April 29, 2025 • 11 mins
Customer experience initiatives aren't delivering the results you expected? The answer might lie in a critical but often overlooked disconnect: the gap between your customer experience mission and your employee experience reality.
In this thought-provoking episode, Jeannie Walters tackles a question about aligning a company's CX mission statement with the actual employee experience. When organizations promise customers convenience, empathy, or frictionless interactions while their employees struggle with clunky systems, bureaucratic processes, or micromanagement, the disconnect creates more than just employee dissatisfaction – it undermines the entire customer experience strategy before it reaches a single customer.
The episode reveals how employee and customer experience together uncovers powerful insights about your organization. By analyzing the connections between employee engagement and customer satisfaction, you can identify patterns that highlight best practices to replicate or problem areas to address. Remember: your CX mission statement exists to help everyone understand their role in providing meaningful experiences – not just to external customers but to internal ones too. When employees feel the values you claim to uphold, they become your most powerful advocates for delivering those same values to customers. Ready to create true alignment between what you say and what you do? Listen now and transform your approach to experience.
Resources Mentioned:
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.com
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
It's the Experience Action Podcast, and
experience is not just reservedfor customers.
When we talk about experience,we're talking about everyone,
including employees, and that'swhat the question this week is,
so listen up.
Listener Question (00:47):
Hey Jeannie.
This is Krystal.
We have a CX mission statementthat outlines the experience we
want to create for our customers, but sometimes our employee
experience doesn't quite reflectthat mission.
When there's a gap between whatwe say we value and what
employees actually experience,what steps can we take to bring
the two into alignment?
Jeannie Walters (01:10):
Well, thank you , Krystal.
This is a great question andyou know, when we have a
customer experience missionstatement that outlines the
experience we want to create,that really gets to the core of
what is the promise that we'reoffering customers and what do
we want to live up to every time.
You are absolutely correct.
We need to align that not justwith what we're offering
customers and the values we'rebringing to the customer
experience, but we also wantthat to happen on the inside of
(01:32):
the experience with youremployees.
And in fact, that's soimportant because if we are not
walking the talk of the valuesthat we've identified, if we are
not treating employees the waythat we want customers treated,
then we're basically creating achallenge before we even get to
the customer.
So let's break down a fewthings that we can do.
(01:55):
First of all, let's start witha little bit of congratulations.
The fact that you have acustomer experience mission
statement shows intention, showsthat you want the experience to
(02:22):
be meaningful, and that isreally powerful.
So the fact that that work hasbeen done, that there is that
foundation, that is reallyimportant, and I want you to
give yourselves credits for that, because that isn't something
that every organization has.
So the fact that you'rerecognizing this Krystal, the
fact that you are seeing the gapbetween the customer experience
that you say you want todeliver and the values that go
along that and the way thatemployees are feeling well,
that's really important, and nowit's time to bring that to more
than just you.
I would say, if you can find away to raise that awareness, to
(02:46):
recognize and simply name thatthis is happening, that you know
what, without a strong employeeexperience, we cannot deliver a
great customer experience.
That is the foundation of whatwe do, and so we need to ask big
questions like where exactlyare employees feeling that
disconnect?
Where are they feeling frictionin the journey that they're
(03:08):
experiencing every day?
What systems, processes,policies, sometimes people, I
hate to say that, but it's trueare unintentionally undermining
the customer experience mission.
If we talk about having aconvenient and frictionless
experience for customers and yetevery time I do something, I
(03:29):
need to sign into a clunkysystem that isn't frictionless
and doesn't feel good to me asan employee.
That might be one of thosethings.
Now, if you are recognizing thatand also recognizing that you
might not be able to change thatovernight, that's okay.
(03:50):
You can talk about it, you canidentify it and let people know.
We're aware that thismisalignment is happening.
And if you don't know if peopleare feeling this way, this is
where employee surveys can bevery helpful.
Simple polls.
A lot of us use Slack for quickcommunication.
You can do a poll in Slack inmany cases where you could ask
some of your colleagues how doyou feel about this, what are
(04:10):
you seeing?
Get some information that helpsyou build the case to really
address it.
And then, of course, if you area CX leader, we want to
reinforce the why behind that CXmission.
Employees need to know not justwhat the mission is and the
words included, but the why.
