The Cost Of Employee Disengagement In The Age Of The Customer

Published On: December 12, 2018

Forbes Insights – Dec. 12, 2018

Creating a better customer experience is top of mind for most companies. Digitally savvy customers are changing the rules of business, creating extraordinary opportunity for companies that adapt and threatening those that do not, according to Forrester,1 the business research firm. Power has shifted from institutions to customers, and it’s never going back.

It’s difficult to separate the factors behind happy employees, happy customers and happy shareholders. You can’t impact one without impacting them all.

Where does this leave employees?

As companies deploy more technologies to get closer to their customers, collect and analyze data to anticipate their needs and reimagine business models to create a better customer experience, there is one constant that bears remembering: There is a strong correlation between engaged employees and happy customers.

Forbes Insights, together with SilkRoad, conducted a survey of 212 U.S.-based CFOs (and equivalents) to explore how financial executives approach and measure employee engagement and the true cost of disengagement. When it comes to the benefits of employee engagement, customer satisfaction stands out in particular. CFOs make it clear that you can’t have one without the other.