Modern workplace comms: Less PDF, more OMG

Intranet (n): dusty, desktop-only internal website your company set up years ago. Hard to navigate. Rarely updated. Mostly ignored.  

Sound familiar? Then your business is missing a huge opportunity.

Modern intranets — especially mobile-first ones like Blink — are intuitive, engaging, and built for the frontline and the desk-based workforce.

They’re not just document libraries — they’re a vibrant digital hub, where employees can access information, connect with each other, and feel part of company culture.

So what exactly can an intranet do for your organization? Here are 15 powerful ways to put yours to work in 2025. 

What are the applications of an intranet?

There are lots of business-boosting ways to use your intranet. These include:

1. Sharing company news and updates
2. Connecting co-workers
3. Amplifying company culture
4. Providing access to docs and resources
5. Easy employee reporting
6. Shift scheduling
7. Automating routine tasks
8. Unifying workplace tools
9. Viewing pay stubs
10. Enabling HR self-service
11. Tracking training and employee performance
12. Recognizing employee efforts
13. Inviting employees to company events
14. Conducting employee surveys
15. Keeping tabs on business metrics

Ready to take a closer look at each of these intranet uses? Let’s dive right in.

Uses of an intranet for internal communication

A modern intranet provides all the functionality you need to run a successful internal communications strategy. From a news feed to instant messaging to scroll-stopping, social-style posts, here are some great ways to use an intranet for internal comms.

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#1. Sharing company news and updates

Forget the company noticeboard. Share updates that actually get seen.

Putting company news on your intranet keeps everyone on the same page. So it’s easier to align on tasks, projects, and overarching business goals.

On a modern intranet, company updates are best suited to the news feed. Here, you can serve up snippets of scrollable content. You can also segment employees by location, role, team, and tenure to ensure that news feed content always feels relevant.

To get your most important messages to cut through, put sticky messages at the top of every employee’s news feed or intranet dashboard. You can even request a read receipt so you can be confident that vital safety announcements and policy updates have been seen.

Want to reach the whole workforce? A mobile-first intranet makes company news available to every employee's smartphone, while push notifications draw their attention to the updates that matter most.

#2. Connecting co-workers with instant messaging

Does your internal comms strategy start and end with email? In 2025, there are smarter, more inclusive ways to connect and engage your workforce.

Email-only communication causes inbox fatigue and poor employee engagement. It provides limited analytics and insights. And it excludes those without a company email address — typically all frontline employees.

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Instant messaging via your intranet platform is an excellent alternative. In fact, more than 40% of employees in the US already communicate via instant messaging at work.

The best solutions mirror the messaging experience employees enjoy on tools like WhatsApp. They provide a fast, secure, and intuitive way to conduct real-time conversations with managers and co-workers, over 1-to-1 or group threads.

They also support a streamlined experience, where employees can share links and documents — and even launch a video meeting — right within the app.

A mobile-first intranet makes this functionality available to frontline employees, as well as desk-based staff. It connects co-workers, supporting knowledge-sharing and peer support, even when employees work in different locations.

#3. Amplifying company culture

If you want to reinforce company culture and values across your organization, a modern social intranet is just the right tool. 

It comes with interactive, social-media-style features that support the sharing of informal, authentic, and engaging content. Think behind-the-scenes videos, snaps of the latest team lunch, or a post to celebrate a co-worker’s birthday. 

Some top social intranet tips? Use your intranet to publish Stories (short-form videos that are great at grabbing attention). Create hashtags to highlight company values. And encourage employees to contribute their own relatable content. 

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You can also create dedicated Communities based on job function, hobbies, or DEI interests. These virtual spaces foster a sense of belonging and connection, particularly among dispersed and hybrid teams.

#4. Providing access to docs and resources

Document sharing has long been a standard intranet feature. But, with a new-and-improved modern intranet, you can take that functionality to the next level, offering easy access to documents and resources via a user-friendly content hub.

Here, employees can use intuitive search functions to find exactly what they’re looking for. Whether they’re onboarding or just refreshing their knowledge, they can access company policies, read FAQs, and learn about processes.

You can also surface useful content on every dashboard, personalizing the experience so employees see content that’s relevant to them and their roles. 

And content management? That’s easy too. Admins can see at a glance which resources need to be updated, so it’s easy to plan revisions into the content schedule.

Uses of an intranet for productivity

The best intranets support employee productivity. They digitize paper processes and automate manual tasks, saving time in every employee work day. Take a look at these intranet uses for inspiration.

#5. Easy employee reporting

Rather than filling in paper forms — or waiting till they see their manager in person — employees can use digital forms on your intranet to streamline the reporting process. They can use your intranet to:

• Request replacement IT equipment
• Report vehicle or machinery faults
• Report a workplace accident

These messages reach relevant teams and managers quickly and securely, no matter where an employee happens to be at the time of filling out the form. So it’s a great way to improve reporting and compliance.

#6. Shift scheduling

If your intranet doesn’t work for frontline employees, your frontline managers are probably feeling pretty overstretched. They’ll be spending a lot of time keeping deskless workers up to speed — and organizing shift schedules.

But set your intranet up for shift scheduling and you save hours of manager time. Employees can log into the intranet via their smartphones to view and swap upcoming shifts, without supervisors having to micromanage the process.

The end result? More filled shifts. A happier, more empowered workforce (who enjoy better work-life balance). And lower stress levels for your frontline managers.

#7. Automating routine tasks

A modern intranet often comes with built-in automation and AI tools that free your people to focus on value-add activities.

Need help drafting a post for the news feed or replying to a tricky comment? Let AI offer inspiration. Want content tailored to every employee? A personalization engine can deliver it, straight to their dashboard.  

You can also supercharge search with AI-powered results, recommend resources, and provide instant support with the help of AI chatbots.

Automation is another key feature. You can automate employee journeys. From onboarding nudges to compliance reminders, PTO requests to training alerts — workers receive the right communications at the right time.

#8. Unifying workplace tools

Tired of juggling logins? Sick of toggling between tabs?

When an intranet has deep integrations with the other workplace software you use, it acts as a digital front door for your organization. It’s a user-friendly entry point for everything your people need.

Add in single sign-on technology and employees only have to remember one set of login details to access HRIS, CMS, project management, and payroll software.

This reduces pressure on your IT team — who no longer spend their days dealing with password reset requests. It also creates a joined up digital employee experience, where everything your teams need is just a couple of clicks away.

Uses of an intranet for HR

When your intranet is built just right, HR gets so much easier. With automation, self-serve tools, and seamless alignment with internal comms, you free your HR team from repetitive tasks and allow them to focus their attention on more complex tasks. 

#9. Viewing pay stubs

A modern intranet makes it easy for employees to view and download their pay stubs whenever they need them, without submitting a request or chasing payroll.

Whether integrated with your existing timesheet or HR system — or available via built-in intranet functionality — this feature saves time on both sides and gives employees the financial visibility they need.

