Employees are feeling increasingly disconnected and disenchanted with their employers, and amid the Great Detachment, their connection to the mission and purpose of their organization continues to erode.
Employees’ lack of inspiration and purpose is evident in their decreasing pride in and ownership of the products and services their organization offers. Twenty-eight percent of employees strongly agree that they are extremely proud of the products and services their organization offers -- matching a low in Gallup’s tracking since 2008.
The decline of employee pride doesn’t just affect internal dynamics and productivity; it directly influences how organizations meet customer expectations, creating ripple effects on customer satisfaction. When employees disengage, customers feel it.
Pride in the quality of products and services has fallen significantly from pre-pandemic benchmarks across industries and has yet to recover. The largest drop from 2020 to 2024 is among employees working in the transportation and warehouse (down 14 percentage points), technology and information systems (down 10 points) and government or public policy (down nine points) industries. Organizations in these industries remain at the highest risk of lost productivity and customer satisfaction. Just one industry Gallup measured, community or social services, increased on this measure (up 10 points since 2020).
Despite cross-industry declines in employee pride, The American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), which reflects 400 major U.S. companies, remained steady in Q2 and Q3 2024 at 77.9, near its all-time high. The ASCI shows that customer satisfaction recovered rapidly in 2023 following a period of steady decline from Q2 2018 to Q2 2022. The rebound in customer satisfaction likely reflects factors such as post-pandemic improvements in product availability.
The upward trend in the ACSI is promising, but the lack of alignment between employees and the products and services they create signals a missed opportunity for even greater progress. Beneath overall trends, individual organizations with widespread detachment will likely see their customer satisfaction remain below average. Customer satisfaction elasticity is high in most industries, meaning small differences in how well an organization serves its customers can greatly influence demand and separate top and bottom performers.
Organizations Can Act Intentionally to Reinvigorate Customer Centricity
When organizations do not place customers at the center of the work they do, they put themselves in a position of competitive disadvantage. Organizations that instead prioritize understanding and fulfilling their customers’ needs, acting on customer feedback, and investing in technologies to improve customer interactions create stronger alignment between employees and customers.
Listen to and Act on Customer Feedback
Gallup finds that the most effective leaders and managers promote a customer-first mindset by leading their employees to regularly discuss how they can better serve their customers and use customer feedback to adjust and improve the products and services they offer.
Employees who strongly agree that their team embraces both these practices are twice as likely as other employees to report improvements in the quality, availability and affordability of their organization’s products and services in the past year. An intentional focus on customer feedback helps organizations not only satisfy their customers’ immediate expectations, but also drive long-term sustainability and alignment with customers’ needs.
Amid the Great Detachment, a focus on customers can also help leaders and managers to reconnect their employees with the mission and purpose of their organization. Employees who strongly agree that their teams regularly discuss how they can better serve their customers and use feedback from customers are 3.2 times as likely as other employees to strongly agree the mission or purpose of their company makes them feel their job is important and 4.5 times as likely to strongly agree that they are extremely proud of the quality of the products or services their organization offers.
A focus on customers helps to remind employees of why their work is meaningful and drive more positive customer interactions. In turn, favorable customer outcomes and feedback build pride and reinforce that an organization’s products and services make a positive impact on the world.
Explore New Technology to Improve Customer Interactions
Gallup data suggest that early adopters of artificial intelligence (AI) are using it to improve customer interactions and act on customer data and feedback.
Twenty-four percent of U.S. employees indicate that their organization is using AI to support interactions with customers. Most employees with firsthand experience using AI to interact with customers find it to be beneficial -- 68% who personally use AI to support customer interactions say it has a positive effect. Additionally, individuals in organizations that have invested in AI for customer interactions are more likely to report that the quality and availability of their customer service have improved in the past year.
Among the remaining 76% of employees who are unsure or indicate that their organization has not implemented AI to support customer interactions, skepticism remains high. Thirty-four percent of these employees believe that if they were to use AI to support customer interactions, it would have a negative effect, while only 13% feel it would have a positive effect.
Insights from AI users highlight its potential to enhance customer interactions, contrasting the more negative perspectives of nonusers. Successful integration of AI technology incorporates clear communication, planning, guidance and training to alleviate skepticism and demonstrate its benefits.
Reconnecting Employees and Customers
Top-performing organizations are helping to counter the growing disconnect between employees, the products and services they offer, and their customers through an intentional focus on customer centricity. Effective leaders can chart the path by auditing their employees’ engagement, facilitating team discussions about the customer experience, establishing customer feedback loops and piloting AI solutions. These efforts can not only improve customer satisfaction but also reinvigorate and energize employees, creating a cycle of mutual benefit. Reengaging customers requires effort and intentionality -- but it is crucial for organizations to build sustained success.
Engage your customers by engaging your employees first.
- Combat the Great Detachment by learning how to prioritize employee engagement.
- Discover more about successfully integrating AI into your approach.
- Partner with Gallup to create a more holistic employee engagement strategy.
