The Great Customer Resignation is real! 5 Steps to combat it!

Overpromising and underdelivering is the current customer experience globally.!

No matter, the industry, the product or the service, the customer experience continues to be less than favorable.

This trend is concerning, so why is it happening?

The natural evolution from the “Great Employee Resignation” becomes evident as we witness and experience the “Great Customer Resignation” take hold.  According to Gallup, when customers are actively disengaged and don’t believe you deliver on your promises, the result is a 19% decline in business outcomes, on average.

Gallup reported that in 2020, the percentage of employees who strongly agreed that their organization cared about their overall wellbeing surged to 49% as organizations worked to do their best to take care of their employees.  Fast forward to 2022, as that level of commitment eroded the number of employees who believe their organization actually cares about their wellbeing plummeted to a record low with only 24% strongly agreeing today.  This impact of this decline in employee satisfaction and commitment to an organization is a contributing factor to the “Great Employee Resignation”. This outcome has driven disappointed employees to walk, organizations struggling to hire, and a workforce working hard to keep up and failing to do so. The end result is lack of customer service, quality and customer satisfaction.

Customers are looking for an organization that delivers on its promise and cares about their customer experience.

Turn your organization around and begin to make a good impression on your customers and improve not only your customer experience but also your employee experience.

When employees are happy and satisfied, your customers will reap the benefits.

5 steps to combat the “Great Customer Resignation”

Step 1:  Prioritize your customer’s experience and journey

Organizations cannot survive or thrive without customers.  Understanding the experience of both internal and external customers is vital to the success of any organization.  Unfortunately, most organizations are falling short when it comes to delivering quality customer service lately.

Before a customer’s experience and journey can be prioritized it must be defined and clarified.

Techtarget.com defines “Customer Service (CX)” as the sum total of customers’ perceptions and feelings resulting from interactions with a brand’s products and services.

To prioritize the customer experience and journey, consider:

• Who are your internal and external customers?

• How does your organization and employees define “Customer Experience (CX)”?

• How can you determine their journey and break down the interactions from start to finish?

• What are their challenges?

• What are their expectations?

• What do they expect or require when it comes to company responsiveness?

Step 2:  Identify your organization’s purpose with clarity and authenticity

It is more important than ever for organizations to remember their purpose and then lead with purpose. 

A clear authentic purpose is as important to an organization as a foundation is to a building.  It is the foundation to why the organization exists and who they serve.

Over the last few years many organizations have lost their way as they attempted to navigate through the pandemic fallout and the ever-changing markets and economy. 

According to the 2019 Porter Novelli/Cone Purpose Biometrics study found that when companies lead with purpose, 89% of consumers are more likely to trust the company and 83% are more likely to be loyal.  An additional benefit for ensuring an organization has a clear and authentic purpose as PWC discovered in their study, when organizations effectively communicate their purpose , employees are more than two times as motivated and passionate.  This is also backed by Gallup’s study that showed employees are three and a half times more likely to be engaged when they see how their work connects to the organizations goals and purpose.

To identify or refine your organization’s purpose consider:

• What important role does your organization play in your industry?

• What is the benefit for your customer from what you offer?

• Who are your customers and what do they need and want from you?

• What is the goal, end result or outcome you offer to your customers?

Your purpose is your reason for existing, so make sure your purpose is honest, authentic and clear. 

Communicate often, communicate consistently and ensure everyone involved with the organization is aware of the organizations purpose.

Step 3:  Work at streamlining processes for efficiency

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important aspects of a successful organization. 

When an organization falls short on meeting the needs of their customers, sales decrease, customer complaints increase, employees become disgruntled, and the entire organization suffers.  With the current climate of customer dissatisfaction, finding ways to improve processes for efficiency, accuracy and quality can be a differentiator. 

To effectively streamline and improve your customer interactions consider:

•  What barriers or trouble spots would inconvenience or frustrate the customer journey?

•  How can you involve your employees to find improvements and remove barriers to supporting customer service?

•  What technology could be invested in to increase accuracy and efficiencies for providing better customer service?

Step 4:  Evaluate outcome-based metrics to validate that the expectations and reality are evident

Today’s customers are looking for seamless and consistent experience every time they interact with an organization. 

Unfortunately, what customers are expecting is far from the reality of what they are receiving. 

Bridging the gap between the organization’s customers expectation and reality can go a long way to improving their experience, perception and strengthen their loyalty.

Outcome-based metrics are a way to quantitatively indicate if your organization is delivering a desired outcome. 

Many organizations focus on the KPI’s (Key performance Indicators) to measure metrics for how the company is doing. (Revenue, growth, etc). 

Organizations that wish to be more customer focused should consider measuring how they are performing for their customers. 

Outcomes such as measuring interactions with the customer to ensure every interaction has a purpose, problem, need, intent or question aligned towards hitting a desired outcome.  These outcomes are considered CPI’s (Customer Performance Indicators).  CPI’s are measurable in increments that the organization’s customers value. Time, convenience, number of options, dollars saved are examples of increments that customers value. It is important to set CPI’s that are suitable and relevant to your specific organization and determine the desired measurement for customer interactions.

When using outcome-based metrics such as CPI’s to validate customer expectations vs reality, consider:

• What are the customer frustrations that can be addressed and measured as a targeted outcome?

• How can you track the number and types of customer complaints, compliments or referrals?

• What metrics could you measure that would indicate the quality of your customer interactions?               

Step 5:  Commit and invest in employee retention strategies

With the shortage of a skilled workforce across all industries, organizations are finding it difficult to provide adequate customer service when they don’t have enough staff and/or skilled staff to meet the demands. 

One of the biggest challenges globally right now is the ability to hire and retain great employees. 

To navigate through the “Great Customer Resignation” it would benefit organizations to tackle the “Great Employee Resignation”.  Focusing on creating an organizational culture where employees want to work, and stay is a great step towards enabling the organization to offer improved customer service.  Providing adequate pay and benefits is important but it isn’t the entire package. 

According to Gallup’s research, 42% of the reasons people are quitting or not considering working for organizations are tied to how they feel about their bosses and organizational cultures.

To commit and invest in employee retention strategies consider:

• Does the current workplace culture support employees so they can achieve a healthier work-life balance?

• When it comes to workplace benefits, does your organization offer workplace flexibility, or other creative perks that your employee base would benefit from?

• What methods of communication can you provide to allow employees at all levels to voice their ideas and offer insights for improvements, so they are engaged and part of the solution?

• Is there a focus on leadership development for all leaders in the organization?

• Is your organization investing in employee development by building a strengths-based culture where everyone can be and perform at their best?

What is a strengths-based culture? Gallup defines it as, where leaders, managers, and employees choose to continually develop each person’s potential, resulting in an engaged workforce and organic business growth.

When employees are engaged and happy, the end result will be more engaged and happy customers.

Start today to combat “The great customer resignation” by investing in your employees!

CliftonStrengths is an amazing tool that can help you invest in your staff and organization by developing their strengths and talents to create a strengths-based culture which in turn delivers great customer experiences.

Connect with me to learn how to get started!