#10. Enabling HR self-service

A well-designed intranet empowers employees to take care of common HR tasks without sending an email or getting on the phone with your HR team.

They can:

• Make time-off requests
• Activate benefits and access benefit information
• Claim business expenses
• Book approved travel and accommodation

By digitizing these processes you make them more convenient. You reduce the need for complex and error-prone paper processes. And you lighten the workload of both employees and HR teams.

Make these features mobile-friendly and they’re then equally accessible to both desk-based and frontline staff, ensuring no one’s left behind.

#11. Tracking training and employee performance

Learning and development is easier to manage when your intranet does some of the heavy lifting.

With the right integrations, employees can access training programs directly from their intranet dashboard. From onboarding materials to ongoing professional development, it’s all in one place.

Key modules can be surfaced automatically, while news feed posts and push notifications can help highlight upcoming training sessions. Compliance training on the horizon? Use priority posts with required acknowledgment to ensure nothing gets missed.  

Intranets can also support performance management. Progression plans, KPIs, and development conversations can be logged and tracked in a central location, making it easier for employees to understand expectations and for managers to support growth.

Uses of an intranet for employee engagement

A modern intranet can actively support employee experience — and measure your impact too. Here’s how to use your intranet for employee engagement.

#12. Recognizing employee efforts

Recognition is a powerful motivator. In fact, 82% of employees think recognition plays a significant role in their satisfaction at work.

Chances are, your organization already has some form of employee recognition scheme in place — an awards program or a performance-related bonus.

But — with the help of your intranet — you can weave recognition into the daily interactions of your organization, embedding it in company culture.

You can use your intranet comms channels to celebrate employee birthdays and anniversaries. You can encourage both managers and co-workers to spotlight the hard work of employees.

Link recognition to a rewards program — where employees can exchange recognition points for gift cards, charitable donations, or company merchandise — and you give them even more incentive to bring their A-game.

#13. Inviting employees to company events

Whether it’s a town hall, a team-building session, or a virtual Q&A, intranets make it easy to spread the word and manage attendance for workplace events.

You can:

• Target event invitations by location, department, or role
• Add RSVP functionality and calendar integration
• Remind employees of upcoming events via the intranet news feed
• Create dedicated event pages to keep attendees informed
• Send push notifications if event details change

By using these intranet functions you simplify the process for both employees and organizers — and avoid events slipping under the radar of their target audience.

#14. Conducting employee surveys

Another modern intranet feature you should be making use of? Employee surveys.

Surveys are one of the simplest but most effective ways to listen to your workforce — and a modern intranet can help you launch them regularly and at scale.

When your intranet has an in-built or integrated survey function, use it to take the pulse of your organization, gathering insights on engagement, satisfaction, or specific initiatives.

And, whether it’s a quarterly deep-dive or a quick-fire poll, make surveys easy to complete from any device — including mobile — so participation stays high.

Once the results are in, you can use intranet analytics and reports to make sense of employee responses in super-fast time. So it’s easy to spot emerging issues and make meaningful changes to the employee experience.

#15. Keeping tabs on business metrics

Intranet analytics reveal a lot about your organization. They tell you how employees are interacting with your intranet — and each other.

Are some tools underused? Which channels are most effective? Where are the drop-off points? Analytics shine a light on it all.

With this data — in tandem with employee feedback — you can improve less popular intranet features, add new functionality, and create an even better user experience.

The best intranets also help you keep tabs on important business metrics like:

• User engagement
• Employee satisfaction
• Employee retention
• Productivity

These insights don’t just help you optimize your intranet — they support smarter decision-making across your organization.

By tracking trends over time, you can spot shifts in engagement, identify potential issues early, and measure the impact of new initiatives. You can view data holistically, getting to know the levers that make the most difference to the employee experience and business goals.

What will you do with your intranet in 2025?

The best modern intranets do all the above and more. They’re the digital and social hub of your organization, providing employees with the tools, comms, and connections they need to thrive in the workplace.

But not every intranet makes the cut. Legacy intranets are struggling to keep up with the latest intranet trends.

Typically, they have clunky mobile apps. The user experience lags behind that of consumer-grade tools. And you need additional software to fulfill all the needs of your organization. 

If this is your platform experience, it’s time to upgrade and optimize your intranet. Start by taking a look at the top intranet software providers for 2025.

Look for modern, mobile-first tools that support every employee — whether they’re behind a desk or on the frontline. Aim for an exceptional user experience and all the functionality listed above. 

One platform. All the tools. And an intranet your employees will love.

Blink. And turn your intranet into the beating heart of your organization.  

13 ways to quickly improve internal communications

Internal communications joins the dots. It connects every member of an organization and helps keep everyone up to speed. But it’s not without its challenges.

Comms leaders have to quiet the noise while amplifying key messages. They need to share updates consistently. And find tech tools that make communication engaging for employees. 

In frontline organizations, there are additional communication challenges to tackle.

Frontline teams often work disparately. Employees can’t rely on in-person meetings for the latest updates. Nor do they have access to a desktop computer or even a company email address.

Finding reliable ways to reach these employees – that go beyond a messy noticeboard – is vital for business success.

With these challenges in mind, we’re going to look at the ways comms leaders can quickly and effectively improve internal communications. Let’s dive right in.

Why is it important to improve your internal comms?

Poor internal communication harms your business and its bottom line. When leaders, teams, and individuals fail to communicate well, every area of operations is affected.

Poor communication also has an effect on employees. Staff want to feel part of the organization they work for, and the first step to achieving that is keeping them in the loop.  

Ultimately, when you improve internal communication, you:

• Boost workplace trust. Over 40% of workers say that poor communication is reducing the trust they have in leadership and their teams. This is making them more stressed and less loyal to their organization.
  
  
• Engage employees. Informed employees are 2.8 times more likely to be engaged. Employee engagement is linked to higher productivity, profitability, and employee retention rates.
  
  
• Get better at what you do. When you improve internal communication, you improve decision-making, teamwork, and collaboration. Everyone pulls in the same direction, which spells bigger and better business results.

The benefit of good internal communication in frontline organizations is even more pronounced.

Safety concerns. Equipment failures. Product or service updates. A shift you need to cover. Inclement weather. These critical communications need to travel between frontline staff and managers quickly and reliably. It’s how you limit downtime and ensure the very best customer service.

But if your communication culture, communication skills, or communication tools are lacking, you’ll find it hard to connect the various teams that make up your organization.

13 ideas to quickly improve internal communication

With so much to be gained from good internal communications, time is of the essence. Every day you continue doing things the old way, you’re missing out.

So here are some internal communication ideas that you can put in place quickly, for maximum impact. Weave these ideas into your internal communication strategy and start making improvements right away.

1. Start with the leadership team

Leaders set the tone of an organization. So if your leadership team isn’t sold on your bid to improve internal communication, your employees won’t be either.

It’s up to leaders to drive comms throughout the company. It’s also on them to engage with comms. That way, employees see that your internal communication channels are a valued resource for people at all levels – and they’re much more likely to engage with them, too.

