Employee Loyalty Case Study: Improving Commitment

A large uniform supply company was interested in assessing employees’ loyalty and the connection with customer loyalty to the organization.  The Loyalty Research Center (LRC) conducted an employee loyalty measurement study across more than 130 satellite offices.

SITUATION

Loyalty Research Center delved into the results and derived a critical link between the employee and customer loyalty was with the managers and their ability to communicate with the route drivers.  Managers who were providing more information and feedback to their drivers had higher employee satisfaction and in return, higher customer satisfaction.  Dissatisfied employees felt managers were not providing enough support in their daily job responsibilities.

In addition, the Loyalty Research Center determined the customers with greater satisfaction resided in the offices with higher employee satisfaction scores.

Figure 1 provides a similar representation of how the data correlated:

IMPLEMENTATION

The Loyalty Research Center recommended implementing a Direction, Ability, Motivation plan where employees were first provided a clear understanding of their responsibilities and the proper components for being successful in their role.  The goal of these two initial steps was to boost employee motivation within the organization.

LRC also assisted in classifying the employees into the lowest, middle, and highest satisfied employees.  Thresholds were established to divide the three categories and determine the course of action for each group.

The outcome of these endeavors led to not only higher employee loyalty scores, but also improved employee performance scores.  This translated into customers giving the company higher performance ratings which boosted loyalty.

KEY FINDINGS

Conclusions of this study include:

• When managers improved their communications to the employees that interact with customers, they were better informed and able to manage customer problems more efficiently.
• Identifying offices with a higher rate of dissatisfied employees relates to more issues with customer satisfaction.   Focusing on managers of these offices corrects employee issues and thus leads to greater customer loyalty.
• Employees want a sense of direction and as well as a feeling of accomplishment.  Providing the tools to do the job well will translate into improved customer service and recurring business.