Marketing begins at home: How employee engagement attracts customers

Employee engagement is key to long-term success and profitability for all of the UK’s businesses.

Times have been pretty tough in the past few years and as businesses have had to adapt to a changing marketplace, marketers have also had to adapt to a seismic shift in marketing strategies, tactics and the tools they use to do their job.

Lifecycle marketing has been identified as the way to stay successful in the digital age. But a key component of getting the results you want from your lifecycle marketing strategies is to get your employees engaged to deliver the customer experiences that create brand advocates.

Unengaged in the UK

The only thing is, a recent survey revealed that two-thirds of the UK’s workforce are not engaged, and it came ninth for engagement levels in a survey of the world’s 12 most developed nations. This has also created a productivity problem that has left output per hour in the UK at 15% below the average for the rest of the G7 industrialised nations.

Low employee engagement and lagging productivity is the greatest HR challenge facing UK employers in 2013, according to research from talent and career management company, Right Management. But it’s not too late to turn things around and if Britain’s businesses can achieve better employee engagement levels and get into the top four then there could be a corresponding £25.8bn increase in GDP.

Before we look at how you go about engaging your employees, this blog has come up with 5 compelling reasons why you should be engaging them:

• It improves productivity
• Personal fulfillment rather than financial gain becomes their goal
• Attrition and absence rates go down
• Revenue and profits go up
• The customer experience is improved

How do you engage your employees?

To get your employees engaged in actively marketing your business for you every time they interact with a customer or supplier, you need to define exactly who needs to be involved, in what way and at what stage of the customer’s lifecycle then assign the appropriate tasks and responsibilities. This means that marketing activities will extend beyond the marketing department and become embedded across the business.

Employees revealed that the best tools for engaging them are:

• Emails (83%)
• Intranet (75%)
• Face-to-face meetings (54%)

But it’s not just about where and how you say it, it’s about what you say. You need to put as much effort into marketing your business to your staff as you do to your prospects and customers.

Follow these 7 low-cost, high-impact engagement ideas to get your employees back on your side:

• Be more flexible to give a better work-life balance
• Be more transparent about what’s going on in the business to build trust
• Make the most of social networking technology – it’s a fact of life so use it to your advantage
• Provide regular feedback and opportunities for development
• Use reward and recognition programmes
• Celebrate the small as well as the big wins
• Be approachable and part of the team

Alongside that, encourage fun and friendship as research has shown that close friendships with co-workers boosts employee satisfaction by 50% and that 90% of employees value a fun working environment. Happiness and endorphins make for better customer experiences!

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The Author
	Alistair Norman | Marketing Director Alistair is responsible for the strategy, design and implementation of our Inbound and Content Marketing, with a focus on developing B2B and B2C markets.