More Reputation vs Employees

Recently we went over a recent research study by The Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement titled “ What Drives the Customer Experiences in Service Marketing ?” The surveys conducted by the company provided the following results: Companies rated the insurance agent higher than the company. Agents that engaged with the customer well had higher retention rates. Both of these findings are intriguing, as they suggest that in companies that have person to person service jobs, the customer satisfaction scores may not be capturing the entire story.

Employees Rated Higher Than Company The first implication of the research is that customer satisfaction surveys – surveys that usually measure the contentment of the customer to the company – may not be providing a completely accurate picture of the customer’s true loyalty. Customers that have good experiences with involved employees may still not rate the company itself that high, but still have a connection within the company that keeps them using their business. Agents That Are Engaged AND Exhibit Good Customer Service Retain Customers Perhaps one of the most important findings is that when an employee was not only engaged with the customer but also exhibited excellent customer service had improved retention rates. This was an especially interesting finding because insurance companies rarely have retention rates that are due to anything other than price and coverage.

The findings show that two separate things may need to occur within your company. First, your customer satisfaction surveys may need to include questions about specific experiences, especially in industries where there is significant employee involvement with the customer’s experience. Companies may not always get as much satisfaction as the employees themselves, but the employees themselves may be the key to loyalty.

Second, investing money in those that deliver excellent customer service and engage with the customer may be even more valuable than originally anticipated. Customers can build loyalty to specific employees even if they do not have loyalty to the company itself, and that loyalty can help bring in more business over time. The Forum also suggests that companies that have already built a fairly strong, positive brand reputation should start focusing more of their finances on employees, because employees have the potential to build loyalty in a way that companies do not.

However, this only works for companies with a strong brand reputation already. Building a positive brand is still important in the industry, but the returns may be diminishing when compared to employee involvement.