Among the world’s leading brands, a top-down commitment to building and maintaining a customer-centric culture is priority one. But equally important is keeping an ear to the ground.
When was the last time you asked your employees for feedback?
Do you know how they feel about their jobs, the company as a whole, its policies and procedures, and its leadership?
Many retailers don’t realize how important this is. How cost effective it is. How helpful it is in getting a complete picture of the customer experience. And how much it matters to your associates on the front lines—the people you trust to represent your brand and to make your customers feel welcome, appreciated, and well served.
The Crucial Benefits of Soliciting Employee Feedback
We are huge proponents of the employee feedback loop. Employee satisfaction surveys—conducted on a regular basis, and followed up on in a meaningful way—say to associates, in no uncertain terms: “We’re asking because we care.”
The feeling of being heard can be very powerful, particularly among millennial associates, who have unique expectations and demands of their employers. Millennials want to contribute meaningfully to a greater purpose. Employee engagement helps build a sense of community, strengthen brand pride, and inspire acts of excellence that distinguish the customer experience.
“Gallup’s extensive research shows that employee engagement is strongly connected to business outcomes essential to an organization’s financial success, such as productivity, profitability and customer engagement. Engaged employees drive the innovation, growth and revenue that their companies need.” –Amy Adkins, Gallup
Employee satisfaction surveys are equally valuable from a business intelligence standpoint. Associates are keenly attuned to what customers want and need, and how the current sales or service model might be failing them (or worse, alienating them).
In our own experience administering employee satisfaction surveys, we’re often amazed by the consistency among employee responses. They give company leadership a clear picture of what’s trending over time, what’s happening in a certain part of the company, and the challenges facing individual job roles.
How to Put Employee Satisfaction Surveys to Good Use
Aubuchon Hardware, a family-owned retailer with 107 stores, recognizes the value of the employee feedback loop. In November 2015, we kicked off Aubuchon’s employee satisfaction survey program, which is modeled after our own.
The program involves quarterly wave surveys, with different questions asked each quarter. These surveys are concise, so they’re easy to complete. They begin with a question to assess the associate’s mindset (irrespective of corporate priorities) before delving into specifics.
In addition to the rotating topic areas, we also ask three basic open-ended questions:
- What should we keep doing?
- What should we stop doing?
- What should we start doing?
Within a week, we provide CEO Will Aubuchon IV with the results. Afterward, he and other senior executives personally visit stores, thank employees for participating in the survey, and reveal the results, along with the specific actions the company is taking in response. Will and his team also refer back to the previous quarter, sharing the changes that have occurred and the results of those efforts.
In addition to quarterly surveys, Aubuchon provides employees with a “listening list”—target areas, action items, and status levels based on employee comments offered throughout the year.
Aubuchon is a great example of a retailer that’s committed to doing right by its employees. Communication, transparency, and a sense of accountability (on the part of leadership to employees at large) are deeply embedded company values. Will and his leadership team continue to work to enhance the feedback loop and make the most of the input they receive.
Beyond the Survey: 3 Best Practices to Improve Employee Engagement
Employee satisfaction surveys are a great first step, but your employees want more than to be heard. They want to be inspired. To build an enthusiastic, loyal, committed workforce, you must also:
1. Revisit and revamp your training programs.
Onboarding new hires and refreshing seasoned associates are excellent brand-building opportunities. In terms of both content and delivery, your training programs should reflect your brand values, your vision for the customer experience, and your sales-floor priorities.
2. Ensure store managers lead by example.
Recently, we conducted a program for a client that involved mystery shopping both the store manager and the entire store (two separate visits) in multiple locations. The managers’ scores—both the top 10% and the bottom 10%—closely aligned with their stores’ overall scores.
The message is clear: Associate performance can (and should) be tracked back to store managers. If a manager isn’t walking the walk, showing associates how things are supposed to be done, corporate standards and expectations likely won’t be met.
3. Be a great place to work, grow, and advance.
A decade ago, retail turnover was over 100%. Today, it’s significantly lower (66% in 2014). That’s good news for the industry overall.
If you’re still living with high employee churn (perhaps having accepted it as the cost of doing business), there’s no better time for a change of course. To start, you must identify talent that will serve your brand well, keep these associates on a trajectory that’s rewarding and lucrative, and do what’s best for them—and, long term, what’s best for your company.
How Do You Keep Your Employees Engaged?
We want to know: What works for your brand? What have you learned from other brands, both inside and outside your industry? How have your employee engagement efforts affected your customer experience?
Written by: Nanette BrownNanette has over twenty-six years of consumer insight experience, having served as a marketing research analyst for Supermarkets General, and subsequently Pathmark Stores, Inc. It was during her tenure with Pathmark that she came to know ICC Decision Services first as a client, and she later she joined the company as a Client Success Executive. Since then, Nanette has lead all market research initiatives with our team from design/execution to strategic analysis, and also began the use of focus groups, traffic studies, and most notably, shopper intercepts to gather customer experience information.
In her current position as Executive Vice President and General Manager, Nanette continues to instill her passion for excellence across the organization, guiding the measurement, management and improvement of our clients’ customer experience.
In addition to being a trained Focus Group Moderator, Nanette has a Business Administration degree in Marketing and Management from Montclair State University.
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