This article discusses the importanceof employee engagement on customer loyalty.
Employees who feel fully committedto the organization for which they work for take great pride in doing their job,promoting products, and addressing customers’ needs and wants. In chapter 2,the textbook explains customer excellence as one of the four overarchingstrategies of the marketing mix that develop a competitive advantage. It isachieved when “a firm develops value based strategies for retaining loyalcustomers and provides outstanding customer service.” Positive customer serviceexperiences improve customers’ likelihood to return to a specific brand andincrease the probability they’ll spend more and a positive experience improvescustomer’s overall satisfaction. The article brings up a good point, “if youlook after your staff, they’ll look out for your customers”. This creates aripple effect in the organization; when mangers are engaged, those reportingwill be engaged, and customers interacting with these employees are more likelyto be satisfied. However, this cannot happen if your employees do not realizethe importance of their roles and feel committed to the success of yourbusiness. Viewing both customers and employees in terms of relationships ratherthan transactions is vital to ensuring that customers keep coming back againand again.
Though this may be difficult to maintain, once a marketer has earneda good service reputation it can remain that way for a long time.