Retention of Employees And Customers Is Key As We Face Headwinds

Thank you for another wonderful year.

I am grateful to you, my clients, colleagues and readers. I appreciate you beyond the business and the referrals that you give me.  

Over the last few weeks, I’ve spoken to dozens of business owners and leaders. Most are concerned with the economic uncertainty and the impending headwinds.

With so much beyond our control, we need to focus on what we can control: relationships and experiences. The success of every company comes down to employees and customers.

The focus for 2023 should be retaining and engaging employees and retaining and engaging customers.

The employee landscape is challenging:

• There are far more job openings than there are people to fill them.
• Employee expectations have changed. Increasingly, employees want to work for companies that serve a meaningful purpose, companies that are ethical and trustworthy. There is an increased scrutiny into whether or not a company is acting in the best interests of its employees, customers, and stakeholders.
• 86% of employees say they would change jobs if a new company offered them more opportunities for professional development. Learning and development opportunities are critical to employee retention and engagement.
• Hybrid work or some form of it is here to stay.  Although hybrid can boost short term productively, a study of 61,182 employees conducted by Microsoft, found hybrid can also dimmish a long term sense of belonging to the organization. This study also found hybrid diminishes communication, collaboration, innovation, learning and development.

Google studied 180 teams to determine how to build the perfect team. The research called, Project Aristotle, found the key ingredient and the strongest predictor of high performing teams is built on a culture of trust.

In 2023, the leader is key to building a sense of belonging and trust in the team.  When we trust our leader, the likelihood of staying is higher. When people feel they have a manager they can trust, they feel appreciated, respected, and valued for their contributions. This leads to a stronger sense of belonging, increased engagement, productivity and loyalty.

This is the year that supervisors, managers, and leaders will need to be intentional to cultivate trusted workplace cultures. Ethical leaders who champion empathy, compassion, integrity, inclusion, diversity, and those that are socially responsible will be rewarded with loyal engaged employees.

Building a culture of trust in your team is a strong retention strategy.

Retaining and Engaging Customers.

As you’ve heard me say in workshops, we are all here to serve customers. With the impending economic recession, whether short lived or not, retaining customers is paramount in 2023. 

Ten years ago, in 2013, when I founded Success Through Trust, business was largely perceived as profit seeking.  Today, the best companies want to be considered social enterprises and customers want to buy from and partner with companies they trust. 

Like employees, customer expectations have changed too.  Building, measuring and protecting customer Trust Equity™ is critical to a company’s success and foundational to retaining and engaging customers. 

My research found there is a statistically significant, positive correlation between Trust Equity™ and customer loyalty.   Multiple studies support the business case for focusing on building trust with customers including:

• 92% of Canadians buy from companies they trust
• 82%  Canadians pay more for products and services they trust.
• 87% say business leaders and consumers worldwide say ethical and trusted reputation is nearly as important as price and delivery time in their buying decision (McKinsey, September 2022)

Learning how to develop and cultivate trust in your teams and trust in customer relationships is moving from being a competitive advantage to requirement.

Moving the needle with employee and customer retention will change your outcomes in 2023.

Happy Holidays and all the best in the New Year.

Warmest Wishes,

Natalie Doyle Oldfield

Success Through Trust

Author, The Power of Trust: How Top Companies Build, Manage and Protect It

Lifetime Achievement Award, Top Thought Leader in Trust Trust Across America

NOldfield@SuccessThroughTrust.com

1 902 223 2833