How would you describe the attitude and behavior of the employee in your organization who is the best at satisfying his/her customers? More importantly, how would your customers describe the attitude and behavior of that employee in your organization who is the best at meeting their needs?

Usually the descriptions of exceptional front line service providers include:

• Showing a sense of urgency and persistence in facing daily service challenges
• Expending significantly more discretionary effort/personal initiative than their colleagues
• Being especially focused and intent on addressing customers' needs
• Having more energy, enthusiasm and passion for their work
• Proactively utilizing whatever service solution the situation calls for and even anticipating customers' needs - versus continually seeking direction from their supervisor
• Exhibiting flexibility and an openness to initiate action that may be outside of their normal duties

Current research has identified the above behaviors as the very behaviors of engaged employees! We are not referring to satisfied or contented employees. No, engaged employees have and use an enhanced degree of energy to generate more results for these organizations.

For years organizations have attempted to create positive, memorable customer experiences through employee selection, new employee orientation, training, coaching, recognition & rewards, etc. All of these approaches have helped - but the research is telling us that an effective way to build customer loyalty is to just meet a few, core needs of our front line employees.

This Employee Engagement Model offers enhanced clarity as to:

·        The specific behaviors that we want our frontline employees to exhibit

·        The significant payback to the organizations that increase the engagement levels of their front line service providers

·        And, possibly most importantly, the few basic employee needs that when met by supervisors and managers drive increased engagement

We at The Focus Group are finding that supervisors and managers whom we are training to be 'Engagement Coaches' receive and relate to the training very positively because:

• They can understand and accept the logic of employee engagement
• There are only a few, core employee needs that we are training them to address
• They are given multiple, practical techniques for increasing employee engagement on a daily basis
• And they have a much better understanding as to what they, as managers, can do to more effectively lead their service teams

Organizations with managers who know how to create positive work experiences for their employees have a competitive advantage. Positive experiences for customers come alive from positive employee experiences.

'Engagement Coaches' meeting the core needs of your front line employees enabling them to meet the needs of your customers - it's more straight forward, more effective and less expensive than many of the approaches organizations have been using.