Another Example of Engagement Boosting the Bottom Line

We've often said that engaged employees lead to higher customer satisfaction, using both strong anecdotal examples as well as quantified research.

Now yet another endorsement of that truth has come out: a new study by Northwestern University researchers which showed that companies could achieve revenue increases of as much as 23 percent by investing wisely in communication, recognition and incentive programs to improve employee engagement.

Professor Frank Mulhern and associates studied employee behavior and the link to increased customer spending at an international hotel chain. They found that the key drivers of brand value to hotel customers were fast and efficient check-in, employe efforts to satisfy customers, hotel options and amenities, and precision in service.

Of course, all but the third of those criteria are highly affected by the engagement of employees not only in their jobs but in their mission to bring satisfaction to customers. And the researchers found that a 10-percent increase in one key drive -- the extent to which employees tried to satisfy customers -- translated into a 23-percent increase in customer spending.

These are the kinds of bottom-line results that we hear about all the time from our clients and in our research. And they're the sort of significant improvements that are available to just about any brand, regardless of what business they're in. It just takes a strategy for brand engagement to realize them.