I am a big fan of “Customer Evangelism,” the word of mouth framework for developing customers that tell others about your company or service. Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have developed a great blog, written a book
The idea is…
- When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with your product or service, they can become outspoken “evangelists” for your company. This group of satisfied believers can be converted into a potent marketing force to grow your universe of customers.
Customer evangelism is a great topic and we all can probably think back to the person who told us about Krispy Kreme Doughnuts or Starbucks coffee and realize the influence of friends or family that are truly customer evangelists.
But what about Employee Evangelists? Are there employees that are so thrilled with their job and the experience of working at their company that they become outspoken evangelists, telling everyone they meet how great it is to work at XYZ company?
I think there are…
In fact I’ve met many people like this. They like their boss and agree with the vision and direction the company is going. They feel passionate about what they are doing and they definitely have a purpose in life. They are great team players and look at life through a positive lens.
Rosa Say, over at Talking Story has a post today about reinvented work. I think one of the best ways for business leaders and managers to reinvent their workplaces is to actively decide to create employee evangelists.
Three things come to mind when talking about jobs that are so exciting that everyone needs to know about them…
- Communication: Clearly a top priority is clear communication between management and employee. This needs to be more than e-mail and the occasional phone call. It needs to be face to face, open and honest, and happen on a regular basis. In her book
- Vision: Company leaders and managers need a cohesive vision for the company and it’s employees. Workers need to know where they are going, how soon they will get there, and what is expected along the way. When a clear and compelling vision is communicated well, the ideas and vision will spread like wild fire. People will want to come to work and take the next step to success.
- Passion: Employee evangelists need to be doing work they are passionate about. No hum drum boring cubicle existence here. Evangelists need jobs that they are good at and need to feel like they are making a difference. This takes creativeness and vision from the company leadership. Job skills and personality profiles should be taken into consideration when creating job descriptions. Teams of success minded employees will create an incredible synergy that will permeate everyone’s daily work experience. Passionate employees will go further, make better decisions, and take into account the vision of the company.
In short, creating employee evangelists should be a top priority of any leading edge company.
Make it fun, make it exciting, and give us a vision where we are going!
If you do, we’ll all be excited about coming along for the ride!
