The power of praise - lessons learnt from #YourCustomersSayThankYou

"Thank You." A simple word on the surface, but one that can multiply tenfold when it comes to the motivation and morale of in-store teams.

During the Covid-19 crisis, frontline staff faced huge disruption in their working lives, and served the nation with such compassion and commitment in the face of real adversity. That’s why we created the platform #YourCustomersSayThankYou, to collect messages of thanks from customers and show store teams the positive impact of their actions.

We were proud to see how warmly welcomed the initiative was by customers and retailers alike. The initiative received mentions in the positive news section of the Telegraph and Cosmopolitan, in addition to partnering with the renowned media outlet The Grocer.  Several retailers even adopted the platform to integrate with their own internal and external communications systems so they could unify the collected messages of support in one place.

Why? Because these notes of recognition and gratitude provided them with a useful resource to share with staff, helping them to overcome some of the uncertainties, frustrations and difficulties being encountered during the pandemic on a daily basis.

Recognition as a motivational tool

Engaging your employees is key to developing a structure of agility and resilience. According to Rob Malarky, head of Bain & Company’s Global Customer Strategy and Marketing Practice:

“you need to put employees in a position where they can be successful in creating high levels of customer loyalty and where they get the pride in knowing that they’ve made someone else’s life better.”  (Source) 

We couldn't agree more. Reports show 80% of Generation Y prefer on-the-spot recognition to formal evaluations. What could be more rewarding and motivating than receiving messages of appreciation and praise in the moment directly from customers themselves?

Putting the voice of the customer at the forefront of internal - as well as external - communications not only build brand confidence but instils a sense of pride, purpose and commitment among staff. Ensuring your employees are engaged from the get-go is key to enabling full organisational readiness to embark on what will be a transformational journey in the post-COVID world. And it is proven to deliver business results. According to TINYpulse, brands with higher employee engagement generate 2.5 times more revenue than those with lower engagement.

Valuing your Frontline workers in practice

Several brands adopted the "#YourCustomersSayThankYou" initiative and integrated it into their internal and external communications. Amplified by social media networks and promotional channels, across the UK and France almost 70k messages of praise have been collected and shared with the local teams and employees. 

This recognition and gratitude can help overcome uncertainties, frustrations and difficulties encountered by the teams, as well as helping to meet the challenge of a "new normal" and driving the necessary changes for the future. 

The initiative has been extremely well received by retailers. Working with Critizr to create a portal and a URL dedicated to their brand, they were able to unify the collected messages of support in one place.

A good example is Lidl, who created a dedicated website in the UK to collect and publish customer messages so they were more visible to their local stores and staff. In France, Carrefour Market and Intermarché did the same, as well as promoting the initiative on their websites to share comments with online customers. 

Amplified by social media networks and promotional channels, across the UK and France almost 70k messages of praise have been collected and shared with local teams and employees to date. Every one conveys a simple but powerful message: you’re doing a great job, and your customers are thankful for it.

As we emerge from lockdown, retailers continue to face huge disruption, not least customer habits and priorities that remain in flux. For businesses to succeed and take on the changes and challenges that lie ahead, and to keep delivering the best customer experience for their customers, they need engaged, motivated teams.

As #YourCustomersSayThankYou showed us, there is no better way to achieve this than by continuing to put customer feedback to good use as a daily source of pride, positive morale and actionable insight for in-store teams.