An In Good Company podcast with Will Gibson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Maplewave
Is prioritising employee experience the key to delivering exceptional customer service?
Which should you prioritise - your customer experience or your employee experience? Research shows that companies with great customer experience have employees that are one and half times more engaged. And if you have highly engaged employees you're likely to be outperforming your competitors by 147%. But which should you prioritise?
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Will Gibson describes himself as a 'telecoms retail aficionado and straight-talker' and so who else would we go to in the debate of customer versus employee experience? Will shares personal insights and real-world examples from the retail frontline. Tune in for a lively discussion on:
- Why soft skills are the new gold in retail
- The impact of digital-native generations on face-to-face service
- How leadership and HR can better support talent development
- And Will’s top tip for building a culture of continuous improvement.
How to help digital natives deliver customer service?
This is the absolute crux of the discussion on employee experience versus customer service. Soft skills are literally the new gold. Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the first generations that have used computers from birth. They are digital natives. They have spent their lives in a screen. And as a result, they didn’t need to develop the skills that older generations honed. The ability to make eye contact with someone, the ability to be natural and genuine when welcoming someone or smiling at them. They don't know how to recognise micro changes in people's body language and behaviours or tone of voice. But they do have it, so we've got to teach them, and a lot of retailers have not cottoned on to the fact that then new employees need help here.
How can leadership and HR better support talent development?
I love to see leaders being visible, they're meeting people, they're meeting their customers – and it’s a cliché, but they're walking a mile in their shoes. However, often the responsibility for training and hiring sits with HR. And how many HR leaders go into their stores and look at how well their employees are treating their customers? That can often be a disconnect. I think it's incumbent on all leadership to be visible and make sure they collaborate well enough to understand what each department needs.
Listen to the podcast on Spotify
Listen again
Head to our YouTube / Spotify channels to catch up on previous episodes, including…
051: The art of balancing innovation and risk with Lee McNabb
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Will's blog: How your new employees are killing the telco retail experience
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