A Culture of Engaged Employees Creates True Customer Experience

During a fascinating panel discussion, “A Perspective from the 2016 CX Finalists,” on Wednesday at the 6th annual Engagement & Experience Expo presented by Loyalty360, 1-800-CONTACTS Marketing Manager Thomas Rohrer summarized what might encompass the true path to peerless customer experience performance for loyalty marketers everywhere.

“How you treat your employees is how they are going to treat the customers,” Rohrer said. “We’re trying to be more open with our employees.”

Loyalty360 CEO and CMO Mark Johnson moderated a panel of finalists from this week’s third annual Loyalty360 CX Awards.

Besides Rohrer, the other panelists were Sybil Covell, director client experience, Western & Southern Life; and Julie Brooks, director, loyalty program management, Choice Hotels.

Choice Hotels earned awards in the following categories: Gold Award in Experience/Design Innovation; Gold Award in Customer Insights; Silver Award in Brand Messaging; and a Silver Award in the 360-Degree CX Award category.

1-800-Contacts earned a Platinum Award in the Customer Insights category; while Western & Southern Life garnered a Platinum Award in the Employee Engagement category.

Covell admitted that the life insurance industry poses a different set of customer engagement hurdles.

“How do we further engage and build the program,” Covell said. “We need our associates to have a voice and that empowers them to help our customers more. We need to make sure we’re closing the loop with our associates. We have a unique relationship with our customers. How do we keep people engaged and be more creative in a space that is, typically, not creative? How do I make it a tangible and a relevant thing for us?”

Brooks talked about Choice Hotels’ unique approach to customer experience and customer engagement, and its Choice Privileges loyalty program.

“Many hotels focus on elite members,” she said. “We recognize that most of our travelers are casual travelers. We decided to create a loyalty program that means something to our casual travelers. We rebuilt the program a year ago with this theme. The next thing is to evolve for our frequent stayers. We’re trying to bring people directly to our website and give them a reason to join our loyalty program. We have special pricing on our site also.”

Rohrer is passionate about making customers happy.

“The thing that stood out for us is we’re trying to do things differently,” Rohrer said. “How can we take that comment from a customer and personalize it?”

Rohrer noted an example of a customer answering the company’s overarching question: Is there anything we can do to make your experience better?

Joe, a 1-800-CONTACTS customer, asked if someone in the company’s contact center could tell him a joke every time he called. Rohrer noted that in Joe’s account information. Mission accomplished. It’s the little touches of extreme personalization that drive 1-800-CONTACTS.

“We weren’t doing this two years ago and it’s caught fire,” he added.

Johnson said that “we don’t have a complete view of the customers. There is a huge opportunity to make those iterative improvements.”

Brooks said that, with the rise of OTAs, “it’s made brands, in some ways, less valuable. As brands, we are challenged to continue to have a value proposition that’s a disruptor, and it’s harder to stay top of mind.”
What keeps you up at night as a marketer?

Covell responded to this question with a customer comment: “I’m not going to be there when you make good on your promise.”

As difficult a comment as that is for Covell to receive, she knows it’s true and drives her even more.

“We want to engage customers, but you don’t talk about life insurance,” she said. “How can we be front and center? We have an opportunity in our call centers to build on these generational relationships.”

For Rohrer, he believes that online refraction can be a way to gain customer retention at 1-800-CONTACTS. Online refraction is done in a matter of minutes and for a fraction of the cost of a traditional exam.

Brooks said a challenge Choice Hotels has stems from customers’ multiple option of booking a hotel room.
“It’s hard for us to connect true behaviors when they are booking through different channels,” she said. “It makes it a challenge to form a strategy with these customers. What drives our business is unit growth. In the past three to five years, we’ve really shifted to focus more on the end customers. We’re changing our focus, engaging them through our loyalty program that has made a big impact.”

Western & Southern Life is 128 years old and, Covell said, there is a rejuvenated focus on culture.

“If you have a culture of engaged employees, that will come across,” she said. “It’s about working together. It doesn’t work unless your customer is embedded at the center of your culture.” 

Recent Content

Membership and Pricing

Videos and podcasts

Membership and Pricing