To prove to your workforce that it isn’t one rule for them – and another for their managers – get the leadership team on board right at the start. Involve leaders in the launch of your internal communications plan and encourage them to be positive promoters of it.

2. Ask questions & launch surveys

To avoid time-consuming missteps, get employee insight early on in the process. Employee input informs your strategy and improves your chances of getting things right the first time.

You can get input by asking informal questions and launching surveys. Find out what employees want from internal communications – and what aspects of current comms they struggle with.

With Blink’s super-app, you can launch surveys that reach your whole workforce. A user-friendly interface makes it easy for employees to respond. And a clear dashboard helps you to draw conclusions from their answers.

Surveys help you make informed internal communication decisions. But there’s another benefit, too. By involving employees in this part of the process, you set an important precedent.

You show employees that you value their input – and that their voices are heard. This raises trust in the process. It also helps employees see what they stand to gain by engaging with internal communications going forward. 

3. Streamline your communication channels

Well-established companies often have history with lots of different internal communication tools. In frontline organizations, there tends to be a mix of tech solutions and old-school communication channels – like posters and notice boards.

If you’ve inherited a complicated system of communication channels, it’s worth stepping back and assessing their impact on company communication.  

Is a noticeboard crammed with memos an efficient and reliable way to communicate with your teams? Are multiple communication channels helping you to clarify the message – or are they muddying it?

Less is usually more. So streamlining your comms channels is a great way to improve internal communication. Employees are much more likely to engage with a single source of reliable info.  

That’s exactly what happened at Domino’s. The pizza delivery company was using word of mouth, posters, and WhatsApp groups to communicate with its frontline. But by switching to Blink, Domino’s put all internal communication in one place and now everyone gets the same need-to-know updates.

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4. Personalize your comms

Think of all the marketing emails that land in your inbox every day. The ones that personalize their message stand out. They’re much more likely to resonate. The rest is like white noise. It becomes very easy to ignore stuff that doesn’t feel relevant to you. 

The same goes for company comms. When you make your message more relevant to your audience, they sit up and take notice. When employees are inundated with comms that have nothing to do with their role, they tend to start ignoring the noise - and before you know it even the most relevant and critical messages are missed. 

You can quickly make a change by segmenting your audience. Divide your organization by department, team, location, and stage in the employee life cycle.

Then, craft personalized comms. And only send mass communications when they really are relevant to the whole organization. Intentional, personalized communication is much harder to ignore.

5. Run company-wide stand ups

A standup meeting is a short but regular opportunity for teams to share progress and identify blockers. It’s a way to get everyone on the same page and clarify what they should be doing.

A company-wide standup is the easiest way to communicate your current priorities and action plan to everyone. But you can also run stand ups within teams, departments, or locations.

Of course, if you’re a frontline organization, getting everyone together for this type of meeting isn’t always practical. Employees work different shifts and in different locations, or maybe even work on the road.

But don’t dismiss the idea of company stand ups outright. Create stand ups for different shift swaps, or locations, or smaller groups of people. And for the times you can’t be together in real life, tech can help.

Employees can join a meeting via video conference. Or you can record your company-wide stand ups and post them as video content to your primary internal communication channel.

6. Implement an employee app

In today’s technological world, you can find incredible tools designed to improve internal communication, fast.

An employee app is a great example. It works well because you meet employees where they already spend their time – on their smartphones. And because it incorporates features that employees are familiar with, like instant messaging, group chats, and a newsfeed.

Take Stagecoach, a UK-based bus company. When Stagecoach implemented an employee app, 84% of their workforce started using it within just one week. Because they chose a communication tool that employees could use intuitively, they got better and faster uptake.

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An employee app also streamlines your employee communications because employees can access everything via a single, user-friendly interface. And it provides channels for both top-down and bottom-up comms. Anyone can read and share information.

Blink’s employee app ticks all these boxes. Designed for frontline organizations, it helps bridge the gap between your frontline and desk-based teams. 

7. Reward & recognize your employees

Another way to quickly improve internal communication is by rewarding and recognizing employees. Shout out those employees who hit their goals or reach a personal milestone. Highlight the times when a member of staff goes above and beyond.

A culture of recognition helps to build engagement. It also boosts morale and encourages other employees to do their best work.

Using internal communication channels in this positive way encourages employees to communicate more frequently, too. When an employee feels acknowledged, they’re more likely to acknowledge others, share successes, and communicate constructively with peers.

You can put the wheels in motion by encouraging managers to send regular messages of acknowledgment. But to amplify the effect, go further. 

Build recognition into your internal comms strategy by using Blink’s recognition feature. Via the app, you can send messages of public praise with the power to inspire everyone.

8. Conduct regular 121 meetings 

If your managers only run 121 meetings with employees once or twice a year, this is an area ripe for improvement.

A lot can happen over the space of a year or six months. Internal communication might be missed or misinterpreted. Regular 121s are an opportunity to realign goals and understanding.

Regular 121s help you to:

• Build a personal connection with employees
• Address concerns in real-time
• Improve employee engagement

It also makes the act of discussion and feedback more familiar. Employees get used to sitting down and sharing their work experiences with managers. So managers are much more likely to get candid (and therefore useful) insight from their staff.  

Advise your managers on how often they should conduct 121s. Monthly, bi-weekly, or even weekly sessions create an open feedback loop.

Also, remember that a public communication forum can never replace 121s. While employees are often happy to share some ideas publicly, they also need the opportunity to share their thoughts privately and confidentially.

9. Encourage content creation

Leave content creation to management and you run into two key problems:

1. Your internal communication is unengaging because there’s lots of top-down communication but not enough bottom-up or peer-to-peer communication.

2. Managers find it hard to balance content creation alongside their usual workload. This means more managerial stress and/or less quality content.

There’s a quick and easy solution. Give everyone a turn at content creation. Use guidelines and templates if you think they’re needed. Then, let employees start threads, post blogs, upload videos, and recognize their peers.

In doing so, you strengthen your company network. Employees build new relationships. They find people with whom they have things in common. They chat about non-work-related topics.

This type of water cooler chat may seem irrelevant to your business objectives. But trust us when we say it’s hugely important to the quality of communication that takes place within your organization.

This is particularly true in frontline firms where workers don’t always get the opportunity for informal chats with co-workers.

When employees build trusting relationships with co-workers, they don’t just find it easier to chat about their latest vacation or the boxset they’re currently binging. They find it easier to communicate and collaborate on workplace topics, too.

10. Take a data-driven approach to internal communications

How do you measure the success of an internal communications initiative? You need reliable, accessible data you can track over time.

This is another reason why having the right communication tech is vital. Pick communication tools with analytics built in and it’s easy to view and act upon insights.

You can see which type of content your employees do and don’t interact with. You can see which posts get the most comments and likes. This helps you to hone your internal communication going forward.

Similarly, analytics functions help you to see the bigger impact that your communication strategy is having. Perhaps it’s helping you to reduce staff turnover or increase staff satisfaction.

