Using customer satisfaction data to boost morale

It's a well-documented fact that employee morale is not what is once was. The golden years of North American capitalism, the age of the "company man," when people worked 25 years for the same firm and never dreamed of jumping ship, have faded and are passed. A recent survey by an HR consulting site found that close to two-thirds of employees indicated that they would be searching for a new job within the next few months.

The rise of contract positions and the ease with which resumes can be posted and maintained on online job sites has led to a labor market that is always in flux. Case in point: an old friend of mine, whom I recently reconnected with, admitted to me that he had done about a dozen contract technical support positions in the four year since he had graduated from university.

Progressive organizations have increasingly tried to make end-runs around the morale deficit by offering flexible schedules and letting employees work from home. But, beyond that, there is an important factor to consider. For employees to flourish, two conditions need to be present: 1) the employee needs to be able to leverage his/her creativity and not feel like an automaton; 2) the employee needs to be empowered and feel genuine ownership for the things with which he or she is tasked. The first prerequisite can only be achieved through a company's interior corporate culture, but the second can be abetted by the voice of the customer.

My fellow blogger Michael Gerstel has already blogged about how leveraging the voice of the customer, within the context of the iPSI, can lead to organizational harmony and employee empowerment. This can be an excellent way to combat the morale deficit and facilitate goal-oriented behavior.

One of our clients is a major household goods manufacturer. Our contact at that company had a powerful insight from one of our monthly updates. He brought this to a major regional meeting, where he delivered it within the context of a presentation on satisfaction in the previous quarter. Later in the meeting, the company's president made direct reference to that finding in rebutting the claims of a regional sales manager.

Without having this nugget of customer insight at his disposal, it is unlikely that the work of our contact would have ever found its way that high up the corporate ladder. I have no idea if this led to a raise or a bonus for our contact over there, but this I can say for certain: the morale windfall he experienced by leveraging the voice of the customer and having the insights re-purposed by the company president was priceless.