visible examples of people who have actually traverse these paths. Are such examples highlighted?
Are there avenues where employees can experience progress through title & compensation enhancement when newer job roles are not available?
Does a clear competency development plan in terms of training & learning inputs exist for all or critical employees? How is this communicated to them?
Is there a provision to take Sabbatical for personal & professional capability enhancement?
Reward Mechanism
Monetary
• Degree of difficulty in attaining thresh hold reward• Degree of difficulty in attaining highest level reward• Degree of difficulty in consistently qualifying• Is criteria reflective of localised market conditions &
potential• Criteria used to evaluate incentive plans as success or
failure depending on quantum of qualifiers• Lag time between completion of scheme & receipt of
reward• Mix of group incentives vs. personal incentives what is
the tilt towards & why?
Non Monetary• Customization of non monetary rewards to reflect
recipient personal tastes in terms of life style parameters like food/ fashion/ music/ books and other recreational interests
Recognition• How many parameters exist?a. Tenure of serviceb. Particular type of behavior relating to customer facilitationc. Particular type of behaviour relating to colleague facilitation E.g. Volunteering to train Voluntarily sharing relevant knowledge Voluntarily aiding a colleague in distressd. Particular type of behaviour relating to preservation of company
resources. E.g.. Cost saving ideas, productivity enhancement ideas, assets securitization idea
• What kind of platforms exist?– Formal: Annual/ quarterly/ Monthly/ Weekly in front of a specific
gathering or communicated to a specific group of people.– Informal: On the go mechanism- In person/ in writing/through
email.– In person mode most preferred (90%) followed by written (60%)
followed by email (50%)– Significance: Bigger the designation gap between giver and receiver,
bigger the impact
Purpose Lead EngagementHow many employees consider their association with the organisation as
A job – Purely to earn money
A career – Provides good opportunity for
professional growth
A calling – Provides ability to make a difference to the lives of customers/ colleagues/ society
Determined by the vision/ mission & values of the organisation and to what extent it is displayed in the everyday work behaviour of the higher ups in the organisation
Purpose Lead Engagement• Can be assessed by determining how employees feel about the company
& its mission/ the work environment ( meaning at work) How a employee feel about the specific job they handle ( Meaning in work)
Meaning in work
Mea
ning
at w
ork
& h
ow
empl
oyee
s fe
el a
bout
the
spec
ific
job
they
are
han
dlin
g
Loves the company but unhappy with current job
Identify & move to other job roleEmployee who neither likes the company nor his current role
Pair with mentorInvoluntary separation in acute cases
Completely inspired by both the organisation & job content
Use them as mentors
Likes his present job but does not like the organisation or what it stands for
Pair with mentor Watch out may leave soon
Measures / Indicators of Engagement
Persistence at difficult tasks
Willingness to help others
Investing personal time in self development
Voicing change recommendation
Displaying role flexibility to cater to organisational needs
Disagreeing with boss without feeling threatened
Feeling and attitudes do not indicate engagement as without visually demonstrated behaviour there is no engagement. E.G.
16
Acknowledgements
• James Heskett , Earl Sasser & Leonard Schlesinger• Janelle Barlow-TMI America • Chip Colney• Abraham Maslow• Benjamin Schneider, William H. Macey & Diane
Daum• Harvard Business School• Pine &Gilmore• Dr. Debashis Chatterjee
Let’s begin