Employees love these companies, and customers hate them… and vice-versa

My research this month and a year ago has established that there is little or no relationship between employee and customer satisfaction. The full article with the latest results is here. Like last time, the research has shown that there are some companies that combine the best and the worst. I have identified the companies that are in the top ten percent for customer satisfaction while being in the bottom ten percent for employee satisfaction, and vice-versa. Naturally, I welcome all views as to why these companies occupy their unenviable positions.

Customers love these companies, employees… not so much

Here are the companies that are in the top 10% for customer satisfaction of the 345 US companies analyzed, while being in the bottom 10% for employee satisfaction. As explained in the main article, customer satisfaction is measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index scores, and employee satisfaction by the Glassdoor ratings given by current and former employees. The companies are listed in descending order of customer satisfaction.

Companies in the bottom 10% for customers and the top 10% for employees

If you believe what you read on the internet, such companies don’t exist. But LinkedIn and Facebook were on the same list last year. The only nuance I can offer is that ACSI studies consumer customers. LinkedIn and Facebook have customers, including me, who pay for services by giving LinkedIn and Facebook access to our personal data and browsing habits. These are the customers that ACSI measures. Both companies may (or may not) also have B2B customers who are perfectly happy.

Conclusion

That’s it for my current analysis. The overall conclusion is (once again) that employee satisfaction does not do anything at all for customers in most industries. There are some where it matters, but far less than you might expect. Since employees can be happy with pay, the food in the company cafeteria, their commute to work, and other factors that do nothing for customers, this should not be surprising. Employee engagement is a different concept from employee satisfaction. There is no standard metric for engagement, and people can be engaged while being unhappy. I would like to study other factors, like whether companies with more women in leadership positions have happier customers, but I have not found a good source of public data for this. Your input is welcome, and you are of course free to do your own analysis using the data posted on our resources page here. As always, if you like this sort of thing, please consider buying our customer strategy books on Amazon.