When you have access to the data, it’s easy to demonstrate the value and effectiveness of internal communication improvements. You’ll also find it easier to make informed, targeted changes that make your initiative even more successful.

11. Be consistent

Good internal communication is all about consistency. You can’t promise employees a weekly update or a monthly webinar and then fail to deliver.

They’ll stop seeing your communication as reliable and trustworthy – and they’ll stop checking in for new content. This is the point at which the wheels fall off your strategy and you have a much harder job pushing that new initiative uphill. 

To show employees that your new internal communication strategy is here to stay, make sure it’s sustainable.

At the outset, you may like to err on the side of caution, only committing to a content schedule you know is manageable for the people delivering it. You can always add more items to your content calendar once it’s up and running.

Also, as we mentioned earlier, enlisting the support of employees in content creation helps to create an internal communications ecosystem that doesn’t rely on a handful of time-stretched managers. With all hands on deck, it’s much easier to create and post content consistently.

12. Be transparent

Internal communication is most successful when communication is transparent. That means:

• Including everyone in communications
• Creating an open connection between leadership and employees
• Clearly communicating business changes and decision-making processes
• Acknowledging both successes and mistakes

Transparent communication is important because it helps to build trust between all members of your organization. It prevents secondary channels of communication – in the form of rumors and speculation – from emerging. And it helps to boost employee engagement. 

If you don’t already have a culture of open communication, getting there is likely to take time. You need to develop communication skills throughout your organization and set new norms of behavior.

However, one of the things you can do to improve internal communication quickly is to involve employees in your internal communication strategy. Be open about the changes you’re trying to implement – and why.

When employees feel like part of the process, they’re much more likely to feel invested in its outcome.  

13. Report back on changes you are making

So you’re planning to make big changes to the way you communicate internally. Don’t forget to involve employees from the beginning and throughout the process.

After launching employee surveys and conducting 121s, communicate your findings. Let workers know what you’ve learned, what changes you plan to make, and what you hope to gain.

This shows that you’re committed to transparent communication, not just paying lip service. And that you’re putting employees at the center of decision-making.

Take this tack and employee engagement, morale, trust, and the success of your internal communication strategy all stand to benefit.

Final thoughts

Improving internal communications takes time and strategy. It’s a long-term commitment. But there are quick wins to be had.

Gather insights. Involve all members of your organization. Find the right tools. Start fostering a culture of open, honest communication, right now, today.

By doing so, you’ll create change in the here and now. And lay the groundwork for future internal comms improvements, too.

It’s well worth the investment, particularly for frontline organizations. With strong internal communication, you build teams who are more connected, informed, and engaged - which leads to widespread benefits for your employees, customers, and business.

Want to make internal communication a priority for 2024? Then put internal comms in the palm of every employee with Blink’s employee app.

Our mobile-first app supports two-way communication, critical messages, employee recognition, and workforce surveys. It also integrates with the business tools you already use. So employees can access all resources from one user-friendly interface.

Accessed via mobile or desktop and with speedy, sky-high adoption rates, Blink provides a quick and easy way to improve your internal communications in 2024.

Blink. And your frontline is set up for success.

Introducing Journeys from Blink: a powerful new way to meet employee attrition and engagement challenges head-on.

Did you know that a third of employees quit within their first 90 days? All that time and effort invested in sourcing, recruiting, and onboarding new team members can so quickly go to waste. That's why it's crucial to equip your business with the right tools to keep employees engaged from the day they join. 

Foster a personal connection with your employees from day one, and you'll gain control over frontline employee engagement — setting you up in the short term to reduce new starter attrition, and in the long run a happier, more engaged workforce. 

What is Journeys?

Journeys is a new way to set up personalized content paths for every employee. Each new Journey helps businesses deliver and scale an engaging employee experience.

Businesses using Journeys can:

✅ Boost employee happiness and retention by cultivating a sense of belonging and engagement within their workforce

✅ Personalize for the frontline — effortlessly. With Journeys, delivering personalized experiences to every frontline worker is quick and easy

✅ Streamline onboarding: The entire employee onboarding process is simplified by Journeys, saving valuable time and effort while accelerating employee ramp-up time

✅ Create a winning employee experience: In just a few minutes, you'll have created a tailored sequence of posts that align with your employees' needs

"Journeys has been perfect for giving our new team a great onboarding experience, as well as keeping the whole team reminded of key information such as our handbook and safety protocols. But this only scratches the surface: there are a ton of opportunities here." 

Katie Palmatier, Operations Manager at Lifeline Ambulance Service 

Ways organizations are using Journeys 

Onboarding 👋  
Effortlessly guide new starters through your induction process, welcoming them to Blink, sharing key onboarding documents and tools, and introducing them to key people who will support them in their roles. 

Collecting feedback 💬  
Keep your finger on the pulse throughout your employee lifecycle by linking to forms and surveys. 

Celebrating work milestones 🎉  
Ensure no work anniversary goes overlooked or unrecognized. 

Training and compliance 🎓  
Distribute key policies and learning and development resources, then send timely reminders for employees to act. 

Organizations using Blink Journeys are benefitting from:

• Time and effort saved in managing people operations
• Improved employee engagement at scale, leading to better productivity and happiness 
• Reduced new employee churn, thanks to informative and well-timed onboarding communications 
• Decreased current employee churn through automated touch points and milestones

What's next?

Ready to transform your employee experience with Journeys and Blink? Reach out to us to learn more about Journeys and how it can elevate your employee experience. Get in touch today. 
 
 
 

Think of your four top employees. 

According to data, there’s a good chance that one of them will quit this year. 

In 2021, 25% of employees quit their jobs.

Think about it: you track customer happiness to avoid churn. So, if you want to hang on to your workforce, you need cold, hard data.

That's where employee satisfaction metrics come in. By keeping an eye on these, you can spot a small problem before it becomes a big one.

And best of all, there isn't a sea of data points to muddle over. Here are the only 4 employee satisfaction metrics you need to know.

What is an employee satisfaction score? 

It’s hard to quantify sentiments — but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. 

You can take a combination of data points related to your employee’s satisfaction and get a clear picture of how happy your workers are. 

With an employee satisfaction score, organizations can make adjustments to ensure their workers are engaged, and therefore 17% more productive than their peers.

Happy employees stay longer and are more likely to recommend their job to their friends. 

How to measure employee satisfaction 

You can measure sentiment by finding out the following employee satisfaction metrics. 

1. Employee net promoter score 

Find your employee net promoter score (eNPS) by asking a simple question from your employees: 

On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend working at this organization to others?

This metric gives you a clear picture of how your employees feel. 

To turn the results into actionable insights, divide your respondents into three categories: 

• Promoters: Answered nine or ten.
• Passives: Answered seven or eight. 
• Detractors: Answered six or below. 

Gather insights about what you’re doing well from your promoters and what you could improve on from your detractors. 

Learn more about your passives to understand how to convert them to promoters. 

