That is why EX is not something that comes after CX.
EX drives CX.
You Cannot Deliver an Experience You Do Not Experience Yourself
An employee who has to work through complicated processes every day, search for information across five different systems, deal with unclear instructions, wait for approvals and solve internal issues before they can help a customer will find it difficult to provide a simple, fast and high-quality experience.
Not because they are not motivated enough but because the organization has designed an experience that makes it harder for them to do what is expected of them.
If we want a simple experience for customers, we need to look at how easy it is for employees to deliver it.
If we want speed, we need to look at how much authority employees have to resolve problems quickly.
If we want empathy towards customers, we need to look at how the organization treats its own people.
If we want employees to take ownership of the customer experience, we need to give them the processes, tools, information and culture that enable them to do so.
The Numbers Show This Is Not a “Soft” Topic
According to Gallup’s 2024 research, only 7% of employees in Croatia are engaged at work. Globally, Gallup estimates that low employee engagement costs the global economy $8.9 trillion per year, or around 9% of global GDP.
Behind these numbers are productivity, quality of work, employee turnover, recruitment costs, the time needed to onboard new people and ultimately – the experience customers receive.
Low engagement costs companies an average of around 18% of an employee’s annual salary through lost productivity, while replacing an employee can cost between 50% and 200% of their annual salary, depending on the level of the position.
Customers See What the Organization Does to Its Employees
Imagine a customer contacting customer support. The employee knows that the customer is explaining the same problem for the third time. They also know they do not have the authority to resolve the issue and that they will have to send an internal email for approval and may not get an answer immediately.
But the customer does not see any of these internal processes.
They see the employee.
And that is why the experience an organization creates for its employees becomes part of the experience customers receive from the brand.
EX Is Actually Internal Customer Experience
If we look at CX as the design of the customer’s experience across their entire relationship with an organization, we can apply exactly the same logic to employees.
Employees have their own journey too.
From their first contact with the company, recruitment and onboarding to their everyday work, development, changes, career progression and departure.
And along that journey there are touchpoints, emotions, expectations, problems and moments that matter more than others – Moments that Matter.
When understanding employee experience, we use the same tools we use in Customer Experience. We observe and try to understand what their experience and “journey” with the company actually looks like:
Where do they get stuck?
What makes their job harder?
What creates frustration?
When do they feel supported?
When do they feel that the organization trusts them?
Which moments have the greatest impact on their decision to stay or leave?
These are the questions that lead to EX design.
Onboarding Is a Good Example
Organizations often think they have solved onboarding because they have sent a new employee a checklist, a laptop and a schedule of meetings. But onboarding is not a document.
Onboarding is an experience.
How does the person feel on their first day at work?
Do they know what is expected of them?
Do they know who to turn to?
Can they complete their first task independently?
Do they get support when they get stuck?
Do they understand how their role contributes to the bigger picture?
According to Gallup research, only 12% of employees believe their organization has a good onboarding program. This means organizations have a huge opportunity to improve the very first step of the employee journey.
And those first steps often create expectations that later shape the entire relationship between the employee and the organization.
The Most Common Mistake Is the Same as in CX
When customers are dissatisfied, companies often immediately jump to solutions – a new channel, a new app, a new chatbot, a new procedure.
The same thing happens in EX.
Employees are not engaged – let’s introduce a new benefit, organize a team building event or run another survey.
The problem is that a solution without understanding the problem only adds more complexity to an already poor experience.
This is exactly why CX tools can be useful in EX. They help us understand where the experience breaks down and what we can do differently.
Employee conversations
Qualitative research
Employee Personas
Employee Journey Maps
Moments that Matter
Co-creation
From EX to CX – Not the Other Way Around
If we want better CX, we need to take one step back and first ask what employees need in order to deliver the experience we want to provide to customers.
If we want customers to get a fast response – what is the experience like for the employee who has to provide that response?
If we want customers to avoid repeating information – do employees have all the information they need in one place?
If we want employees to take ownership – do they have the authority to make decisions?
If we want empathy towards customers – are we showing empathy towards employees?
EX drives CX. Employees are the people who turn strategy, processes, products and brand promises into the actual customer experience every day.