Great employee experience = great customer experience

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Anthony Hynes

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Redefining B2B payments for the travel industry

Having launched multiple companies over 20 years, there is one thing that has proven true time and time again: customers will never love a company if its employees don’t love it first.

When I started eNett I knew I had something special – a unique proposition that would create real disruption in supplier payments. My first task was putting together a team of people who shared that belief. Eight years on, we’ve built a global company facilitating tens of billions of dollars in supplier payments for the travel industry. This simply wouldn’t have happened without a team of great people working together to turn eNett’s vision into a reality.

Today’s employees are more discerning than ever. They’re selective in the opportunities they choose to further their career (at least, the good ones are). We’ve got a special team and culture here at eNett, and in order to stay ahead in the ever-evolving Fintech space, it’s vital that we attract and retain top talent. As well as marketing to customers, we are also marketing to employees.

Here we come to this term ’employer brand’. How do we package up everything that is great about working at eNett into a brand that attracts, engages and retains the right talent? A brand that creates a sense of pride, ownership, fulfillment and enjoyment among existing staff. One that turns employees into brand evangelists who tell their friends and family what a great company they work for.

Last year we embarked on a journey to understand how we can deliver a best-in-class customer experience. A key finding from this process, was a need for a holistic view across the Service Profit Chain. This means putting energy into the employee experience to drive an improved customer experience. In other words – happy employees create happy customers.

Drawing on research, we worked with our creative agency Hard Edge to develop an employer brand. It had to support retention and engagement with our existing employees, as well as attract fresh talent as we continue our significant growth. As with any brand, a successful employer brand needs to embody the company’s culture. In particular, it has to be genuine and differentiated: a true representation of your company that is unique to you.

Along with the Hard Edge team, we defined our employer brand in three words: “Awesome Game Changers”. From this, we identified four brand pillars that set eNett apart as an employer:

1. We’re a high growth, global company;
2. We push boundaries to find a better way;
3. We’re a close knit team;
4. We value our people.

These pillars along with our brand values of being Bold, Easy, Fast, and Fun gives our people and candidates a clear picture of what they can expect from us and what we’d like from them in return.

Almost a year on, the results are encouraging. In a recent survey, 92% of our people said they would recommend eNett as a great place to work. We’re seeing stronger internal and external communication and greater retention of key messages. Our onboarding experience is rated highly by the new recruits, and there is greater visibility of our values and associated behaviours within the business.

I believe that ‘People’ are a key differentiator in any company. That’s why my philosophy has been to attract the best talent in the right positions. I encourage my staff to never be afraid of hiring people better than themselves – I tell them “if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room”.