The Employee Experience

Aiming at Excellence in Customer Service – This is a third part of a blog series in which we explore how to achieve the world’s best customer service.

You’ve probably all bumped into customer service people who don’t seem to be enjoying their work that much. You can recognize such a person pretty easily from the look of boredom on their face, “Oh geez, yet another customer, how can I get out of here..” The once I really enjoy are the types who disappear in the store when a customer walks in, “Never mind a buying customer, I’ve got more important things to do”. How appreciated a customer must feel after this?

And then there are customer service people who can make your day. You know, the ones who smile and greet you and who are there to help you with your needs. The ones who make you feel important, the ones who are having fun at work.

What then makes the difference between the two types of customer service people? More often than not, the difference lies in the employee experience. Happy employees make happy customers, but isn’t it also so that unhappy employees make unhappy customers?

We believe that the only way to get good grades from our customers is to get good grades from our employees as well. We need to remember that one of the most important parts of employee experience is to have fun. Like Jack Welch once said “Whatever you do, for God’s sake, have fun while doing it”.

Whatever you do, for God’s sake, have fun while doing it. – Jack Welch

This is why we want to emphasize the importance of employee experience. For us to be able to provide the customers with a frictionless energetic experience at the seminar, we also need to make sure our employees have a frictionless energetic experience. The key to this is to provide the employees with means to do their job well.

One thing we highlight is each employee’s role in the bigger picture. Everyone needs to know their role in the customer service process and also understand each other’s roles to be able to work effectively as a team. For example, if you can’t answer the customer’s question, you should know who can.

Another thing to point out is the importance of individual team members. If one person give’s their all and more, this multiplies in a bigger group. But if there’s one person who’s not giving their all, this also drags down the whole team. In any team work environment it’s essential to understand that your behavior also affects the others.

For a leader, one vital thing to remember is that employees are your customers and you need to take care of their satisfaction, like they take care of the customer satisfaction. It’s funny that most companies know their customers better than their employees. So get to know your employees, give a little personal touch in the service. Ask your employees how you can help them and what their needs are. You should make your employees feel appreciated and make them know their worth. After all, we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.

You can read more about how to build up a great employee experience in the fourth part of the blog series, which concentrates on how to manage a team.

Meet our customer service managers!

We have divided our customer service at NBForum2014 into six different departments. Here’s introduction to Speaker Services and Guidance Services.

Aliisa Tiittanen

Speaker services:

• each speaker has a host person, who are there to help and host the speaker during their stay
• small and effective team of 8 people
• the department manager: Aliisa Tiittanen

In order to deliver first-class customer service, we put a lot of time and heart into building and empowering a team of over 200 young volunteers. So sit back and enjoy your seminar experience knowing you’re in good hands!” says Aliisa.

Anna Kärkkäinen

Guidance services:

• taking care of the customer service outside the venue
• a team of 16 people
• the department manager: Anna Kärkkäinen

I believe in the power of positive attitude both in customer service and other parts of life. Doing things together with other people makes the things meaningful,” says Anna.

Photos of the customer service managers by Jesse Kämäräinen.