PULSE POINTS
Creative Staff = Satisfied Customers
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
—ALBERT EINSTEIN
Who knew Albert Einstein’s words could have an
impact on your bottom line? Sales and customer service roles are
generally associated with scripted rather than creative behavior.
Employees are generally taught an “if this than that” script of
things they can and can’t say to a customer. It’s time to trash the
script and allow your employees the freedom to work on the fly,
and have meaningful interactions with guests and customers.
These interactions make guests and customers feel special and
tailored to, which increases their satisfaction with your company.
According to new research led by the University of East Anglia,
companies in the service sector that allow their employees to be
more creative in their interactions with customers enjoy higher
levels of customer satisfaction. The researchers also found that in
branches where employees perceived there to be more HR
practices in place for creativity, staff expressed higher levels of their
needs being satisfied—for example having control in their work,
feeling competent, feeling connected to people in their team—
which was in turn positively related to creative performance.
Lead author Dr. Ieva Martinaityte, a lecturer in business and
management at UEA’s Norwich Business School, said:
“Customers want a more personal service and we show that a
more creative approach is a way to enhance their experience.
Delighting the customer will increasingly stem from frontline
employees’ creativity rather than scripted role performance.” She
continues by saying that service organizations must aim to under-
stand the drivers of creative performance. The findings from this
study suggest that this may be supported by adopting a set of HR
practices that are geared towards the environments and skills
necessary to motivate creative performance. Essentially, motivating
your team to use their own intelligence to have fun on the job,
which will directly correlate to a positive customer experience.
3 Easy Ways to Help Your Team Be More Creative
This UEA study suggests that implementing HR practices that promote creativity can give
employees the confidence to implement their own creative thinking and problem-solving
strategies on the fly. Here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing in your team:
1. Creativity Workshops
2. Creative Problem-Solving Training
3. Implementing a Reward System for Creative Ideas
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PULSE
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July 2017