Why You Should Treat Your Employees Like Customers

As someone who loves marketing, I usually focus on the relationship between companies and their customers. So why am I writing about employees today? Because connecting with your employees actually takes a marketing mindset. Treat your employees with the same attitude as you bring to your customer interactions, and you’re guaranteed to make your company into a place where everyone wants to work.

Employers Have Brands Too

Marketing is all about placing yourself ahead of your competitors by identifying what makes your brand special. As an employer, your competitors are the other companies who rely on the same talent pool that you do. Skilled workers in today’s tight job market can largely decide who they will work for, and you can’t safely assume that inertia will keep your current staff in place. They’re always being wooed, through LinkedIn and other networking methods. Digital marketing specialist Sarah Landrum points out that by age 35, about one quarter of young employees will have worked five jobs. Furthermore, a survey by Robert Half reveals that 75 percent of employees under the age of 34 think that job hopping may actually benefit their careers. It’s vital you maintain a strong employer brand to attract and retain top talent. Ask yourself, ‘How is my company marketing itself to potential candidates?’ Take advantage of showcasing the highlights of your work culture, whether it’s your company’s remote flexibility options, recognition and rewards program, or competitive pay – the list can go on.

Your Company is Being Talked About

Employees have a lot of influence on what is said about your company. For example, what happens if you have a customer who is unhappy with their customer service, and you don’t take steps to remedy the situation? They’ll probably write a negative review and share it with dozens of their friends, and the friends of those friends. And this whole situation started with an employee’s interaction with a customer.

 And it’s not just your customers that share their comments online; your employees are just as talkative about their jobs. Whatever happens in your workplace -- positive or negative -- may appear tomorrow on a review site like Glassdoor or on social media like Facebook. Employees use social media and various other digital platforms to compare notes on what it’s like to work at various places, and news travels at light speed. Glassdoor points out that 83 percent of job seekers (and current employees, because people always have their eye out for great opportunities) will research company reviews and ratings when they are deciding where to apply for a job.

What Thinking in Marketing Terms Looks Like

Marketing is about being emotionally authentic and understanding the psychological basis of people’s needs. Whether you’re marketing your products to customers, or marketing your company to employees, you have to recognize and meet the needs of your target audience. You can divide this process into three categories:

●   Listen to What They Say

Everyone needs to be listened to. As a marketer, I always want to hear from our customers -- so of course, it makes sense to me to extend listening to employees as well. A 2017 Gallup study found that only 30 percent of employees “strongly agree” that their manager involves them in goal-setting. These employees are nearly 4 times more likely to be engaged than employees who are not listened to. Furthermore, your employees’ ideas and feedback arise in a fluid, situational manner -- so you need an always-on channel in order to be there when they have something to say. In larger work groups, this wasn’t formerly available -- but technology now allows us to engage in two-way conversations with every employee -- effortlessly.

●   Act on What You Hear

Just listening to someone won’t make them feel empowered. It’s only half the story. Once you’ve heard what they have to say, you have to take action. Imagine a marketer who circulates a survey among the company’s customers, collects all the results, and then stashes them in an unopened file. That would be crazy, and also a huge waste of resources. Well, if you ask your employees to give you feedback, and then you just thank them and don’t act on what they said, you’re essentially doing the same thing. Today’s technology allows you to take bite-sized actions in response to what your employees have to say -- anytime they say it.

●   Reward Commitment

One big part of marketing is to nurture the most loyal customers by rewarding their commitment to your company. It is common for customers to receive rewards or perks for their continued business and loyalty. The same psychology applies to the workplace. When you show attention and appreciation to your employees, they feel valued by you. Their engagement and commitment to your company rises. Furthermore, this appreciation is no longer optional: 74 percent of respondents in an Achievers survey stated they were planning to look for a new job in 2018 and 69 percent said recognition and rewards would be a motivational factor for them to stay.

Happy Employees Lead to Happy Customers

Here’s another bonus: Not only is it helpful to use a marketing mindset when it comes to keeping your employees happy, but their happiness will circle around and have a direct effect on your customer experience as well. Engaged employees “are more likely to improve customer relationships, with a resulting 20 percent increase in sales,” according to research published in Forbes.

Working at a place like Achievers, an employee recognition and engagement company, I’ve witnessed first-hand the impact that employee happiness can have. This type of culture has made an obvious impact on the customer experience, with Achievers winning three 2018 Stevie awards in customer experience, way to go Vanessa Brangwyn, Chief Customer Officer!

Technology Brings Us Together

I’m genuinely excited about how technology helps to connect people. In my field of marketing, companies didn’t have many options before digital connections came along. All you could do was to advertise, and that was absolutely one-directional. Now, with the advent of social media, a company can engage directly one-on-one with a customer, and that one interaction may be shared with a hundred or a thousand other people. In the same way, a unique tool like Achievers Listen helps knit together all the members of an organization. Busy leaders can now have productive personal interactions with many employees at once, using technology based on natural language and artificial intelligence. Download our white paper on the new engagement conversation and learn more about “Allie,” Achievers’ active listening interface.