2. Absenteeism rate

The absenteeism rate measures how often employees don’t come to work due to unexpected sickness or other causes. 

Divide the number of absent days from the total number of working days in a given period — excluding holidays, vacations, and weekends. 

The average absence rate in the U.S. in 2020 was 3%. Use this number to get a benchmark for your organization. 

A high absenteeism rate across your organization could be a sign that your employees are feeling burnout. They may be overworked and stressed, making them more likely to get sick — or simply call in for a personal day. 

Try to optimize your employees’ workloads, improve your work culture, or provide tools to make their jobs easier. 

3. Employee satisfaction index

Sometimes the best way to understand how satisfied your employees are is to ask them. That’s what the questions in an employee satisfaction index aim to do. 

There is no mandatory set of questions, but the most common questions include: 

• How satisfied are you with your current organization? 
• How well does your current workplace meet your expectations? 
• How closely does your current role match your ideal job? 

Answers should be given on a numerical scale. ‘

You can make questions more specific to get a sense of your workers’ satisfaction with various aspects of their jobs — salary, coworkers, and duties. 

Consider adding your satisfaction questions to a larger survey. 

4. Turnover

Turnover is a measure of how many employees leave your company in a given period. It is a strong tell for how satisfied your employees are since happier employees are more likely to stay at an organization.

Calculate turnover by taking the total number of separations in a given period and dividing it by the average positions. Then multiply the result by 100 to find a percentage. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average turnover in 2020 was 57.3%. This includes both voluntary and involuntary turnover.  

Guru breaks down the average turnover by industry.

If your turnover is higher than your industry average, it’s likely your employees are unsatisfied.

Final thoughts: the 4 employee satisfaction metrics you need to know

To keep your employees engaged, happy, and productive, it’s important to actively track their overall satisfaction in their roles. 

You can do this by surveying your employees and gathering their feedback. With the data guiding your way, it’s easier to zero in on what you can do to improve your organization. 

Employee engagement is a critical focus for People teams— or any other business leader. Learn what it is, why it’s important, and how to improve it in our complete guide.

Employee engagement is the difference between soaring productivity rates and a sense of stagnation. It’s fifty people applying for a single vacancy, rather than fifty vacancies and one applicant.    

Yet for all its importance, companies frequently misunderstand what employee engagement is and what it looks like. That's why we’re here to help. 

Whether you're looking to better understand the definition and importance of employee engagement, drive employee engagement in your organization, or simply understand examples of employee engagement, this complete guide to employee engagement has something for you.

What is employee engagement? A simple definition

Employee engagement is the ongoing process of ensuring your workforce feels satisfied with their job, aligned with your organization’s values, and supported enough to give 100% during work hours.

Research by SHRM defines the term employee engagement as relating to the level of an employee's commitment and connection to an organization, while Investopedia defines employee engagement as describing the level of enthusiasm and dedication a worker feels toward their job.

At Blink, we believe true employee engagement is a combination of two equally important parts:

• Attitude - the commitment a worker feels toward the company
• Behavior - the effort that an employee is willing to invest in their job

Whichever way you look at it, maintaining employee engagement is a key factor in determining how successful an organization will be. It also provides key insights into employee satisfaction and sentiment, which can help identify areas that may need improvement.

To better illustrate what employee engagement looks like, here are some of the key attitudes and behaviors of engaged vs disengaged employees:

What is employee engagement for employers?

HR is all about people. So it makes sense that, if that is your role, you want the best for your co-workers.

Still, there’s more to it than that.

Employee engagement is important because it affects the performance of your company. Think back to a job you’ve not enjoyed in the past  — did you give as much to that role as you did to the ones you loved?

Now extrapolate this out across an entire company of unhappy, unmotivated workers. In toxic environments, productivity nosedives. Depending on the type of organization you work for, this could mean a lower output rate, poor customer service, an increase in safety incidents, reduced patient satisfaction, missed deadlines, or any other number of issues.

What is employee engagement for employees?

For employees themselves, engagement isn't so much a daily activity they schedule time for. It's a natural byproduct of a strong employee experience.

Engagement is directly correlated to a positive work environment; when people feel respected, appreciated, and valued for their work, they are more likely to be an engaged employee. It's about being part of something bigger than just your job title — it’s that sense of satisfaction and fulfillment when you know you are making a difference.

Different groups of employees have different engagement expectations — and when those expectations match the day-to-day experiences of their roles, employees are more likely to be engaged.

Whether it’s your dispersed, frontline teams or your first-line managers, it’s worth getting to know what your employees expect from their engagement experience.

Why is employee engagement important?

Employee engagement efforts don’t need to be expensive, but they do need to be intentional. Issues created by poor employee engagement practices can cost your company thousands.

These include:

• Reduced productivity: people don’t work well when they’re unhappy. If teams are consistently falling short of productivity targets you know to be reasonable, there’s a good chance they’re unhappy at work
• Absenteeism: unhappy employees stay at home and use more sick days and mental health days than those employees who enjoy their jobs and work environments
• Presenteeism: Between May 2021 and November 2022 alone presenteeism rose by 18%. As the cost of presenteeism has historically been found to significantly outweigh the cost of absenteeism, this is one common challenge for engagement leaders to tackle.
• High employee turnover: if someone is disengaged, it makes them more likely to leave. Replacing employees is super expensive (think six to nine months’ salary, plus up to 213% of the total annual salary depending on the seniority of the position). Along with being a cost drain, the extra workload will put pressure on your other, potentially unhappy, employees while you find a replacement
• Employer brand damage: a stream of employees leaving your organization won’t do your reputation any good. Not only will you end up with a large list of vacancies, but you’ll also struggle to find people to fill them. With more job seekers than ever using online review sites, such as Glassdoor, to screen companies before they apply, a poor reputation for employee engagement has never been so damaging

This creates a cycle that your organization doesn’t want to slip into. Breaking it, or making sure that your company doesn’t start to slip down it, is an essential task that requires time and dedication to tracking — and improving key metrics.

3 core benefits of employee engagement

Gallup provides interesting insights on the benefits of employee engagement. Organizations with highly engaged employees experience:

As you can see in the employee engagement statistics above, there is a vast array of benefits to be gained from increased employee engagement. In the below sections, we’ve found some of the most compelling evidence for three core benefits of employee engagement:

1. Greater discretionary effort
2. Improved job satisfaction
3. Increased employee retention

Greater discretionary effort

Improved discretionary effort offered by engaged individuals is one huge benefit of employee engagement initiatives.

Those with high engagement levels often perform above expectations and develop meaningful relationships with their peers, contributing to improved outcomes for everyone involved. These efforts are what is known as ‘Discretionary Effort’.

The discretionary effort your employees put in directly impacts the success of your business outcomes, whether it’s your overall employee output rates, your patient safety outcomes and satisfaction levels, or a direct increase to your bottom line.

Improved job satisfaction

Employee engagement has the dual benefit of improving both organizational success and job satisfaction on a personal level. 

