Michael Lowenstein has some nice advice on how employees can drive customer loyalty:
..most managers and executives in almost every company, are familiar with the terms "employee satisfaction" and "employee engagement." Not so familiar, though, is employee commitment.
Employee satisfaction and engagement will both have relatively passive linkage, but employee ambassadorship and commitment will result in stronger financial performance on every key measure.
There is growing recognition .... which relates and links employee perceptions and actions to company business and financial missions and strategies, particularly regarding customer behaviors on behalf of the employer; and very little employee research (qualitative or quantitative) has been conducted, and no proven technique had been created, in these areas. We call the concept forming the research method we have developed employee ambassadorship. This represents the new reality of optimizing employee productivity, connecting to the organization, and focusing on delivering value to customers; and it addresses the direct and indirect behavioral linkages between these stakeholder groups.
Employees are the common denominator in optimizing the customer experience. Making the experience for customers positive and attractive at each point where the company interacts with them requires an in-depth understanding of both customer needs and how what the company currently does achieves that goal, particularly through employee loyalty.