Employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction are both important elements for an organization to measure. Without a clear understanding of where they stand with both groups, a company cannot effectively grow and proper over the long term. When examining the performance of the contact center, effectively measuring satisfaction of both internal and external customers is common among leading organizations.

Traditionally, these companies would measure satisfaction of both groups as two separate processes. Leading firms have come to realize that measuring satisfaction is no longer sufficient. These companies are now linking employee engagement to customer loyalty and corporate performance for a clear view of the Service-Profit Chain.

The Service-Profit Chain establishes the relationship between corporate policies, employee satisfaction, value creation, customer loyalty and profitability. Data revealed in a benchmarking report by Best Practices, LLC, revealed that a reduction in turnover rates by just two percentage points can result in a savings of $3 million annually.

This figure can escalate depending on the level of employees – supervisors versus front-line employees – and the reduction rate. The savings can be as high as $40 million annually. Although many companies realize the importance of “engaged” employees, few are actually able to effectively understand and capitalize on the linkage to productivity and customer satisfaction.

"Employee Engagement and the Service-Profit Chain," by Best Practices, highlights the best practices in identifying and improving drivers that have been proven as the most effective in engaging employees in their jobs, their companies and their work groups.

The study also includes primary and secondary research highlights from some of the world’s leading companies. Such insights include:

The reality in the contact center industry is that customer service has to be of the highest standard in order to protect the customer base. However, this level of service is hard to deliver if employees are not taken care of first. Frustrated employees will not deliver better service in an effort to promote the company and its brand. When this is added to the cost of replacing an employee, the act of ignoring the fundamentals of engaging and motivating employees fails to make good business sense.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC (News - Alert) and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.