This is because engagement initiatives themselves provide employees with more development opportunities, better recognition for good work, and better prospects for career growth. When employees reap these benefits offered to them by engagement strategies, they feel like they make a real impact on the success of an organization, and that what they are doing is meaningful. 

Don’t underestimate the historic power of meaningful work on your employee satisfaction levels — nine out of ten employees would take a lower salary for more meaningful work.

Increased employee retention

Employees are more likely to stay with the organization when they are more satisfied and engaged. 

Research by the IJECM (International Journal of Economics, Commerce & Management) found that job satisfaction is a reliable and relevant predictor of employee retention. Highly engaged employees develop a greater sense of attachment to the organization and become more loyal, resulting in up to a 43% difference in employee turnover according to further employee engagement research.  

How to improve employee engagement

There are a number of ways to improve employee engagement, but, at Blink, we like to think of engagement efforts as being split into three key categories:

1. Delivering on the 10  key drivers of employee engagement
2. Identifying the employee engagement strategies and tactics that work for your employees
3. Ensuring the best employee engagement tools and software

Key drivers of employee engagement

In order to improve employee engagement, you must understand what drives it, and focus your efforts there. What core experiences and tools do you need to provide to your workforce in order to boost the overall employee experience and drive engagement?  

Key drivers of employee engagement include but aren’t limited to: 

1. Safe, dedicated working environment
2. Tools and processes
3. Feeling valued and involved
4. Psychological safety
5. Fairness
6. Ownership
7. Autonomy
8. Progression
9. Leadership
10. Work-life balance.

By focusing engagement efforts on enabling these core engagement drivers, you will be much more likely to see significant engagement improvements.

Employee engagement strategies and tactics

An employee engagement strategy is the plan of action you take to bring about an increase in employee engagement levels. On the other hand, tactics are the individual steps and actions that will get you there. In the context of an employee engagement strategy, this means the tactics are the specific engagement actions your teams take to implement the initiatives outlined in the strategy.

Employee engagement strategies combine a number of tactics, such as the use of team-building exercises, offering career growth opportunities, providing more effective recognition for good work and positive behavior changes, or improving your internal communication processes.

In order to effectively craft an engagement strategy, it’s important to have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, and how you plan to get there.

By having a clearly defined strategy, it is much easier to measure the success or failure of any engagement tactic you try. When you identify which tactics work and which don’t, you can adjust your future strategy accordingly.

Employee engagement tools

Employee engagement tools are products and tech solutions that enable companies to measure, manage, and improve employee engagement levels.

Employee engagement software comes in many forms, from survey software used to collect employee feedback and communication platforms providing a channel for discussion between teams.Engagement analysis tools can also provide insight into how your engagement efforts are faring.

However, if your staff are juggling a number of platforms and tools for different parts of their work, it will be inconvenient and you're not likely to see great engagement results. That's why an all-through-one engagement super-app is the best choice for any business wanting to consolidate engagement efforts.

A super-app brings together all of your employee communications, engagement surveys, recognition programs, and employee rewards into one, central platform. 

This will not only make your life easier but will also ensure a more consistent experience for employees while enabling you to get an aggregated view of their engagement levels with just a few clicks.

Examples of employee engagement in action

How Go North West achieved 96% monthly active engagement app users

The challenge

Like many frontline organizations facing a digital inclusion gap, Go North West faced challenges when it came to digitizing processes and communications in their organization. Historically, their internal comms were split across various channels, such as emails, mail to drivers' home addresses, depot noticeboards, and unregulated social media platforms. 

With so many paper-based operational processes, Go North West faced high levels of non-adherence and inefficiency. On top of this, they were also facing an industry-wise staff shortage in the wake of the Great Resignation and COVID-19, which made growth for the company more difficult to achieve.

The solution

The first solution to the engagement challenges faced by Go North West lay in using Blink’s Hub — the super-app’s central portal for accessing processes, documents, and tools. Go North West could now use this to share duties,schedule, and running boards for easy access and updating.

After this, the company had to ensure critical information such as route diversions could reach all members of staff quickly and efficiently. This was where the team used the Blink Feed — a company-wide, mobile-first communications channel, supplemented with the use of Chats to fulfill shift swaps and fills and ensure smooth service delivery. 

The team at Go North West also needed to streamline how they provided drivers and other members of staff access to critical processes and resources. This was where Blink’s Digital Forms and Custom Apps stepped in to revolutionize how the organization worked. 

By moving to digital processes from outdated paper-based processes, drivers were able to:

• Request annual leave with a few taps from the app, made easier with functionality such as auto-population and validation  
• Access their schedules through one-click access to DAS-Web 
• Submit near-miss reports via a custom app on Blink, allowing them to log incidents quickly and easily, increasing the number of submissions to drive process improvement

The outcome

The outcome of this engagement tech overhaul was a resounding success. Engagement levels, retention, and digitization efforts were all improved. 

What did this look like in terms of engagement? Well, alongside achieving 96% monthly active app users, Go North West also saw:

• 30,000 opens of DAS-Web per month
• 6,000 Chat messages per month
• 98,000 opens of Hub content
• 17 daily app opens per user
• 186 monthly app opens per user

What a result! Widespread success across the operation, with Go North West achieving its goal of higher engagement.

The use of Blink’s engagement super-app has enabled the team to move into a digital-first future and deliver an efficient service that allows them to better serve their employees — and customers. A win-win for everyone.

Want engagement results like these? Book a free Blink demo today.

How to measure employee engagement

Measuring employee engagement should be a continuous process.

It’s not just something you need to focus on when employee morale is down and stop as soon as it reaches manageable levels… it should be a central part of the HR or People team’s day-to-day activities.

So, before implementing any of the below, ask yourself:

• How much time should we dedicate to this a week?
• Who should be in charge of this area?
• Who can manage the on-the-ground responsibilities associated with this?
• Are there any tools (e.g. a new employee super-app) that could help us manage this workload?

In terms of exactly what to measure and how to measure it, there are two key areas you need to focus on:

1. The data that already exists in your company
2. Data that you actively go out and collect.

Measuring employee engagement using existing data

This is data that your HR team won’t have to set up any new processes for; it (should) already be monitored by various departments. The key here is collating it, as there’s a good chance that inter-departmental silos mean that you won’t necessarily be able to access it right away, let alone see the big picture.

We’re talking about:

• Absence rates
• Employee turnover
• Number of complaints to line managers
• Number of complaints to HR
• eNPS scores
• Customer reviews
• Customer retention
• Sales
• Turnover
• Social media engagement

There could be a myriad of reasons why customer satisfaction has dipped, so take a look at it alongside some of the other metrics listed, over an extended period of time.

For example, do eNPS scores dip when employee turnover is highest? Do customers write poorer reviews when absence rates are particularly high? Start to compare ‘result’ metrics (like sales, turnover, customer satisfaction, and customer retention) with employee wellness to see whether you notice any patterns.

