In addition, Forrester recently concluded that companies with higher employee engagement ratings have higher profit margins and deliver better customer outcomes, as measured by customer satisfaction, loyalty and likelihood-to-recommend scores.

But here’s the problem: Despite all of the studies that underscore its importance, the vast majority of companies have trouble with employee engagement. In fact, Gallup found that worldwide, only 13% of employees are engaged at work! Of the remaining 87%, more than half (63%) are not engaged, and 24% are actively disengaged.

What can companies do to turn those statistics around? How can you begin inspiring the kind of employee engagement that is the foundation of a great customer experience?

Last month, Samuel Stern, a Senior Analyst in Forrester Research’s customer experience research practice, and I discussed the answers to those questions during the Bunchball webinar How Employee Engagement Creates and Sustains A Customer-Centric Culture. Here are our recommendations:

• Make the business case for improving employee engagement and customer focus. You need to demonstrate the correlation between customer experience, business and engagement metrics. That means you need to clearly define the customer experience, and you need to be able to communicate the importance of it to employees and other stakeholders.
• Turn to experts to help. Marketers know how to motivate customers. But you’ll need to bring in others to help you motivate employees. At Bunchball, we know how to leverage fundamental design principles, big data analytics and universal human motivators to create gamified work environments that drive better business performance and ROI.
• Ensure your initiatives align with corporate strategy. As Sam explains in the webinar, strategy defines intentions (vision, mission, values; leadership and governance; customer experience metrics), and culture drives actions (hiring, socialization, rewards). The two must align to achieve desired business outcomes.

Today, the spotlight is on customer experience like never before. It’s important for marketers to remember that customer experience improves when both customers and employees are engaged.