The people on the ground are often the ones who know your customers best. And their ideas can lead to improvements and even innovations. Just ask Sony, Amazon or 3M, who have all made major breakthroughs in the past thanks to employee suggestions.So listening to employees can make the difference in improving the customer experience in your organisation.

Why is the voice of the employee valuable in improving the customer experience?

Why collect feedback from your staff about your customers, if you are already getting feedback directly from the customers themselves? In reality, it is because your staff will tell you things that customers cannot.

This is because they have a much higher level of product knowledge than the customer. They are therefore able to assess brand and product knowledge from a more informed perspective. Their feedback can help you to identify actions to take to market and promote your products and services.

Think about your own experiences as a customer. When you last interacted with a company, who did you talk to? Was it the marketing department? The customer experience team? Or even the product design team? Probably not! Your main interaction is almost always with 'front line' staff, whether in a shop, on the phone or online.

So no matter how well you listen to customers, you cannot escape the fact that employees are a rich source of feedback and ideas that the vast majority of companies leave untapped.

Adopt an external and internal approach to customer feedback

Traditional customer feedback is almost always managed by the head office, as this is usually where customer satisfaction programmes and other surveys are designed.

Let's call it an external approach: the head office, outside the field, puts in place mechanisms to hear the voice of the customers. This approach is, of course, an essential part of any satisfaction programme.

The next step, however, is to take an internal approach by encouraging your employees to contribute to this listening process from within. In this way, they will bridge the experience gap. As you can see, this approach is particularly useful when teams are working remotely, in points of sale, in workshops, or in customer service centres. In short, when the employees in contact with customers are not those at headquarters.

Examples of employees' ideas for improving the customer experience

Listening to the ideas and feedback of your employees on the ground can greatly improve the customer experience. Here are some examples of ideas from employees that have hit the mark!

Reducing queues

Sellers have found that having the cash register at the front of the shop creates queues that impede access to the shop entrance.

Their idea? Move the checkouts to the back to encourage customers to explore the whole shop.

Saving customers time

Car centre mechanics have heard from customers that they are frustrated at not knowing the exact time they can collect their vehicle after a repair.

Their idea? Live mobile notifications to find out when vehicles are available, and the ability to reschedule appointments in an app.

Faster deliveries 

One deliveryman found that when customers left instructions to leave their packages in a safe place, deliveries were much faster. This naturally reduced the number of late packages.

His idea? Send an SMS to customers on the morning of their delivery asking them if they want the parcel to be delivered to a safe place.

Improving the customer experience... by improving the employee experience

Countless studies show that customer satisfaction is a key driver of employee engagement and productivity. When they feel they are making a difference and their feedback is taken into account, they are much more likely to be 'engaged' at work.

So it's a win-win situation! Your customers are satisfied because you improve their experience. And your employees are happy because they're making a real difference to the customer experience.

Did you know that?

Beeshake allows you to collect irritants, needs, comments, ideas and best practices from your employees to improve the customer experience. Your employees play an active role in feeding back to the head office team what matters most. They can even support and comment on their colleagues' ideas, and keep up to date through notifications.

It is then possible to follow the best suggestions through the development process, enriching them to ensure that these ideas lead to concrete actions.