From there, measure, measure, measure! Set up dashboards with all your chosen metrics so that you can track and compare them at a glance. You can then monitor employee engagement via its direct consequences — absence rates going down and productivity going up is a sure sign that your efforts are working.

To assess your current data, an engagement analytics tool can help. It will look at the data you already have (like those mentioned above) to identify how engaged your people really are and provide real-time insights into what might need improvement.

All of the above help to paint a picture of where you are with employee engagement, but they aren’t the only weapon in your arsenal. So, once you’ve got those dashboards up and running, move onto…

Measuring employee engagement by collecting new data

What’s the best, most efficient way of understanding your employee engagement levels?

Just ask them.

Regular, anonymous employee engagement surveys are the most efficient way of doing this. You might see these referred to as “pulse” surveys, and they are so much better for measuring engagement than the traditional annual long-answer survey for the following reasons:

Response rates tend to be higher. It’s much easier to encourage employees to complete three quick “rate on a scale” questions with an optional “any further comments” box than three pages of long-answer questions that they don’t have time to do.

You can keep them focused on one single issue each time. This gives your HR team a much better chance of addressing feedback successfully and sharing what they’ve done to address their co-workers’ concerns.

They encourage constructive feedback. The issue with running an annual survey is that employees see it as their single opportunity to get everything off their chests. 

It’s difficult to respond to 12 months of input from an entire company in any meaningful way, particularly if the topics covered range from disagreement with the company’s strategic direction or low staff retention to dissatisfaction with the options offered in the cafeteria.

How to use your employee engagement data

Whether you’ve noticed that your absence rates are soaring way above your industry average or carried out a highly targeted pulse survey, you need to take action from this data. Understanding exactly how to use your employee engagement data is therefore crucial.

Align key stakeholders with a plan of action

First, sit down with all relevant stakeholders and agree on a workable course of action. Involving stakeholders here keeps things grounded — it’s tempting to offer your workforce the moon on a stick when they’re unhappy, but this isn’t realistic. Avoid promising things you can’t deliver on — broken promises won’t be taken well by your employees, no matter how ambitious they are.

If, for example, your employees have stated they want better quality break rooms or equipment, it’s wise to take the time to align with the leadership suite on whether they have the resources to help with this before you promise a tech overhaul or new break room to your workforce.

Track improvements in data with KPIs

Second, it’s super important to track these improvements against realistic employee engagement KPIs. Change in organizations is gradual, so make sure your targets reflect this and avoid the temptation to try and go from 0 to 100 in three months.

If none of your employees are having regular one-to-one contact with their line managers, an example target structure could look like this:

• 3 months in: 20% of all employees having regular catch-ups
• 6 months in: 40% of employees
• 9 months in: 60% of employees
• 12 months in: 80% of employees

You could also consider how you roll this out. It’s much easier to coordinate regular catch-ups for office-based positions, so you could focus on getting a full 100% in the first three months for office-based teams as a quick win. Whilst you do this, you can sort out the infrastructure for deskless and dispersed teams to be able to do this further down the line.

Consider new tech

Finally, think about any tools that might help you meet these targets and/or address employees’ concerns.

There’s now plenty of workplace tech to help with a range of issues, like employee apps to help communication, productivity software to help meet targets, and advanced CRM features that make meeting customer needs much easier for frontline employees.

Check with your leadership team to see what sort of support they could offer here. They’ll be looking for a solid return on investment and plan before giving the green light, so make sure that if you’re making a direct request for new software, you build a solid business case about why you need it.

Download: the essential guide to executive buy-in for frontline employee experience

Communicate your plan of action

The golden rule: never assume that your workforce will notice your efforts to improve things without you communicating it.

Your workforce is busy, and meaningful change takes time — so you’re not going to make everything perfect right away. To really show your employees that you’ve taken their feedback on board, you’ll need to be explicit.

Include announcements about your planned improvements into your internal communications strategy. If you’ve conducted a pulse survey, share the results. This is a gesture of transparency that people will really appreciate—and emphasizes that you’re taking employee feedback seriously.

When announcing any improvement plans, consider:

• The channel that would work best: would more people see it via email, on a noticeboard, or via a mobile-first employee app?
• The frequency of your communication: how frequently should you update your employees on the progress you’re making towards these goals

You could also consider providing updates in person at company meetings, as this adds a welcome personal touch.

Remember the small things alongside big things

Big, organizational changes take time, but there are smaller things you can do for your workforce in the meantime.

Reworking the employee journey so there are more obvious routes for internal promotion takes time. Easier things like upgrading the coffee machine, setting up a couple of lunchtime clubs, or getting a pool table for the break room does not.

Implementing a couple of easy-to-manage changes (either that your workforce has specifically asked for, or just off your own back) emphasizes your commitment to improvement while you’re working towards the more structural stuff. It’s not a substitute, but it is a good reminder to your workforce about what you’re trying to do.

Blink. And your employee engagement strategy takes shape. 

Blink is the all-through-one engagement super-app that your business needs to make sure employee engagement isn’t an extra task on your list, but part of a holistic approach to people management.

Our platform includes all the tools you need for effective employee engagement, from surveys and feedback loops to recognition programs and rewards. We also provide comprehensive reporting dashboards and insights to monitor progress, track performance, identify problem areas and create actionable plans. 

When it comes to employee engagement, Blink is the perfect solution for businesses of all sizes. 

No matter where you are in your engagement journey, we’re here to help you create the best possible experience for your employees and drive maximum success for your business.

Get started with Blink today.

Customer experience has a big impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty, along with long-term business success. But it’s getting harder to keep customers happy.

Gallup research reveals that employees are becoming more demanding and they’re expecting higher levels of service, particularly as the cost of products and services is rising.

To keep pace with changing expectations, 86% of customer service leaders told Gartner that customer experience is a top priority for 2024. Organizations are investing time and money in finding new ways to boost customer satisfaction.

Here, we look at the true impact of happy customers on a business. We also explore eight strategies you can use to create a customer experience your customers are sure to shout about.

The importance of happy customers

Happy customers are a sign that your product and service are meeting expectations. Happy customers are also good for business. Here are the benefits you can expect when you keep your customers satisfied.  

Customer loyalty

According to Forrester research, “customer-obsessed” companies enjoy 51% better customer retention than less customer-focused organizations.

When you provide excellent customer experiences, you get more satisfied customers. These people are more likely to shop or do business with you again — because they already know and trust your brand.

Brand advocacy

Happy customers are more likely to become brand advocates. They’re inclined to share their positive experience of your brand in person and online.

This matters to your business because 92% of people trust word-of-mouth marketing more than advertising — and because 50% say they trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family.

Brand advocates encourage others to trust your brand and shop with you, so you can spend less on marketing campaigns.

Improved revenue

By creating brand advocates, your brand builds a positive reputation that drives sales. And by encouraging repeat custom, you save on customer acquisition costs — it’s much easier and cheaper to convert an existing customer than it is to convert a new one.

This explains why, according to McKinsey, customer experience leaders achieve 2x greater revenue growth than those who lag behind.

