Leadership & Culture | Insights
Drew Munn , Digital Strategy Lead
27 Dec, 2020 · 5 -minute read

“The number-one thing that has made us successful by far is obsessive compulsive focus on the customer”

- Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO

Love him or loathe him, you have to admit that Jeff Bezos knows a thing or two about customer experience (CX).

After all, you don’t go from selling books out of a garage in Seattle to becoming president of a multi-national tech company if you don’t.

But let’s face it, no matter what business you’re in, delivering great CX is hugely important – after all, the more positive an experience a person has with you, the more likely they are to come back.

The same can be said when you look inside your organisation and focus on the employee experience (EX); because when it comes to employee engagement, there’s certainly a lot to be learned from the way tech companies approach CX.

Take Bezos’ e-commerce giant Amazon, for example. At its very core, one of the largest companies on the planet is customer obsessed – it doesn’t focus on the competition, it concentrates on delivering for the customer, and it makes business decisions based on what that customer wants, needs, and loves.

And because Amazon does this so effectively on a daily basis - in the palm of the customer’s hand - people now expect all interactions (online and off) with all businesses to function at that same level.

So why don’t more organisations take this approach when it comes to EX?

Back to basics

‘Maybe it’s because not all organisations have the backing of the richest man in modern history,’ we hear you cry.

True. But a bottomless-pit budget isn’t the secret to Amazon’s success – simplicity is the name of the game here. Amazon does the basics really well. It has clear goals, values and priorities, and it respects the importance of giving its customers what they want from day one.

We know that not all organisations can afford not to worry about the competition, that’s a given. But no matter what your business does, to successfully stand out in your market, you have to approach your CX strategy with a dedication to human insight and an unwavering focus on the end user.

Yes, there seems to be a certain natural ease in making this work when it comes to e-commerce, we get that; but we challenge you to think of a type of business that doesn't benefit from providing a people-centred experience.

Take internal communication, for example. As communicators, we believe that putting people first is always good for business. After all, effective communication is people-shaped – it has to be.

People are the very purpose of communication; they are the ‘why?’, they are the reason we do what we do, and they determine the narrative of any future success story.

That’s why great CX is a communication no-brainer – and, as the organisations we work with continue switching their focus to all things digital, it’s why taking a lead from the Amazons of this world makes perfect sense when it comes to thinking about EX.

More than words

Why? Because communication is more than just words. It’s about creating organisational experiences where people are excited to join, engaged to perform, and inspired to make a difference – it’s about how a person feels about the experience of interacting with your internal brand from the moment it enters their peripheral vision.

It’s the result of every interaction a person has with your organisation as an employer - from onboarding to exit interview; and it’s about realising that everything every member of your organisation does makes a difference.

Ultimately, it’s about defining your purpose, culture and EX to create a high-performing organisation – equipped for the now and evolving for the long term. Sounds a lot like CX, doesn’t it?

Yes, it does. And that’s because CX is, essentially, all about how companies engage people via an emotional connection over the entire course of the relationship.

We’re talking employee advocacy here – after all, you can’t expect your people to deliver great CX if their EX doesn’t get them revved up enough to outperform the competition.

This isn’t about changing root behaviours; it’s about building loyalty on top of those behaviours.

Changing the narrative

Great CX is about meeting users where they are. This isn’t about changing root behaviours; it’s about building loyalty on top of those behaviours.

Think about this: even though Amazon already had a presence on every single device out there, it also opened physical grocery stores and launched Smile so customers could give to charity while shopping. This goes way beyond simply pushing the same narrative across every bit of new media that enters the digital landscape.

It’s about changing that narrative to fit existing customer behaviours without losing focus from the core goal – and for Amazon, this is about making people use their services.

So how does this translate to the world of internal communication and EX? Probably in more ways than you think…

Laser-focused targetting

We’ve spent years focusing on creating segmentation based on all sorts of parameters: age, gender, location... But these aren’t great differentiators when looking at something as complex as human behaviour. Now that we have the tools to help us find the real connections between who people are and how they act, we can use this to make everyone’s experiences better. These could be far more complex and nuanced than broad-brush segments, but by using AI to find the patterns humans couldn’t, we can start to harness people’s truth in brand new ways.

Technology as an enabler

More than ever, technology should be an enabler right now; it should allow people to interact with information in exactly the way they want to. Chatbots give people the option of talking to a system as if it were a real person - finally making the most natural form of communication something that’s accessible without human input. Different interaction methods create different opportunities and using them in the right way is important: people don’t want to have to type in their credentials to access their bank account on their phone, they want to scan their fingerprint or face. People browsing their benefits at work don’t want to have their salary appear on screen, but at home they might. Using technology that adjusts to these behaviours creates a seamless experience where it’s just the user and the content coming together as one.

The screen as a brand showcase

The digital world is usually the first place a brand impacts its users. Think about it: if you want to find out when a shop is open and you can’t find its website, you’re immediately less likely to pay them a visit. This ‘instant answer’ culture is the same for employees: if they can’t easily find an answer to a question, they are instantly disengaged. Equally, if the online world is where employees are interacting with their employer, then that’s where culture is found. Don’t use the digital equivalent of a 90’s corporate HQ to engage with your staff - your competitors certainly won’t be. Spend the same amount of thought and care choosing how you communicate as you would choosing your office.

Raise the bar

Your EX is a crucial part of your employee value proposition – and it should be hard-wired into everything you do to motivate, engage, and excite your people.

Remember that expectations of customer experience are built across the spectrum of every company that your employees come into contact with, which means the bar is high. So, take what you know about CX and apply it to your EX – it’s a sure-fire way to make sure you are continuously learning, improving and innovating.

After all, if it’s good enough for Amazon…

Gallagher is a global internal communication and employee experience agency.
From transforming workplace culture to championing the physical, emotional, career and financial wellbeing of employees, everything we do is linked to a strategic business objective — and designed to elevate every aspect of the employee experience.
Our communication consultants help clients communicate their strategy and vision; turn their leaders into engaging communicators; review their internal communication channels; maximise the perceived value of their rewards and benefits packages and accelerate business transformation.
We have offices in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, but we support organisations of all sizes on a global basis.

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