Why it matters when peopleunderstand how our individual
(04:35):
work impacts the largerexperience that means so much.
That's what people are lookingfor when they talk about
alignment with values.
So if we do this well, if wecan live up to our mission not
just in the customer experiencebut also in the employee
experience, the organizationwill be more successful.
(04:55):
So paint the picture of what itwould look like if we could get
that alignment.
We would maybe have some moresharing.
We would make sure that we aredelivering to customers in the
way that is most meaningful tothem.
Everybody would feel good aboutthat and employee morale would
go up as well.
And then another way to thinkabout this is to design the
(05:18):
employee experience around thecustomer experience mission.
One of my favorite approaches,once we develop that customer
experience mission statement, isto get people who are
onboarding employees, trainingemployees, to really include
that as part of the regularprocess.
We want to introduce employeesto the customer experience
(05:41):
mission early and often.
We want them to see that thisisn't something that we just
talk about.
This is how we behave.
This is a tool we use toevaluate are we living up to
this mission or not.
So when we design around that,we can ask questions like is
onboarding really reflective ofthis mission and our values?
Are our internal tools andworkflows representing the ease,
(06:08):
the intuition, all of thethings that we want for our
customers, and do we rewardbehaviors that align with the
mission?
That's a great thing to ask too.
We have a whole process aroundwhat we call mission moments.
That's really about recognizingand rewarding the employees who
live up to that mission andover-deliver on it, as well as
(06:31):
being honest about those momentswhen maybe we didn't live up to
that mission.
Maybe it's time that we look atthis differently, try to figure
out how can this never happenagain?
It becomes less about theemployee and it becomes more
about our shared vision and goalaround the customer.
It can be a very powerful tool.
(06:52):
And then, of course, we want toempower employees.
We want people to feel equippedto make better decisions based
on that customer experiencemission.
And so if you identify that,sometimes that's enough to
shrink the gap, if you will,between what the employee
experience is and what thatmission is promising.
If people can feel empowered tomake better decisions, to
(07:16):
sometimes use their judgmentbased on the mission, then
instead of having a whole bunchof individual judgment calls,
you can look at that decisionand say did we live up to the
mission or not?
Once you start making decisionsthat align around the customer
experience mission, that's whenyou see real outcomes happen.
And then the last thing I wantto encourage you to think about
(07:39):
is can you look at the employeeexperience and the customer
experience together when you'remeasuring success, because we
need the employee experience tobe aligned.
We need people to feel likethey are empowered with the
right information, the righttools and, yes, the right
mission to really deliver on thecustomer experience.
There are so many connectionsbetween how your employees feel
(08:04):
and what your customers feel, socan you look at employee
engagement and how people arefeeling in that moment along
with what are customers tellingyou about that moment?
Once you start aligning thatdata, you start seeing some real
connections that either aren'tthere, that should be, or
(08:26):
connections that you want tomake.
When we look at things likecustomer feedback and it's
related to certain teams ordepartments, we're going to
start seeing patterns.
Sometimes we want to celebratethat team and say, look, this
team is getting it right.
Take those behaviors, thosebest practices, those actions
(08:47):
and start seeing if you canincorporate that throughout
other parts of the employeeexperience.
And if you have a team that'smaybe struggling or a department
that is giving you negativefeedback about both the employee
experience how they're feelingas well as what they're doing,
then it's time to really go overthat feedback, create action
(09:08):
plans around what you can do tobring those things into
alignment.
Now, the whole purpose of acustomer experience mission
statement is to allow everybodyto understand that they have an
important role to play inproviding a meaningful customer
experience to the people thatyou serve.
Now notice I said the peopleyou serve, because sometimes
(09:28):
that means internal customers,that means employees, your
colleagues, your leaders,different teams.
We have to make thiscross-functional and we have to
have that cultural commitment.
That is part of our frameworkcultural commitment because it
is so important.
So I encourage you to look forplaces in your culture where you
(09:49):
could connect those dots alittle bit more and then connect
more dots and more.
And as long as everybody'ssinging from the same choir book
, as they like to say, you willstart seeing that alignment.
You will start seeing peoplefeel better about the work that
they do, feel prouder aboutdelivering those moments for
customers and ultimately, yourcustomer experience will improve
(10:12):
as well.
Good luck with this.
