The Gist
- Effective communication gaps. Only 46% of staff feel they receive necessary job context, contrasting 77% of leaders’ beliefs in their communication efficacy.
- Survey insights enhance service. Anonymous employee surveys improve internal communication, increase CSAT scores and enhance workplace culture by identifying gaps.
- Employee empowerment drives success. Initiatives like “Start, Stop, Continue” sessions empower employees, enhancing job satisfaction and customer support quality.
A 2023 Axios HQ survey found 77% of leaders think their communications provide the context employees need to do their jobs well, while only 46% of staff felt the same way. Company growth, new departments and remote work are some of the factors that contribute to a disconnect between decision-makers and customer-facing staff.
When customer support is the only team that understands a customer’s needs, the disconnect can keep a company from truly meeting the needs and expectations of their customers. Implementing a robust internal communication strategy could bridge these gaps and enhance overall performance.
A customer-focused internal communication strategy can break down silos and put the customer at the heart of every product or service decision. With an open line of communication, employees can bring issues to the right people, involve leadership to create greater visibility and drive collaboration. An effective internal communication strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be a series of actionable steps to drive engagement with your team. And it can be flexible, with opportunities to shake things up along the way.
Here are four internal communication strategies that can be incorporated into your organization to break down barriers and, ultimately, better serve your customers.
4 Internal Communication Strategy Tips
Collect Feedback Through Employee Surveys
When teams feel isolated, they are less likely to spot — and to be able to address — issues that impact customers. To start breaking down silos between departments, create an anonymous employee survey to take a pulse on where your customer support team stands. Questions can touch on culture, internal communication processes and empowerment.
Employee surveys showed my team was feeling detached from other departments and lacked resources to take ownership of their work. By taking actionable steps from these surveys, we are now seeing noticeable results through improved CSAT scores, increased positive customer feedback and a stronger workplace culture.
Imagine 10 employees at a company can’t close out their billings due to a software error, making it impossible for the company to close its books for the month — a huge problem. This one company may not be your biggest customer, but the error takes precedence as it prevents customers from being able to do their jobs effectively. A one size fits all strategy rarely works when solving individualized customer needs. By taking actionable steps from employee feedback, leaders can empower staff to get the right people involved quickly and break down communication barriers.
Related Article: Advancing the Digital Maturity of Internal Communications
Drive Employee-Led Change With ‘Start, Stop and Continue’ Sessions
Customer support reps often answer similar calls day in and day out, putting them in the ideal place to spot patterns that are impacting customers and the business at large. “Start, stop and continue” sessions with your customer support team can surface those insights and give employees a forum to contribute to important company changes and decisions. It takes just three simple questions to get ideas flowing:
- What do we need to start doing?
- What do we need to stop doing?
- What should we continue doing?
The key is to then report final feedback up to leadership. The added benefit is that empowered employees exhibit higher job satisfaction, engagement and a sense of ownership in their customer interactions. And that empowerment can be the difference between a good customer support team and a great customer support team.
Related Article: Mastering Customer Communications: A Blueprint for Exceptional Experiences
Provide Access to Leadership With ‘Ask Me Anything’ Sessions
Product errors, software malfunctions or defects are not always caught by the in-house product or service teams. Often errors are found by other departments throughout the company, or a customer calling in with an issue. Unless the problem is brought to the attention of the right person or department, this issue may go unfixed for some time.
Instituting monthly “ask me anything” sessions with senior leaders can open communication channels to shed light on issues customers are having, allowing leadership to uncover previously unknown concerns. Sessions have no agendas — just direct dialogue. It’s a chance for customer support staff to freely discuss anything from innovative ideas to make products better or shed light on trends in customer feedback. Opening a line of communication ensures staff always have an avenue to bring customer concerns or ideas to the table. This open dialogue is a proven method to initiate real change.
Related Article: A New Category of Workplace Technology Emerges: Employee Communications Management
Distribute Customer Support Monthly Updates
While employee surveys and collaborative sessions empower staff and bring great ideas to the table, written communication helps consolidate news into an easy to read, digestible form employees can read at their leisure. The form can be a robust email, an internal website, or project management platform, among others. A customer support team is only as good as the product or service information they have available. For big companies that have a long list of products that all have their own updates and releases, keeping up with everything can feel like a daunting task.
In addition to other communication forms like Microsoft Teams, monthly communication updates provide a consistent place for customer support to find the latest product news or service updates so they can feel confident in every customer conversation. Communication can also include leadership changes, team goals and recognition and staff career pathing milestones. By distributing a consistent line of communication, support team members can hear from leadership, product and development teams, and learn about successes from fellow co-workers, all in one place.
Related Article: How CX Meets Employee Engagement for Business Growth
Everyone Has a Role to Play in Customer Success
The support team knows the customer’s major pain points. They know the customer’s struggles. In short, they know the customer.
Customer satisfaction is no longer driven solely by customer support — everyone in the organization has a role to play. If there is a disconnect between product development and customer support, you can guarantee problems will arise quicker than you can put them out.
As Jeff Bezos said, “When given the choice of obsessing over competitors or obsessing over customers, we always obsess over customers.” By implementing a comprehensive internal communication strategy, both profitability and staff morale will rise.
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