Although years’ worth of business market research states the opposite, employers still feel that going above and beyond to delight their consumers will pave the way to customer loyalty. Your customers don’t expect you to deliver the world; they expect you to solve their problems quickly.

Businesses Are Focusing on the Wrong Things

In our modern marketing landscape, your customers value speed and keep promises. If you constantly try to up your customer service game in ways that don’t matter to the customer, you’ll lose their loyalty once you deviate from what they expect. Trying too hard can destroy loyalty.

Not only that, but attentive customer service teams often undermine consumer loyalty, according to a Customer Contact Council study. Customers are four times more likely to become disloyal after a service interaction either because their problem wasn’t solved or the issue escalated. 

Since most businesses unintentionally set a low bar for customer interaction, only 84% of customers state their expectations weren’t met during their most recent service interaction.

The Link Between Employee Engagement and Loyal Customers

Most of us have engaged directly with miserable employees who treat their jobs as a means to an end, but their attitude is more of a reflection of the employer than the employee themselves. 

When engagement is low, employees are unhappy. When they’re unhappy, they tend to do the bare minimum. That means they won’t deescalate when the customer has an issue or won’t know how to solve the problem because they weren’t adequately trained or given authority.

The only way to retain talent and reduce employee turnover is to value employee engagement. Likewise, the only way to keep loyal customers is by making your employees happy. When your employees are happy and satisfied, they care more about your business and its customers.

What Employees Need to Feel Satisfied With Their Job

Whether you choose to award your employees for their service with a plaque, verbal feedback, or a party, it’s important to note that employee engagement has to take a holistic approach.

While this article won’t go over the intricacies of how to create a more engaged culture, studies show that employees will quit if they’re afraid to speak up or are forced to compete with their coworkers in an unhealthy way. Transparency is prized by employees and customers alike.

Employees may also feel less satisfied if they aren’t being paid enough, aren’t challenged enough, suffer from a poor work-life balance, and dislike and/or distrust their boss/managers.

If too much money is placed into customer satisfaction and very little is funneled into your employees, you might as well be throwing it out the window. When it comes to marketing, your employees are your most prized asset, so you must nurture them to see better results.

But, what does this have to do with customer engagement on social media? Let’s take a look.

How Satisfied Employees Attract Customers on Social Media

When your employees are happy, the process of improving customer satisfaction will no longer be a losing game. Here’s how satisfied employees market your business on social media.

Satisfied Employees Are Trained to Give Satisfying Answers

If your employees aren’t trained to provide the right answers to questions, the customer will either have to wait longer for the solution or will feel frustrated if they’re told different things. You need to empower your staff to take control of customer interactions, or everyone loses.

When your employees are trained, they can respond quickly and correctly. Your employees will engage with your customers until the problem is solved, reducing the amount of “call-backs.”

Satisfied Employees Engage More Readily

Customer service skills aren’t innate; they’re trained and refined over a number of years. Your employee may be good with people, but they may not know how to handle conflict within your brand. This may cause your employees to avoid social media engagement unless necessary. 

If your employees are satisfied and well-informed, they’ll be more than willing to help your business look good, whether it’s on your business page or your employees’ profile.

Satisfied Employees Are Ready to Take on Challenges

Employers are seeing the benefits of highlighting their employees on social media, but if they don’t want to get their picture taken, it’ll do more harm than good. Satisfied employees are given the choice of how they want to be represented on your page or whether they want to opt-out.

Satisfied employees may be willing to take on more challenges and explore content creation if their employers support it. That’s why it’s essential to explore your employees’ other skills.

Satisfied Employees Have Room to Build Emotional Connections

As stated, your customers want answers to their questions quickly. One way to streamline communication is by linking your customers to one or two channels. For example, most startups will take customer questions through live chat via Facebook messaging or through email.

With the help of technology, your employees will have more time to build emotional connections with your customers. This could lead to more human interactions and faster resolutions. 

Satisfied Employees Are Allowed to Step Away

Customer service is stressful and anxiety-inducing work because of its unpredictability. It’s emotionally taxing to be at the other end of a customer’s frustration or anger, even when their employers have their back. What’s worse, customer service is often thankless despite its need.

Your staff has to be resilient, but you can’t expect them to be superhuman. If they’re allowed to step away when a bad interaction occurs, they’ll better serve your customers when they return.