Engage Members and Employees

CUNA’s E-Scan Newsletter
July 20, 2010 | COMMENTS

It's almost trite to suggest that satisfying customers—or members—is easier when you start by satisfying employees. Or that member loyalty and employee loyalty tend to go together. Nevertheless, every day brings more evidence of this proposition, notes marketing consultant Don Pepper, writing in 1 to 1 Magazine. What Pepper calls “the e-social revolution” now provides even greater opportunities to engage your employees while engaging members.

"Engagement" is one of those buzzwords that can mean different things to different people, but Rogers believes that, by definition, an engaged member or employee is one who is "proactively and positively involved."

When a member is involved and engaged with your brand, they may:

• Help specify or configure the product or service being delivered to them,
• Refer friends or colleagues to you, and
• Take an interest in your brand's overall success or failure.

And when employees are engaged in their work, they're also proactively involved. They use their own initiative to solve problems. They may self-organize, with other workers, to accomplish the company's goals. They may actively promote and defend your business with friends, colleagues, or even among strangers.

What's interesting, says Pepper, is all the ways social media can help a company engage both employees and customers in a collaborative, all-encompassing solution.

One well-known chain of barbecue restaurants, for example, assigns a separate, custom Web presence to each of its locations. The websites are updated and maintained by one or more employees who work at that location. They also serve as Web hosts, for an extra $50 per week in compensation. This actively engages staff with each other andin the company's success. It also provides a direct link between individual employees and the customers who frequent particular locations.

Another better-known effort at engaging both employees and customers using new e-social tools is the Twelpforce initiative from Best Buy. It's better known because Best Buy has featured its Twitter army of helpful employees—the Twelpforce—in national television commercials. Customer queries are answered quickly, from finding merchandise to hooking up equipment properly.

"The genius of Twelpforce is that it tapped into an existing talent pool that welcomed the chance to share their knowledge," notes Drew Neisser, a writer and blogger for Fast Company. In fact, “Twelpforce has responded to tens of thousands of customer inquiries via Twitter, enlisted 2,600 employees to share their knowledge, and paid for itself many times over via extensive PR coverage, enhanced brand perceptions, and potential savings to the call center," adds Neisser.

The benefits to employees include participants feeling a sense of pride in their work, an internal network among workers, and improved expertise as employees research answers to customers' queries.

It's no secret that employee loyalty and customer loyalty go hand in hand. But what's interesting, says Pepper, is that as tools for online sharing, content creation, and collaboration proliferate and improve, opportunities to engage employees and customers increase.

This article originally appeared in CUNA's E-Scan Newsletter. Reprinted with permission.