What happens when a proactively engaged customer retention workforce is hired to catalyze the engagement of their customers?
Now that is a brave, new workplace world, isn’t it?
Creating a customer retention workforce is a solid investment in the growth, expansion and sustainability of your organization. All you need is the right combination of data-savvy people and products tailored to the customer’s dynamic requirements.
Executing that human capital strategy requires a proactive and dynamic approach to customer acquisition and customer retention. This workforce continuously and proactively focuses on “What’s Next?” to insure the continuous success of their own organization and their customers’ organizations.
As a result, a customer retention workforce reduces or eliminates poor processes and bad workplace habits that create continuous drama and crises. It is exhausting and unprofitable to continuously react to “What Just Happened?”
Engagement does not result in a workplace social hour atmosphere. Rather, a customer retention workforce is engaged with each other on behalf of their customers.
As a result, today’s best practices involve a human capital strategy that leverages the combined impact of an engaged workforce. Everyone is connected to everyone else. They understand how, when, why and where “what they do” creates value.
This holistic workforce structure contrasts with many existing business models. Many business models still function like an assembly line. Employees are hired to perform rote tasks in isolation, rather than collaboration, from other workers’ throughput and output.
Rather, today’s and tomorrow’s hiring practices must change to focus on how adaptable workers are within dynamic workplace scenarios involving customized output. The skills required value a worker’s critical thinking capabilities, conscientiousness and openness to experience.
Technical skills can be taught. Cognitive ability comes pre-packed with each individual’s DNA.
When employees “see” the Big Picture, and where and how they impact value creation, they are more engaged on behalf of customers.
Why? Because throughput and output by an engaged workforce results in increased productivity that is connected to voiced customer strategy and requirements. In addition, employee engagement decreases employee churn.
First, think about the reason that employees are in the workplace: customers. Each business workplace is created to support lines of business offering specific products and services to targeted customer segments.
Also, in order for that organization to grow, expand and sustain itself, there has to be a continuous flow of revenue from those customers. Then, the enlightened organization connects the dots between why it is important to not only acquire but retain those engaged customers.
It is far less costly, and far more profitable, to build an organization upon a solid base of loyal and retained customers who are thrilled to do business with you.
An engaged customer retention workforce continuously produces valuable and enduring business outcomes for customers.
Far too many workplaces resemble a bunch of people thrown together to perform individual, apparently unrelated, tasks on behalf of being compensated by their employer. They are a team in name only.
On the other hand, when employees are hired mindfully, with purpose and intent, their understand the result of their collaboration. They become proactive on behalf of their customers, rather than disconnected and reactive.
While proactive collaboration takes up workforce time and attention, these collective actions are profitable. Consider the impact does this workplace dynamic have on employee engagement, customer acquisition and customer retention.
After all, it costs 5X as much to acquire new customers as it does to retain them.
Babette Ten Haken writes, speaks, coaches and consults about collaborative value creation for customer retention. She humanizes the Voice of the Industrial Internet of Things ecosystem by facilitating cross-functional workforce collaboration. Contact Babette to discuss how she can bring her programs to life for your organization.
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