Happy Employees and Customer Service: 3 Articles

There is an undeniable connection between your company’s internal culture and its outward-facing brand. Happier employees generally lead to a higher quality of customer service. That leads to happier customers, which is good for any business. Every single communication with a customer, be it an existing one or a potential one, counts big. Your team is represents your brand, and personal experiences will color interactions with customers. It’s important for your positive brand values, whatever they are, to echo throughout the halls of your office.

So what will make your workers happy? Money, work/life balance, and a comfortable atmosphere are all givens. As you’ll see in Daniel Pinks article (linked below), the ability to make a difference is a huge motivator. Employees enjoy being empowered, and the businesses they work for should find value in empowering them. Adequate training must be included as well, but true differences are seen in businesses where teams are given the leeway to make decisions.

For example, Zappos empowers their customer-facing representatives to deliver the best service possible without barriers. They don’t have to check with their managers if it’s OK to dole out free shipping, or do anything else that furnishes an amazing customer experience.

Here are 3 great articles that spell out specific strategies you can use to make your company one people will love working for:

• Beyond Hawaiian-Shirt Friday: Groupon, Hulu Inspire Employee Innovation With Radical Trust (Fast Company) – Groupon and Hulu avoid red tape, and challenge the staff to be creative and develop ideas.
• Your Culture is Your Brand (Zappos blog) -Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, details how the company’s culture is the crux of its legendary customer service-driven brand.
• Daniel Pink on Motivation (The Washington Post) – Daniel Pink, an expert on motivation, explores the surprising findings behind how people do their best work.

What Next?

Read some tips from Inc.com and Paul Spigeleman on how to make your employees smile.