How does employee experience drive better customer experience?

This blog highlights the stressed condition of the customer service employees and why motivating and valuing them is important. Believe it or not, employee experience drives customer experience. 

That’s why rewarding them with personalized gifts can emerge as an effective and delightful motivator. 

Though burnout and turnover are a flaming reality for all job roles, they have become a second nature of contact centers and customer support roles. 

 Moreover, researchers have also found that most contact center employees have poor eating habits and rely on smoking as a quick escape from stress. In extreme cases, they may feel socially alienated from family and friends as the work-related stress consumes them totally, and they often work ungodly hours. 

It's a serious problem for businesses. Note that your contact center agents act as brand ambassadors during their hundreds and thousands of customer interactions. 

If agents get botched up by the ever-rising demands from customers, it affects their call quality. In fact, there is a 40% productivity drop and 50% more errors made while multitasking in the domain of customer service jobs. 

And the worst part is, if they fail to deliver stellar service expectations, customers don’t think twice before taking their business elsewhere. 92% of consumers have said that an agent’s perceived happiness affects their personal customer experience. 

To ensure above-the-mark customer service, therefore, it’s of paramount importance to understand the source of agent stress and ways of overcoming it. 

Why are customer service employees stressed? 

Here are some reasons that highlight why customer service employees are stressed: 

1. Role ambiguity 

Amidst the pressure of improving operational efficiency, maximizing customer satisfaction, and collecting crucial customer information, a contact center agent role is a crucible of conflicting demands. 

How can you speedily resolve issues and keep the customer feeling individually valued? How can you lessen the queue of customers on calls while carefully documenting every interaction? These seemingly conflicting KPIs give a meteoric rise to the stress. 

2. Unrealistic performance expectations 

Agents have to be swift and super-efficient. For job sustenance and growth, they want positive reviews from customers almost all the time. Along with this, they need to advocate for your company even if it has ailed the customer. 

More often than, these metrics and evaluations don’t factor in personal circumstance or emotion. Finally, stress reaches its zenith, making it incredibly difficult to maintain employee morale. 

3. Emotional conflict 

A study published in the Indian Journal of Community Medicine discovered that agents’ stress mainly gets triggered by the need to hide emotions, as agents are expected to record every customer interaction with great positivity, regardless of their own feelings at that particular moment. 

It requires enormous emotional labor to enact the play of forced positivity when your own spirit is at the nadir, giving rise to dormant anger, bitterness, and frustration. 

4. Non-handsome wages 

With just a hair above minimum compensation, the hourly pay granted for customer service roles can be very demotivating. When you think that you lie at the bottom totem pole, the fear that a single mistake will cost you your job always lingers. It puts agents into survival mode at work, making them perennially insecure. This alone heaps up a pile of stress. 

How does good employee experience drive customer experience? 

De-stressing customer service employees are more engaged and deliver a great customer experience.

A Deloitte survey found that 80% of respondents rated Employee Experience as important or very important for business strategy in delivering great CX. It’s not surprising since it’s the employee experience that owns the customer experience. 

When employees feel that they are treated right, thoroughly engage in their work, and find deeper meaning and satisfaction in how their roles contribute to a greater purpose, they go beyond the norm to carry that feeling to customers. 

She mentioned in Forbes that companies that lead in customer experience have 60% more engaged employees. Employee Engagement Benchmark Study substantiated Morgan’s claim by finding out that customer experience leaders have more engaged employees than organizations who send out poor customer experiences. 

The closer you look, the easier it is to find the inseparable bond between employee experience and customer experience, regardless of the industries and segments. The reasons are listed below. 

1. They forge better, deeper relationships with customers 

A stronger employee-customer relationship is built on three pillars: Presence, attentiveness, and attitude. 

When an employee is happy in the workplace, he doesn’t just stay away from absenteeism (presence)—but is more likely to support customer needs quickly (attentiveness) and with infectious vibes of positivity (attitude). 

This efficiency, coupled with positivity, gets carried forward to customers, resulting in heightened customer happiness and loyalty. One can understand from Gallup's assertion that companies with happier employees show 147% higher earnings per share than their competitors. 

