Customer Engagement (sorry so long had alot to say:(
In regards to the thread on Employee Engagement and you.
When I read the first post and watched the video someone included it honest to goodness brought tears to my eyes!!!
Because, that was the way I felt day in and day out when I was employed by Con-Way... thats why I was there for so many years, and planned to retire from Con-Way.
I looked up the definitions and articles of Employee Engagement:
EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT:
Engaged employees care about the future of the company and are willing to invest the discretionary effort
INVOLVEMENT:
Engaged employees feel a strong emotional bond to the organization that employs them
workers showed more positive attitudes, including trust, organizational commitment and intrinsic enjoyment of the work
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION = CUSTOMER RETENTION =
REPEAT CUSTOMERS = PROFIT DOLLARS = HAPPY SHAREHOLDERS
Organizations with engaged employees have customers who use their products more, and increased customer usage leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction.
It is an organization’s employees who influence the behavior and attitudes of customers, and it is customers who drive an organization’s profitability through the purchase and use of its products.
In the end, customers who are more satisfied with an organization’s products are less expensive to serve, use the product more, and, hence, are more profitable customers.
A focus on market outcomes, e.g., customer satisfaction, is warranted as they were found to mediate the relationships between employee attitudes and financial performance..
THE REASON for the tears when I read the first post on Employee Engagement, is that is what I lived each and every day at Con-Way Freight. I was proud to be a part of my company, I was proud to represent them in front of the customers.
I tried to live the culture, no I wasnt perfect, but when it came to our values, Our Integrity, Our Comittment, Our Excellence. I tried to show that in the work I performed.
I tried to meet the customers needs, whether they were a 500 a month acct or a 5000 a month account.
I tried to live it with the DSR'S, with my SCM/FOS..
I did feel a strong emotional bond to the company I worked for, for the co workers that made up our team. I had trust
and commitment to the company I worked for, and enjoyed my work.
Over the years I had built a multitude of relationships with customers, they trusted me, knew they could count on me if they had a need. no matter how small or how urgent...
Customers that now feel abandoned... ... that with everything I tried so incredibly hard to do for my company, for the customers, I was very much Employee Engaged
but regardless in the end, it didnt matter.... One day out of the blue, I was told my employment had ended, a job I had been committed to since 1991...
It has made me question myself as to whether I will ever be
a part of "Employee Engagement" again, whether I will be able to commit myself that much, to have trust for any organization again.
I figure in time I will, its just who I am, I cant half do anything. I have to commit totally to it or not at all...
sorry for the long post, it just hit me hard when I read about it... especially when this time last year, I spent a Sunday afternoon decorating for KTDA week and the dinner and so on... I was really proud how great everything looked
Okay Im going to bed now.... I wish all of you the very best
Im here if you just need an ear, or need to vent. Lord knows you all have been there for me in my darkest hour...
