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!
About John Richardson
Author, Speaker, and Digital Media Creator. Personal Development Blogger. Ideas for Success!
Another great post John, but how do we get our boss to embrace the value in this? I’d love to work in an environment that cared about employee evangelism. Unfortunately I’m only scoring 1 out of 3 on a good day, because I can only affect the ‘Passion’ factor, the rest is up to management.
Thanks for the reply Mike. One of the best ways to spread the fire is to pass out Rosa’s book, “Managing with Aloha”. Rosa has taken the art of management and applied soulful Hawaiian values to it. The result is magic. Hawaiian values such as Aloha – unconditional love; Ho’ohana – working with intent and purpose; Ho’okipa – the hospitality of complete giving are just a few of the 18 values she expouses in the book.
I’ve ordered a couple of new copies and when they come in I’ll pass one along to you. Rosa’s ideas and values have changed the lives of many managers and leaders. A great read with many practical applications!
John
John thank you for the good words on Managing with Aloha and on the Daily Five Minutes.
However I want to shine a bright light of encouragement on your magnificent thought with this post, I LOVE your notion of reinvention to create Employee Evangelists within every company. It is a win-win-WIN all around: I can see no reason whatsoever why any employer, business owner, or manager would disagree!
I truly think that awareness of your idea is all it takes: work gets routine for everyone, and they simply need to look at it – and at all of it – through fresh eyes sometimes. That is what your post can provide, and I commend you for writing this coaching for us.
Much aloha,
Rosa
Great article John. You inspired me to write about this today, and I agree with all you’ve shared. Thanks for starting the conversation!
Thanks for posting this article. I am a small business owner. Currently it’s my wife and myself but thinking about how we can “evengelize” our business is helping us refocus our efforts from the point of how we organize our marketing efforts to the point of spliting up things we do into different divisions or “companies”. I’m also a deacon at my church and yesterday we had a leadership meeting with the pastor and elders of the church and I mentioned this article as we were setting goals for the future of our church. Of course in a church you think of evangelism in the terms of an evangelist like Billy Graham leading large crusades but I made a point that we should all be evangelists internally and externally sharing our enthusiasm for the mission of the church. Thanks for posting this. Would should all be evangelists in all that we are involved in if not then we have to ask if we are in the right place.
Thank you Rosa, Phil, & Patrick for your comments. When you work for a company or organization that truly has a team of employee evangelists… watch out… things will change and the buzz will attract great people from the outside who will want to come to work there. Great companies attract great people… This can be the “tipping point” in developing a truly remarkable organization!
Hi Dad – I was reading your posting about employee evangelism and it made me think about the way that we do things in our office. The CEO himself has really made it a priority to make sure that he hires people that enjoy what they are doing, have high standards, and are eager to succeed and excel. He has a story that he told us that I think is extremely relevant not only in business but in life as well. It is the CRAB story and I will try my best to tell it the way he did:
If you put one crab into a box and leave the lid off of it, the crab will climb out of the box and wander away. This is not much of a surprise. If you put two crabs in the same box, however, you could walk away for days and when you came back both crabs would still be there. Why? Because whenever one tries to climb the side of the box to escape, the other will pull it down and then begin to try to climb out itself. The other crab will then pull it down. Together the crabs ensure that neither will ever be successful.
Some people are crabs. This doesn’t mean that they are bad people, it just means they are crabs. Some people are always crabs, and others are only crabs sometimes. A person can become a crab because they are in a job that they don’t like. Others become crabs because of family or personal situations. And at one time or another everyone has been a crab.
A person becomes a crab any time they pull another person down. Anytime someone has told you that something is impossible, they are being a crab. Anytime someone has encouraged you not to do something because it is better for them that you didn’t, they were being a crab. Crabs are all around us, and often we are influenced by their attitudes, suggestions and actions, sometimes without even realizing it.
At Leisure Care we have a “No Crab” policy. We work hard to keep morale high and to have a great working environment – and our executives are very good at it.
Just wanted to share the story, because we all have very much enjoyed it at the office.
Bre,
Thanks for the great post!
It sounds like you have a great CEO…