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Talking With: Confirmit SVP Tore Haggren on why employees are vital to customer experience

The retail employee, whether on the store floor or in the call center, is a key element in providing a rewarding customer experience but oftentimes the human element isn’t a focus for the business.

April 28, 2016 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

The retail employee, whether on the store floor or in the call center, is a key element in providing a rewarding customer experience but oftentimes the human element isn't a focus for the business. And that's a huge mistake, according toTore Haggren, senior VP at Confirmit, which has been providing customer experience solutions for over 20 years. Its programs includeemployee engagement, customer experience, and market research. Haggren directs the Voice of the Employee program.

Retail Customer Experience reached out to Haggren to get deeper insight and advice on what retailers should be doing and how to make the employee a valuable player in customer experience.

Retail Customer Experience: What is one must-do retailers need to do when it comes to making front-line employees brand ambassadors?

Tom Haggren: In a word, listen. Make an effort to reallyhear what your employees are saying, and give them the opportunity to provide feedback in the right way and at the right time. Informally, it's important to bolster an environment of open communication. Front-line employees should feel comfortable expressing concerns and ideas with management. It's also important to standardize employee feedback activities and this means more than just an annual employee engagement survey. It's important to incorporate more tactical surveys as well. These touchpoint surveys, such as on-boarding, post-training and exit surveys, offer the ability to gather insights that HR teams can act on quickly to re-engage with employees or improve the overall employee experience. The key, then, is to be able to bring the data from all these surveys together in order to provide both tactical and strategic action planning.

RCE: Do most retailers realize how critical employees are in the customer experience?

Haggren: I would say yes and no. While most realize that they are an important component of the customer experience, some may not grasp the true magnitude. This is where combining customer and employee data can be beneficial. By aggregating such data, organizations can drive smarter investments, boost customer loyalty, and increase revenue by harnessing the insights that mean the most to both customers and employees. Using your employees to report on the customer experience not only provides insights from informed members of frontline teams, but it engages those teams by demonstrating that they hold the power to improve the customer experience.

RCE: When it comes to transforming employees into brand ambassadors what is one misstep or 'no-no' in the strategy?

Haggren: A common mistake we see is not taking a holistic approach. If an organization is looking at transforming front-line employees to brand ambassadors, that doesn't mean it should only look at those employees. It's important to consider employees of all functions, across all business units. By doing so, you're able to glean greater insights, which will empower every employee at every level to take action on insights that are tailored to their needs, responsibilities, and situation so they can get the best out of their teams and themselves.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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