Better employee experience (EX) is key to better consumer experience (CX)
When companies attempt to create a better consumer experience, they often place their focus on technology and forget the role of human beings in creating valuable shopping experiences for consumers. According to PwC’s 2019 Swiss Consumer Insights Survey, respondents ranked “access to sales associates with a deep knowledge of the product range” as the main attribute that improves their in-store shopping experiences.
Customer-facing employees aren’t the only ones creating experiences for customers, those working in the background are just as important. For example, the employees behind consumer products that are sold through brick-and-mortar retailers or online platforms, fulfill needs and build relationships with consumers differently.
“You have the commercial end of the organisation that’s well-attuned to the consumer. So are marketing, sales and, to a certain extent, the supply chain,” said the e-commerce director of a worldwide consumer products company in a January 2019 interview with PwC. “But with your manufacturing and production, the key performance indicators drift a little bit away from the consumer. But we’re still a consumer-centric company. That’s our core value driver.”
Changing the culture changes the experience
Employees believe that their experience is based on the culture they are part of. In the latest Global Culture Survey conducted by the Katzenbach Center of PwC’s Strategy& confirmed the differences in how management and rank-and-file employees understand their company culture, 63% of C-suite executives and board members believed that their company culture was strong, but only 41% of non-management employees agreed.
How can the culture gap with employees be closed? First, you have to identify the traits that make your company unique and that employees affiliate themselves with. Second, find out what behaviours you need to harness within the company to align with your traits and your strategic and operational objectives. Finally, select teams or areas of the business to exhibit the new behaviours and respond to resistance to the new ways of working with empathy and understanding. Informal leaders – those who have the ability to influence behaviour without having an official “leader” title – will start to emerge and help set the base for the new ways of working.
The ability to craft and capitalise on positive emotional energy is key to creating cultural change because it drives employees to give their best performance, regardless of external incentives such as compensation and benefits. And leaders demonstrate the behaviour that is most favourable in the company culture.
Established companies should transform incrementally
When leaders of established organisations talk about integrating an entrepreneurial, consumer-centric mind-set, they end up being anything but entrepreneurial. Such companies are process-oriented, heavily siloed and built for stability, no speed. If you’re the leader of an established company, you have to harvest a new culture and shift the focus of your employees to customer experience if you want to succeed.
Gradually applying the transformation within different projects or areas will eventually help you and your employees cultivate this new culture, while your business is still running.
