Does Having a Customer-Centric Culture Result in Happier Employees?

By Bhavika Sharma

Yes, A Customer-Centric Culture Works Wonders for Greater Employee Retention!

November 11 2019 - For any organization or business to be successful, it needs to cater to the needs of its customers, solve their problems, and fulfill their demands. At the core of every organization is its customers who are running the show. They are the ones helping you to make profits and pay your employees. So, it’s only fair for them to expect you to make their lives easier with your products and services. This is what customer-centricity is all about.

But how does it affect employee retention?

Research reveals that companies with a customer-centric culture are more likely to have engaged employees who are more committed to staying with your organization.

A customer-centric culture makes customers a priority for the people who work at the company. Customer-centric companies are eager to understand their customers, and this understanding translates into making everyone’s job easier.

In a customer-centric organization, employees display customer-centricity in the following three areas:

• They listen to customers and know exactly what they want.
• They understand their needs. They ask questions if need be so that they understand the customers better.
• Finally, they advocate and act on customer needs while ensuring that they are offering exactly what the customers had asked.

How a strong customer-centric culture makes your employees happy enough to stay with your organization longer?

• They feel empathy for your customers

According to a survey, employees who reported having high levels of customer empathy found more meaning in their work.

Customer empathy is all about understanding your customers on a deeper level; what they are going through and what are their concerns. If your employees feel connected to the customer’s needs on a personal level, they will serve the customers better.

Companies that prioritize customer empathy will see two results:

• Increase in revenue
• Presence of highly engaged employees

• They feel like your company cares about customer concerns.

According to research, employees who feel that customer satisfaction is the most important priority for their company are twice more likely to stay with the organization for at least two years than others.

When the company’s efforts are focused on keeping the customers happy, it tells your employees that their work matters. It shows that you trust them to do the job of keeping the customers happy. This boosts their morale and makes them feel that their work matters and everybody in the company are working towards a common goal – to make customers happy. This attitude encourages them to improve their customer experience management (CEM) skills.

• They feel that their work impacts customers.

When your employees feel like their work has a direct impact on the customers, they will undoubtedly go home happier.

Everybody wants their work to matter. When your employees realize that their work has a positive effect on the customers, they’ll stay more invested in their work.

It’s important to use employee feedback surveys to understand how your employees feel about their jobs. Are they aligned with your company’s goal of customer-centricity? You can measure your employee’s customer-centricity through surveys.

How to Measure Customer-Centricity Using Surveys

You can use online survey tools to measure customer-centricity. These survey tools can do the following:

• Determine how customer-centric your employees think your organization is
• Recognize how individual employees feel connected to customers
• Identify which programs are helping and how you can drive a more customer-centric culture

Key Takeaway: A customer-centric organization enhances customer experience and helps your business to grow, leading to greater employee retention.

About the author

Bhavika Sharma is a survey designer at SurveySparrow, where she designs surveys that work by making them more conversational and engaging, fetching 40% more responses. When she isn’t designing killer surveys, she loves to travel in search of adventure and to meet new people. Her travel experiences have taught her the importance of conversation and that is what she brings to the table while creating surveys or content for her readers.

• General HR