Improving Customer Service to Accelerate Organic Growth

In today’s hypercompetitive marketplace, we are all looking for an edge to fuel growth. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal piqued my interest. The focus was on using customer service as a growth engine. Sure, at the heart of growth is the need to retain customers and spread the word to reach new customers. But how can we make sure each and every customer experience is extraordinary? How can we channel customer service to accelerate organic growth?

Great customer service can take an undifferentiated product and send it through the roof. It can help to grow your business through referrals and cross-selling. These results are driven by the experience the customer has from working with your employees and your solutions. The key is to equip and empower employees to consistently deliver great customer service and exceptional experiences.

Happy employees translate to happy customers. Tracking employee engagement levels can provide insight into the customer experience. We know from our client work that there is a direct link between high employee engagement scores and favorable customer experiences. By isolating the key drivers of employee engagement and focusing on developing programs that boost engagement, our clients can directly link their employee engagement scores to customer satisfaction, and ultimately, to bottom line profitability.

To do this requires connecting and aligning all employees to the overall business strategy. Employees need to understand their role in driving success, be given an active role to play and be empowered to offer and act on ideas to improve the business. It’s about creating an organizational culture where employees want to work. These people need a compelling reason to work with you beyond a paycheck.

In an environment where companies are holding on to cash and deferring investments, customer service can be the growth engine to accelerate performance. What are you doing to improve the experience your customers have?