Although the need to generate a memorable Purchase Experience for our customers is increasingly widespread, it is important to keep in mind that this will never be achieved unless an “Experience for the Employee” is previously generated. Therefore, one of the primary tasks for any company that wants to offer experiences is to ensure that their internal resources are aligned with this new business model.

Increase the Employee Experience

The concept of “Experience” not only applies to external customers, but also to internal customers, that is, employees of the company. The Employee Experience must be a new philosophy for the HR management of companies, which goes beyond the traditional practices of putting the focus on teamwork, leadership, coaching and compensation. What all employees, at whatever level, obtain from an “Experience-oriented” company is a work environment where they feel they are continually in touch with a motivating and satisfying Employee Experience.

How can we make sure that employees create an experiential contact at every moment they speak, provide information or simply relate to customers? Many HR theories that try to align the behavior of the employees with the mission, vision and values ​​of the company, are in reality very abstract and generically based on the objectives of the managers of the organization. What are needed are HR practices focused on the client, to try to align the behavior of the employees and thus deliver a memorable Customer Experience.

The 5 steps of Experience Management for HR

1. Hire employees : in doing so, go further in reading your CV, analyzing your attitude, ability and predisposition for the generation of experiences to your future customers. Ask yourself, does the employee understand the importance of treating the customer well, providing a memorable experience? Will they be able to give all their energy to provide this Experience? Will they be able to achieve empathy in the communication with the client, that makes them think and feel like them in the Acquisition Act? Will they be able to sell what they would never buy either for economic reasons or simply for pleasure?

2. Train them for the daily delivery of Experiences : training does not only mean teaching them phrases or rehearsing prefabricated scripts. Employees must understand the importance of their role and should be free to find new ways to increase the value of the experience they deliver to the client. Whether employees sell products or services, they must always “put themselves in the shoes of the customer” to better personalize the offer and generate experiences daily.

3. Provide incentives and rewards : training is not always sufficient for employees to maintain a constant focus on the client. Therefore, it is important to provide incentives and rewards as new stimuli oriented to the generation of experiences. It is also necessary to bear in mind that these incentives do not pass only for the monetary, that reward must also contemplate the sociocultural motivations and lifestyles of each employee.

4. Measure behavior in relation to Experience standards : employees must always receive feedback on their performance in relation to their activity in the field of experience management. How are your contacts with customers? How do they contribute to the generation of a relationship with them that makes them buy again? Do they help create experiential links with customers?

5. Provide a correct Employee Experience : a fundamental task of the current organizations should be to find ways to make the work that the employees carry out be taken as a challenge of interest, engaging and motivating. If employees feel that their task is boring or oppressive, they will be less likely to deliver a good shopping experience to their customers.

The motivation in the Employee Experience

In many companies, employees do not care about their jobs and do not feel motivated. Dave Ulrich, a professor at the Business School of the University of Michigan, notes that the “depression of employment” is increasing more and more. In this context, all employees can not be expected to provide memorable customer experience and treatment. That is why it is key for any company to promote what Ulrich calls the “employee contribution”.

What is sought is to take employees as the first clients, the “internal clients”. Create an Employee Experience that is motivating and that generates satisfaction, reward and sense of belonging to the company.

To begin, it is vital to investigate what the “experiential world” of employees is like, find out what they want, what they are looking for, their tastes, attitudes and interests. Consider each employee in their human dimension: biological and social and explore their emotional and rational motivations towards work.

Another action may be to involve the employee in the brand. For this, carry out workshops internally, in which employees can discuss the brand, its attributes and if they know how to transmit the values ​​of the brand, it will result in the satisfaction of their individual needs. Let them also suggest ways in which they can live the brand in another way, both in the day to day work, as in their personal lives.

In short, what is involved is to involve employees in an internal effort towards the management of the Customer Experience. Work together to build a holistic experiential platform, both internal and external. If the company manages to channel its attention in the Experience that its employees live, it can be rewarded with a better and more productive work force that can generate in a more natural way a true Differential Purchase Experience to the clients.