Let us know how it goes, andthank you for asking.
And thank you for being outthere and all the work that
you're doing every day toimprove customer experiences.
It is meaningful and it mattersand I appreciate you spending a
little time with me on theexperience action podcast.
Now, if you have a question, Iencourage you to go ahead and
(10:36):
record that for me.
Do what Krystal did here.
You can do it on your laptop orphone.
It's super easy.
Go to askjeannievip and recordyour question and maybe we'll
feature you.
Thanks for being here,everybody, and we'll see you
next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
(11:02):
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on
LinkedIn.
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm
(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
It's the Experience Action Podcast, and
experience is not just reservedfor customers.
When we talk about experience,we're talking about everyone,
including employees, and that'swhat the question this week is,
so listen up.
Listener Question (00:47):
Hey Jeannie.
This is Krystal.
We have a CX mission statementthat outlines the experience we
want to create for our customers, but sometimes our employee
experience doesn't quite reflectthat mission.
When there's a gap between whatwe say we value and what
employees actually experience,what steps can we take to bring
the two into alignment?
Jeannie Walters (01:10):
Well, thank you , Krystal.
This is a great question andyou know, when we have a
customer experience missionstatement that outlines the
experience we want to create,that really gets to the core of
what is the promise that we'reoffering customers and what do
we want to live up to every time.
You are absolutely correct.
We need to align that not justwith what we're offering
customers and the values we'rebringing to the customer
experience, but we also wantthat to happen on the inside of
(01:32):
the experience with youremployees.
And in fact, that's soimportant because if we are not
walking the talk of the valuesthat we've identified, if we are
not treating employees the waythat we want customers treated,
then we're basically creating achallenge before we even get to
the customer.
So let's break down a fewthings that we can do.
(01:55):
First of all, let's start witha little bit of congratulations.
The fact that you have acustomer experience mission
statement shows intention, showsthat you want the experience to
(02:22):
be meaningful, and that isreally powerful.
So the fact that that work hasbeen done, that there is that
foundation, that is reallyimportant, and I want you to
give yourselves credits for that, because that isn't something
that every organization has.
So the fact that you'rerecognizing this Krystal, the
fact that you are seeing the gapbetween the customer experience
that you say you want todeliver and the values that go
along that and the way thatemployees are feeling well,
that's really important, and nowit's time to bring that to more
than just you.
I would say, if you can find away to raise that awareness, to
(02:46):
recognize and simply name thatthis is happening, that you know
what, without a strong employeeexperience, we cannot deliver a
great customer experience.
That is the foundation of whatwe do, and so we need to ask big
questions like where exactlyare employees feeling that
disconnect?
Where are they feeling frictionin the journey that they're
(03:08):
experiencing every day?
What systems, processes,policies, sometimes people, I
hate to say that, but it's trueare unintentionally undermining
the customer experience mission.
If we talk about having aconvenient and frictionless
experience for customers and yetevery time I do something, I
(03:29):
need to sign into a clunkysystem that isn't frictionless
and doesn't feel good to me asan employee.
That might be one of thosethings.
Now, if you are recognizing thatand also recognizing that you
might not be able to change thatovernight, that's okay.
(03:50):
You can talk about it, you canidentify it and let people know.
We're aware that thismisalignment is happening.
And if you don't know if peopleare feeling this way, this is
where employee surveys can bevery helpful.
Simple polls.
A lot of us use Slack for quickcommunication.
You can do a poll in Slack inmany cases where you could ask
some of your colleagues how doyou feel about this, what are
(04:10):
you seeing?
Get some information that helpsyou build the case to really
address it.
And then, of course, if you area CX leader, we want to
reinforce the why behind that CXmission.
Employees need to know not justwhat the mission is and the
words included, but the why.
Why it matters when peopleunderstand how our individual
(04:35):
work impacts the largerexperience that means so much.
That's what people are lookingfor when they talk about
alignment with values.
So if we do this well, if wecan live up to our mission not
just in the customer experiencebut also in the employee
experience, the organizationwill be more successful.
(04:55):
So paint the picture of what itwould look like if we could get
that alignment.
We would maybe have some moresharing.
We would make sure that we aredelivering to customers in the
way that is most meaningful tothem.
Everybody would feel good aboutthat and employee morale would
go up as well.
