EP38: Elevating Customer Experiences through Engaged Employees With Debra Squyres

In this episode, Deborah Squyres reveals the nuanced relationship between the customer experience and team member experience. She debunks several myths about what it means to be a customer focused organization, including "The customer is always right" or "You can either have happy employees or happy customers." The reality is that our employees are the ones that create the customer experience. Deborah covers practical strategies for leaders to implement intentional, steady, regular doses of recognition practices that build trust within their teams and help them deliver amazing customer experiences. She also shares emerging technology that can help leaders build effective and timely peer-to-peer and leader-to-team member encouragement and feedback.

Additional Resources:

Chief Customer Officer at Bonusly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debrasquyres/

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Key Takeaways:

- Exceptional customer experience is rooted in team member experience.
- Great leaders model the way for how they want the customers to feel by how they treat their team members.
- Building trust requires consistent recognition and feedback.
- Ways to help reluctant leaders genuinely and more regularly recognize employees.
- Recognition should be specific about behaviors and linked to outcomes.
- Recognition is not just for superlative performance.
- Understanding individual preferences is key to effective recognition.
- Public recognition can be powerful but must be balanced with personal comfort.