How Company Culture Affects Customer Satisfaction

Employee experience has a direct impact on customer experience — here’s how to improve it.
How Company Culture Affects Customer Satisfaction
By
Mildred T Delgado

Relationships between companies, employees and customers are changing. While the customer experience is still a key area of focus for organisations, the methods behind providing a good service are evolving, with company culture as a catalyst.

New business models work on the basis that the employee experience has a direct impact on the customer experience, thereby encouraging the cultivation of positive company culture to improve employee satisfaction.

Company Welcome

When hiring a new employee, it’s vital to maintain a positive company culture by allowing them to feel they are becoming part of a team. Each company should have a well-designed recruitment process that finds the ideal candidate to fit into a company’s specific culture.

The ideal candidate should share some of the key values with the company and be eager to adopt the organization’s goals as their own. Upon the arrival of a new employee, management should take the time to ensure they are fully on board with the company mission and the traditions and beliefs that are unique to the organisation.

Additionally, the act of a welcome gift or event can ease the new job jitters and help the new employee feel as though they are part of a family.

Companies that regard their workforce as a family generate loyalty and respect from their employees, leading to better communication, more productivity and higher levels of customer service.

Company culture

Company culture is a guide to how the company operates and performs far beyond official rules and requirements. While employees may be obligated to answer a phone call, it’s a company culture that will determine how the call is answered, the attitude with which it is answered and the overall outcome of the call.

Good company culture creates a positive environment for employees with high levels of trust, responsibility, mutual respect, and communication. Giving employees the opportunity to shine and be productive off their own back without feeling micromanaged and disrespected will result in satisfied employees, happy to take ownership of their work and eager to perform their best.

Work enjoyment has a direct impact on customer service.

When employees care about their work and their company, they are more likely to want to represent their company and ensure that the company is doing well and maintain their reputation.

Naturally, a company’s reputation stems from its customers’ opinions. When customers are interacting with positive, enthusiastic and work-oriented employees, their impression of the company will be much better.

Unique Employees

Respecting employees means recognising that they are individuals and treating them accordingly. An individual’s behaviour should never have an impact on the workforce as a whole. Group punishment is patronising and can create tense relationships between employees and management. Instead, in the case of an unsatisfactory performance with one individual employee, they should be given warnings and restrictions on an individual basis.

Although teamwork is important and should be rewarded, employees like to be recognised on an individual basis. Employee contributions and successes should be noted and rewarded so that individuals understand that they are valued and continue to put effort into their work.

With respect and recognition from management, employees are likely to work harder to continue to prove themselves which will result in better customer service and happy customers. Check out this article on how to give genuine recognition.

It’s important for humans to have an identity that is recognised and respected. Traditional working environments encourage employees to shed their identity and become a corporate robot 🤖 between working hours, however, newer management strategies that promote individualism have been shown to cultivate a more positive and productive working environment in which employees feel valued.

Outside the 9–5

Employees have rich and varied lives outside the workplace with unique ambitions and requirements. The more a company is willing to recognize and accommodate each individual’s desires external obligations, the more positive the company culture will become.

Generating the optimal company culture can include opportunities for further education, taking interest in extracurricular hobbies by creating communities within the company, and setting up fun activities for employees to complete together outside of working hours.

Companies that allow and encourage hobbies and social connections will find they have a more coordinated working environment with happier and more fulfilled employees that will be more willing to go the extra mile for a company which includes willingly helping the company in tight spots and providing excellent customer service for a company they are proud to belong to.

Conclusion

The overall theory of company culture assumes that the treatment of employees has a direct impact on the treatment of customers. Thanks to the promise of better customer service, organisations are treating employees with respect and ensuring they are happy at work.

Further reading: How does branding affect company culture?

About the author

Mildred Delgado is a fresh and responsible marketing strategist at Academic Brits and PhD Kingdom. She works in a marketing team to create marketing proposals for a fully-functional website that accurately portrays the company. Her work can be found at Case Study Help.

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