Business Learning Series – Lesson 9: Encourage Employees to Engage

There could be many reasons your employees choose to work for you. They might need the money, it might be good for their careers, or it could just be convenient. Whatever the reason, keeping employees happy and energized about the business is critical to success. Happy employees provide better service, stay longer and recruit colleagues that are A-players, just like them. Employees can also be great for your marketing strategy.

Encourage employees to take part in your social media strategy. Their social network of friends and family can help your social media profiles get the initial kick start they need.

A. Make sure all employees know the social media profiles of the business and encourage them to like/follow and share it. Don’t force them to do it, but rather explain to them how their excitement about the business as shown on social media, can make all of you more successful.

B. As part of your customer service protocol, at the end of interactions with customers employees should mention the social media profiles and remind customers to follow them. Equally important, employees should mention that if the customer has negative comments, they can send them privately and anonymously on OwnerListens.

C. Stay open to employee ideas about how to use social media to engage with customers and increase ratings. Many of your employees are probably more social media savvy than you are. Encourage them to submit ideas and reward employees whose ideas you end up using.

D. Discuss reviews and comments with employees. All comments, good or bad, warrant a discussion. Listening to your customers is the best way to learn what you’re doing right and what you’re doing wrong. Get in the habit of sending out a weekly or monthly report highlighting meaningful reviews, both good and bad, and pointing out the lessons to be learned. With OwnerListens, you can give employees, read-only access to messages so they can actually see feedback and replies in real time.

Time commitment:
2-3 hours of initial employee training
An hour a month of discussions with employees or preparing materials to be sent to the organization