The experience starts from the inside
It is not new news that the companies which deliver the most authentic customer experiences are those that build the experience from the inside out. Think Patagonia, Virgin or South West Airlines to name a few. Each has focused on creating environments and cultures that connect on a deeper, more profound level with employees than just the ‘monetary exchange for tasks performed’ model of traditional workplaces. These connections in turn build bonds that create phenomenal employee loyalty and more importantly transforms the mindset of employees from staff to brand evangelists.
To date though, economists and CFOs however, have not held such ‘soft’ approaches to business in high regard due to their often, intangible nature and inability to be measured as anything other than a cost by traditional accounting metrics. While the obvious success of Virgin, Camper and their experience centric compatriots goes a long way to helping re-write the old rules of staff engagement, the fellows at M.I.T. have also now weighed in. Some of the people at the top of the economist tree, claim that the social experiments they have been conducting have upended almost everything that modern management takes as a given and that science has created new rules where performance is driven primarily by the sense of purpose we experience in our work place.
Dan Pink brings the reams of research to life in a nice piece he did for the RSA in the UK…