How to keep customers happy and loyal

Now we’ve covered the benefits of prioritizing customer satisfaction, let’s look at how to create happy customers for your business. To improve the customer experience, tick off the following tasks:

1. Invest in employee experience
2. Ensure customer-facing employees have the resources they need
3. Treat each customer as an individual
4. Provide a variety of touchpoints
5. Do customer research
6. Leverage automation
7. Track customer satisfaction and retention
8. Create customer experience goals

1. Invest in employee experience

Customer experience is directly linked to employee experience (EX).

The more happy and engaged your employees are at work, the better experience they produce for customers. Achieve high levels of employee engagement and the quality of your products, service, and customer interactions improves.

Gallup puts a figure on it. Its research shows that companies with high levels of engagement achieve a 10% increase in customer loyalty and a 23% increase in profitability. Employee engagement also leads to better productivity, performance, and employee retention, all of which benefit customers.  

To improve the employee experience, employee engagement software is a game-changer. The right software helps you foster a strong company culture, where every employee has the support and resources they need to succeed.

It gives you tools for employee surveys and recognition. Employees can use your engagement software to communicate with their managers and peers, which fosters a sense of belonging. You can also use these tools to analyze employee engagement, identifying issues and areas for improvement.

By investing in the employee experience, with tech tools that connect customer-facing employees to company culture, you build a workforce that cares deeply about customers.

2. Ensure customer-facing employees have the resources they need

You create more happy customers when employees can access the right resources at the right time. With easy access to customer and product information, employees can:

• Give quick and accurate responses
• Tailor interactions to create a more personalized experience
• Take the initiative to solve problems and enhance the customer experience
• Create a consistent and predictable customer experience

Make resources available via an employee app and frontline employees have everything they need at their fingertips. You can also incorporate internal communication tools, so employees can learn best practices and gain customer insights from co-workers.

When employees have the right resources, they feel competent and confident supporting customers. They’re also more likely to experience positive customer interactions, which improves the employee experience and (as we saw in the point above) further fuels customer satisfaction.

3. Treat each customer as an individual

81% of customers prefer companies that offer a personalized experience. But 61% say most companies treat them like a number.

To treat your customers like individuals, start with the basics. Learn and use customer names. Encourage your customer service representatives to listen and to have real, empathetic conversations with customers, rather than just repeating phrases by rote.

Also, ensure your systems and processes flex to each new customer interaction. Give customer-facing employees autonomy so they can adapt their approach to the customer in front of them.

For example, employees at the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain famously have a $2000 budget per day to improve guest experiences without managerial approval.

4. Provide a variety of touchpoints

Convenience means different things to different customers. So they should be able to reach out to you in the way that best suits them.

Looking at the demographics and communication preferences of your target market, determine which touchpoints are most in demand.

You may like to provide customer support over the phone, email, or live chat. Social media support is proving popular with Gen Z and Millennial customers, with 17% of all consumers getting customer service over direct messages on social channels. 

Just ensure the experience is seamless. Your customer service agents should be able to see where a particular customer is up to, no matter which combination of communication channels they’ve chosen to use. This prevents customers from having to repeat the same story each time they speak to someone new.

5. Do customer research

McKinsey recently shared the story of a mobile telecom operator that was having a hard time hanging on to its customers, many of whom were being enticed by cut-price offers from competitors.

After trying and failing to stem the tide by tying customers into contracts and offering great deals to new customers, the CEO listened in on customer service calls. He identified countless customer pain points.

By tackling these pain points, the company reduced its customer churn rate by 75% and doubled its revenue over the next three years. As the CEO said, “It’s amazing the things you can do when you shut up and listen to your customers.”

You can’t keep your customers happy if you don’t understand what they want. To find out what your customers really think of your products and services, you need to seek and analyze customer feedback.

You can gather this feedback using customer surveys. You can also surface customer views with the help of existing customer call transcripts, social media posts, and company reviews.

Also, tap into the knowledge of your frontline workforce. They deal with your customers day in and day out — so they’re well-positioned to shine a light on customer needs, frustrations, and expectations.

Using this research and insight, identify the most common customer pain points. Then develop a plan for resolving them to boost customer loyalty and create more happy customers.

6. Leverage automation

77% of customer service teams are already using AI. It’s helping to make customer support quicker and more effective.

Customers can use a self-service knowledge base to find answers to their questions. Chatbots can answer routine queries, passing customers onto an agent when requests are more complicated.

With the help of automation tools, your customer service team has more time to provide stellar service to the customers who need it most.

But getting the balance right is important. Consumers still value human interaction. Live phone conversations are still one of the preferred methods of contacting companies for help and support, even among younger age groups.

So leverage automation — but maintain a variety of communication channels to ensure every customer gets the experience they expect.

7. Track customer satisfaction metrics

You can identify issues with customer happiness by tracking customer satisfaction and retention rates using your customer relationship management (CRM) software.

You could track metrics like your net promoter score (NPS) and your customer satisfaction score (CSAT). You can keep tabs on how your customer service team is doing with resolution rate, first contact resolution rate, and customer effort score (CES) metrics. 

By tracking customer satisfaction at all stages of the customer journey — and by analyzing customer behavior across your website and other interactions — you get to know which areas of your business have the biggest impact on customer happiness. 

You also identify areas where there’s room for improvement and can then allocate resources based on your findings. 

Follow the right customer KPIs and you can identify gaps in the customer experience — and close them — before they begin to erode customer happiness.

8. Create customer experience goals

Once you have a clear handle on how happy your customers are, you can set customer experience goals based on customer satisfaction metrics.

Choose goals you can measure — such as driving 10% more revenue from existing customers or lowering your average customer service response time to five minutes. Measurable, time-specific goals are easier to track and work towards because you have a clear definition of success.

Finally, everyone on your team should know what you want to achieve and why. Using internal communication tools to share your goals gets all employees on the same page. This is particularly useful for those who facilitate the customer experience.

In summary: 8 strategies to create happy customers and boost loyalty

Prioritizing the customer experience helps you keep customers satisfied. It also boosts brand advocacy and revenue.

Providing fast and convenient customer service, via a range of channels, is essential. You should also treat your customers as individuals and seek their feedback regularly.

While AI is a feature of customer service in many organizations, it’s important to harness its benefits while ensuring customers can always access an empathetic, human customer support agent.

These strategies are all crucial if you want to keep your customers happy. But they’re unlikely to be successful if you don’t also invest in the employee experience.

Workers who enjoy a positive employee experience provide a better standard of customer support. They’re more likely to go above and beyond to give customers the kind of service they remember positively.

To better engage your customer-facing employees, mobile-first employee engagement tools — such as an employee app — are key. They’re a place where you can share useful resources, where co-workers can connect with each other, and where you can build a strong company culture.

Using these tools, you improve the employee experience and employee engagement — which means you’ll find it much easier to satisfy customer expectations and win customer loyalty.

To learn more about communication tools that empower your workforce, including your customer-facing team members, explore Blink today.