2. Innovation and creativity jump in with happiness 

Employee-customer interaction is not always a scripted screenplay. When we observe a sweeping change in customer preferences and modes of interactions, innovation and creativity become the litmus test of customer experience and satisfaction. 

It is very much in alliance with common sense. If employees are energized and motivated at every moment of their work experiences, they will stay around for longer durations. The more they stick around, the more specialization they develop, along with deeper knowledge of how best to serve customers. 

3. They always keep you in a better light 

A happy employee, a truly happy one, is tolerant towards a few snags from the side of his own organization. He genuinely wishes dizzying heights of achievement for the company. Resultantly, it smoothes out the edge of possible grump or sulkiness in his overall existence in the organizational interactions. 

This innermost positive connection with the organization keeps him ever aware of your brand’s prestige and reputation, making him leave no stone unturned in presenting your brand in the most positive and illuminating light to your customers. 

As the saying goes, a high tide lifts all boats, ships, and vessels. When organizations craft great employee experiences, everything and everyone related to the company wins Employees, customers, leaders, executives, and shareholders. 

The right solution: Reward, recognize, and engage 

Since stressed-out customer service employees are battling at two fronts, namely emotional and economic, creating a reward and recognition system that addresses both the evils and thereby values the employees is a must. 

It’ll also motivate other employees to become top performers like their colleagues. In fact, a Gallup survey mentions that 74% of those who say their team receives praise also strongly agree that they have the feeling that what [they are] doing at work is valuable and useful. With the instilling of a sense of right purpose, your CX team will understand and feel how integral and valuable they are to your business. 
 
By distributing experiences in the form of gift cards, you can gift me-time to your most stressed-out employees.  

Indeed, it’s the moment of rewards and recognition that evokes in your CX employees the sense that you value them deeply, and their contribution is directly proportional to the company's bottom line. It’s, then, framing up an axiomatic truth: Happier employees = happier customers. 

Reward ideas to engage customer service employees 

Customer service employees are the frontline ambassadors of your brand. Rewarding them with thoughtful, relevant gifts not only boosts morale but also improves performance and retention. Here are categorized reward ideas designed to engage and appreciate customer service teams: 

Merchandise: 

High-quality merchandise provides both utility and a sense of recognition. It’s practical, memorable, and aligns well with daily work-life needs. 

• Premium wireless headphones – Enhance focus and comfort during long shifts. 
• Ergonomic office accessories – Improve posture and productivity at workstations. 
• Smart desk lamps or organizers – Blend function and style for better workspace vibes. 

Experiences: 

Experiential rewards help employees de-stress and feel valued by creating lasting memories outside of work. 

• Spa day or wellness retreat – Promote relaxation and mental well-being. 
• Cooking or art workshops – Encourage creativity and work-life balance. 
• Local cultural experiences or city tours – Great for weekend rejuvenation. 

Prepaid cards: 

Financial flexibility or the chance to give back makes employees feel trusted and socially empowered with prepaid cards. 

• Visa or Mastercard prepaid cards – Spendable anywhere, giving full control to the recipient. 
• Reloadable transport cards – Support daily commute needs in urban areas. 

Swag: 

Company-branded swag fosters a sense of belonging and pride while also being functional and stylish. 

• Custom jackets or hoodies – Perfect for team spirit and casual wear. 
• Branded water bottles or mugs – Daily-use items with a personalized touch. 
• Laptop sleeves or tote bags – Practical, sleek, and proudly branded. 

Top-ups & subscriptions: 

Digital subscriptions and top-ups are convenient, instantly delivered, and cater to everyday needs. 

• Mobile recharge vouchers – Keep employees connected effortlessly. 
• Streaming platform access – Ideal for unwinding after work. 
• Food delivery subscriptions – Take care of lunch or dinner breaks with ease. 

Food & grocery: 

Food-related rewards bring immediate satisfaction and are ideal for celebrating everyday wins or festive occasions. 

• Gourmet snack boxes – Delightful, ready-to-enjoy treats. 
• Online grocery vouchers – Help simplify their shopping needs. 
• Meal delivery credits – A convenient and appreciated break-time solution. 

Health & wellness: 

Supporting well-being shows you care about your employees’ long-term physical and emotional health. 

