As brand activity explodes on social media sites, it’s no surprise that your business’ motives, actions, and values are becoming more and more transparent to your customers. This business transparency requires your brand’s promise holds strong to the very end of the customer experience. It’s not a big shock that there is a clear connection between a business and its customer base through social media marketing. But a study by TNS Global found that employee engagement is also vital for a well functioning company in our modern social media environment. Researchers found employees who report they work for one of the ‘top’ companies in their industry are overall better workers. They are substantially more likely to incorporate customer engagement information into their work and be more focused on the customer brand experience, which – in all – create a stronger social media brand.
The study focused on gaining insight about brand ambassadorship, the importance of customer perceptions, and the changing roles of supervisors and leaders. Overall, it found that integrated employee engagement, brand, and customer engagement are strongly connected to high performance. Check out the study’s four key insights that researchers believe turned a good business into a great brand.
Creating a good environment for your employees – Employees that view their companies as ‘one of the best’ in their industry are 86% more likely to say they are satisfied. Employees in high performing companies are also twice as likely to say leadership is interested in the well-being of its employees.
Being customer-focused – Employees who believed they worked for ‘one of the best’ organizations also thought they had a clear understanding of their customer’s needs. 78% of employees from this group also reported actively using customer feedback to improve a product or service. This is significant compared to only 40% of employees who claim they work at ‘average’ organizations.
Striving for great brand experience – Employees in ‘one of the best’ organizations are also more likely to focus on the brand experience, with 76% willing to go ‘above and beyond’ to deliver a great brand experience for their customers. This again is compared to 38% from employees at ‘average’ companies that are willing to take it a step further.
Being a brand ambassador and company proud – Again, employees who believe they work for ‘one of the best’ companies were 85% more likely to promote the company’s products and services, as well as their company overall.
The moral here seems to be that a happy worker is a productive worker. In a time when businesses can be as transparent as their Facebook posts, it’s a great idea to make sure your company, as a whole, is happy and actively relating to customers. “To manage these changing boundaries organizations must break down the silos between human resources and marketing. Examine the internal and external messaging for congruence and look at employee and customer engagement measurements as facets of the same core identity,” said a senior TNS consultant. “Look at social media and track what is being said about the organization, use social media more deliberately by leveraging the ambassadorship and passion of an organization’s products and services.”