Editor's note: Nancy Porte is vice president, customer experience, at Verint, a Melville, N.Y., research software company. Porte is based in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at nancy.porte@verint.com. This article appeared in the June 25, 2012, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.
The recession has impacted how individuals view work and the workplace. Though it may appear little has changed - as those who have managed to keep their jobs hunker down, try not to get noticed and wait things out - the workplace continues to evolve as new trends emerge.
Listening to the voice of the employee (VOE) has never been so important. Employees are savvy and although they have been relatively quiet waiting for things to return to normal after the recession, they have been carefully watching. But not only are they watching, assessing and calculating their next move internally, customer-facing employees are empowered with the real-time pulse of your customer. These employees are the face of the company and gather valuable insights about your customers. Their attitude becomes your brand and their insights become actionable intelligence. Do you have a grasp on this valuable customer feedback and knowledge of how to take care of the employee who provides it?
Sometimes customers just don't know what they want. The late Steve Jobs told Inc., "You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new." To better understand and serve customers, many businesses are turning to their frontline employees.
VOCE
Voice of the customer through the employee (VOCE) is an approach that seeks to better understand the customer through employee insights. There are a number of ways this can be done, including via online surveys, speech analytics or text analytics. In other cases, employees are asked to share - in an online community - the questions, concerns and frustrations of customers. Popular in the retail industry, this concept is simple: In-store staff are encouraged to submit their observations about consumer problems, issues and complaints to a team that then directly addresses the issue at hand.
Best Buy launched a system, dubbed My Customer, built upon the philosophy of VOCE. An on-screen widget makes it easy for employees to enter a comment about any consumer issue. The data is reportedly reviewed immediately and decisions made quickly.
Steve Wallin, senior director, voice of the customer, at Best Buy, relates how VOCE has unleashed the power of its 100,000+ frontline employees to share what they learn from customer interactions.
While Best Buy admits the program had challenges, documented results have improved store layout and operations. For example, when it was reported that consumers were confused between the customer service and Geek Squad desks, Best Buy changed the signage and added more informational kiosks throughout the store. They subsequently saw a 30 percent increase in that store's customer service ratings.
Some critics say that VOCE isn't the answer. They point out the problem with customer confusion regarding store layout could have been solved if appropriate testing had been done during the design phases of the store layout. Perhaps. But testing processes aren't perfect either and, more importantly, customer needs and wants change over time. VOCE appears to be a sound, reasonable option for tracking changing customer requirements.
Applied in other industries
As VOCE continues to gain popularity in the retail industry, we can also consider how it could be applied in other industries. Any business with a call center or field operations team can gather employee insights about customers' day-to-day issues and behavior, which could lead to both product and service improvements.
For example, what if a cable company's call center employee had the capacity to relate that a large number of customers, who are calling in about other issues, also mentioned that they didn't understand the new billing format? What if a driver responsible for frozen-food delivery could instantly inform you that customers have mentioned they would buy more if they could schedule the exact time of delivery? Those are tremendously valuable things to know about your business.
Capturing the voice of the customer includes many listening posts: surveys, social media, chat, CRM systems and more. Cohesively collecting - and rapidly acting upon - employee insights about your customers adds yet another valuable source that rounds out a comprehensive program. Employee feedback provides an organization with competitive advantage by receiving timely insights that can then be used to effectively improve the customer experience across the board.
Part of every organization's DNA
Some organizations, including the University of Minnesota, conduct employee satisfaction surveys every other year. Every 730 days, the school's management asks employees if they are satisfied. And many organizations, such as Butler America, are twice as interested, measuring employee satisfaction annually.
Measuring employee engagement and loyalty can be challenging but should be part of every organization's DNA. Qualitative research by the American Productivity and Quality Center illustrates best practices for monitoring VOE and driving organizational change. One organization calculates an employee engagement index based on the following subset of employee survey items:
Satisfaction: Employees are asked, "Considering everything, how would you rate your overall satisfaction with the company at the present time?"
Advocacy: Employees are asked whether they "would recommend the company as a great place to work."
Retention: Employees are asked to respond yes or no to the statement, "I rarely think about looking for a job with a new company."
Pride: Employees are asked to respond yes or no to the statement, "I am proud to work for the company."
Satisfaction snapshots
In-depth employee satisfaction research is vital to organizations that wish to become - and remain - preferred employers, whether it is conducted annually or biannually. Asking every employee to complete 60-to-100 questions, a la the Employee Loyalty Benchmark from Walker Information, is not something you want to do too frequently. But you can supplement that detailed research with satisfaction snapshots.
To do this, conduct a monthly or quarterly pulse survey. If your organization has 2,000+ employees, use a random sample of employees rather than attempting a census (yes, it's a good idea, even if Scott Adams pokes fun of it in "Dilbert"). Ask 10 or 15 high-priority questions that will help you track morale and other HR KPIs. In fact, after you decide on the key initiatives that will address the issues identified by the most recent major survey, modify the snapshot survey to include questions about those issues. Also make certain to collect open-end responses to discover new employee concerns.
At the least, a snapshot survey provides you with a scorecard to see how you are doing on your key HR initiatives and a way to keep tabs on overall employee morale. Most likely, it will also more rapidly alert you to problems, helping keep your organization on track to being a preferred employer.
Continue to rise
VOE will continue to rise as an important initiative - equal to VOC - within companies. Research clearly points to the fact that engaged employees work with a passion that translates into happier, more loyal customers. That sounds like a great trend for 2012 and beyond.