And then another way to thinkabout this is to design the
(05:18):
employee experience around thecustomer experience mission.
One of my favorite approaches,once we develop that customer
experience mission statement, isto get people who are
onboarding employees, trainingemployees, to really include
that as part of the regularprocess.
We want to introduce employeesto the customer experience
(05:41):
mission early and often.
We want them to see that thisisn't something that we just
talk about.
This is how we behave.
This is a tool we use toevaluate are we living up to
this mission or not.
So when we design around that,we can ask questions like is
onboarding really reflective ofthis mission and our values?
Are our internal tools andworkflows representing the ease,
(06:08):
the intuition, all of thethings that we want for our
customers, and do we rewardbehaviors that align with the
mission?
That's a great thing to ask too.
We have a whole process aroundwhat we call mission moments.
That's really about recognizingand rewarding the employees who
live up to that mission andover-deliver on it, as well as
(06:31):
being honest about those momentswhen maybe we didn't live up to
that mission.
Maybe it's time that we look atthis differently, try to figure
out how can this never happenagain?
It becomes less about theemployee and it becomes more
about our shared vision and goalaround the customer.
It can be a very powerful tool.
(06:52):
And then, of course, we want toempower employees.
We want people to feel equippedto make better decisions based
on that customer experiencemission.
And so if you identify that,sometimes that's enough to
shrink the gap, if you will,between what the employee
experience is and what thatmission is promising.
If people can feel empowered tomake better decisions, to
(07:16):
sometimes use their judgmentbased on the mission, then
instead of having a whole bunchof individual judgment calls,
you can look at that decisionand say did we live up to the
mission or not?
Once you start making decisionsthat align around the customer
experience mission, that's whenyou see real outcomes happen.
And then the last thing I wantto encourage you to think about
(07:39):
is can you look at the employeeexperience and the customer
experience together when you'remeasuring success, because we
need the employee experience tobe aligned.
We need people to feel likethey are empowered with the
right information, the righttools and, yes, the right
mission to really deliver on thecustomer experience.
There are so many connectionsbetween how your employees feel
(08:04):
and what your customers feel, socan you look at employee
engagement and how people arefeeling in that moment along
with what are customers tellingyou about that moment?
Once you start aligning thatdata, you start seeing some real
connections that either aren'tthere, that should be, or
(08:26):
connections that you want tomake.
When we look at things likecustomer feedback and it's
related to certain teams ordepartments, we're going to
start seeing patterns.
Sometimes we want to celebratethat team and say, look, this
team is getting it right.
Take those behaviors, thosebest practices, those actions
(08:47):
and start seeing if you canincorporate that throughout
other parts of the employeeexperience.
And if you have a team that'smaybe struggling or a department
that is giving you negativefeedback about both the employee
experience how they're feelingas well as what they're doing,
then it's time to really go overthat feedback, create action
(09:08):
plans around what you can do tobring those things into
alignment.
Now, the whole purpose of acustomer experience mission
statement is to allow everybodyto understand that they have an
important role to play inproviding a meaningful customer
experience to the people thatyou serve.
Now notice I said the peopleyou serve, because sometimes
(09:28):
that means internal customers,that means employees, your
colleagues, your leaders,different teams.
We have to make thiscross-functional and we have to
have that cultural commitment.
That is part of our frameworkcultural commitment because it
is so important.
So I encourage you to look forplaces in your culture where you
(09:49):
could connect those dots alittle bit more and then connect
more dots and more.
And as long as everybody'ssinging from the same choir book
, as they like to say, you willstart seeing that alignment.
You will start seeing peoplefeel better about the work that
they do, feel prouder aboutdelivering those moments for
customers and ultimately, yourcustomer experience will improve
(10:12):
as well.
Good luck with this.
Let us know how it goes, andthank you for asking.
And thank you for being outthere and all the work that
you're doing every day toimprove customer experiences.
It is meaningful and it mattersand I appreciate you spending a
little time with me on theexperience action podcast.
Now, if you have a question, Iencourage you to go ahead and
(10:36):
record that for me.
Do what Krystal did here.
You can do it on your laptop orphone.
It's super easy.
Go to askjeannievip and recordyour question and maybe we'll
feature you.
Thanks for being here,everybody, and we'll see you
next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
(11:02):
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on
LinkedIn.
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