Happy employees equal happy customers, which results in higher rates of closing the sale.
When customer-facing employees are struggling with being overworked or undervalued, this can translate to how they interact with customers. Dissatisfaction in the workplace can cause rudeness and impatience, even if the employee doesn’t realize it. Customers can pick up on these nuances, and it can deter them from wanting to work with your company.
On the other hand, employees that are happy will go above and beyond to meet customer needs and exceed their sales goals.
A Harvard Business Review study looked at a global customer-facing company and the impact of employee satisfaction on revenue. Surveying employees about their experience found that if employee satisfaction moved from the lowest ranked metric on the survey to the highest, the company could show more than a 50% increase in revenue.
There are several things you can do to ensure you are keeping satisfaction at peak levels and encouraging employees to close more sales.
Provide Employee Support
Employees who feel supported by management and have access to resources will show higher close rates. There are several ways you can ensure employees feel supported:
- Technology: technology is integral in many customer-facing sales positions. Updating your company technology regularly can help employees do their jobs more efficiently and with less stress.
- Training: a SurveyMonkey survey showed that 86% of respondents felt like workforce training was important to them. There are many benefits to training, all affecting how many sales your employees are closing.
- Boosted morale
- Higher productivity
- Uniform work practices
- Work efficiency
- Better understanding of policies
- Feedback: conducting formal and informal surveys of employee satisfaction can help you find where you need to make improvements. Employees who know they can give feedback, and that their manager will take it into consideration, can lead to happier workers.
Show Appreciation
Many employers don’t understand the great impact showing appreciation can have on employee satisfaction and increasing sales. In fact, a Gallup poll showed that employees who don’t feel recognized are twice as likely to quit their job in the next year. Employees who have their foot halfway out the door are probably not making their best efforts to make money for the company they work for.
You can show appreciation in more ways than salary increases and bonuses.
- Company wide recognition programs
- Employee contests
- One-on-one meetings to voice your appreciation
- Host fun employee appreciation events
- Recognize employee’s birthdays
There are so many simple ways to show appreciation and recognition that go a long way in improving the employee experience.
Strides towards improving employee satisfaction can lead to increases in sales, and so making it a priority makes sense. Ultimately, the happier your employees are, the more likely they are to strive to provide the best customer service and beat their sales goals.
Sources:
Harvard Business Review. Research: How Employee Experience Impacts Your Bottom Line. Accessed July 15, 2022.
SurveyMonkey. Why employees crave more training and how employers aren’t delivering it | SurveyMonkey. Accessed July 15, 2022.
Gallup. Add Team Praise to Your Employee Recognition Toolkit.. Accessed July 15, 2022.