• Fitness tracker bands – Encourage movement and self-care. 
• Mental wellness app access – Support mindfulness, sleep, and stress reduction. 
• Healthy snack subscriptions – Offer a delicious yet nutritious gifting option. 

When customer experience slips, empowered employees step in 

Even the best-designed customer journeys can encounter friction. A delayed delivery, a billing error, or a misunderstood policy—no matter how refined your systems, human or technical missteps are inevitable. In these critical moments, it’s your frontline employees who serve as the bridge between disappointment and delight. 

But here's the key: for customer service employees to consistently turn tense situations around, they need to feel supported and valued themselves. When employees are empowered—through recognition, trust, and internal rewards—they’re far more likely to extend that same sense of care to your customers. 

A Gallup survey found that 74% of employees who receive frequent praise feel that their work is valuable and useful. That sense of meaning isn’t just an internal morale boost—it directly affects how those employees interact with your customers, especially during challenging moments. 

Why rewards work better than apologies (or discounts) 

When a customer has had a frustrating experience, simply saying "sorry" is no longer enough. Even offering a generic discount often falls short—especially if customers feel it’s transactional or impersonal. What creates true emotional recovery is a gesture that feels thoughtful and surprising. 

Research backs this up. Harvard Business Review notes that surprise changes behavior and deepens emotional bonds between brands and customers. Gifting creates a moment of unexpected delight—turning a negative experience into a brand-defining moment. 

Gifts like digital gift cards, experience vouchers, or food delivery credits feel more personal than a coupon code. They’re perceived as tokens of appreciation, not just damage control. In fact, 94% of customers who received a gift or special recognition said they felt more positive about the brand, and over a third said they’d increase their purchases. 

The employee experience connection: 

The secret to delivering this kind of recovery consistently? Equipping and encouraging employees to act. When your customer service team has access to a pre-approved catalog of gifts, rewards, and digital experiences, they don’t have to escalate issues or wait for approvals—they can instantly delight customers on the spot. 

But that ability stems from trust, and trust comes from experience. When employees themselves are regularly recognized—whether through peer-to-peer shoutouts or meaningful incentives, they understand the power of feeling seen. They become more emotionally invested in passing that feeling along to your customers. 

Skip the discounts, invest in loyalty 

When it comes to delighting disappointed customers, the instinctive fallback is often a discount. While this can be effective as a one-off gesture—especially for high-value purchases, overusing it can be damaging in the long run. Here's why: 

1. Financial fallout 

Frequent discounting eats into margins and weakens overall revenue. It may feel like a quick fix, but gifts or fixed-threshold perks like free shipping are often more cost-efficient.  

2. Customer experience consequences 

Discount fatigue is real. When customers are constantly exposed to deals, they become desensitized and start waiting for bigger, better offers, delaying action instead of encouraging it. 

Eventually, the thrill of a 10% or 20% discount wears off when they expect 40% just around the corner. This not only kills urgency but also undermines customer trust. 

3. Brand perception decline 

Consistent discounts can erode your brand’s value. Over time, customers begin associating your business with cheapness rather than quality. Once you’re labeled a “discount brand,” it’s incredibly hard to reverse that perception—no matter how innovative or premium your offerings may be. 

The better alternative? Thoughtful, surprise rewards. They reinforce your brand’s care and character, build stronger emotional connections, and help restore trust without sacrificing your margins or image.  

Combine this with a well-structured loyalty program—where customers earn points for actions like purchases, referrals, or feedback—and you create a consistent reason for them to return.  

Add in exclusive perks like early bird discounts, member-only sales, or first access to new products, and you're no longer just winning back loyalty—you're building it into the fabric of your customer experience. 

Final thoughts 

In the world of modern CX, happy employees aren’t just a nice-to-have—they’re the secret weapon behind loyal, delighted customers. When your team feels empowered, valued, and recognized, they don’t just resolve issues, they build relationships. 

That’s where a smart digital rewards platform like Xoxoday Plum makes a powerful difference. Xoxoday Plum enables you to integrate personalized, meaningful rewards into key moments of the customer journey—whether it’s resolving a service issue, collecting feedback, or celebrating loyalty milestones. By recognizing customers in real time and at the right touchpoints, you enhance satisfaction, deepen relationships, and drive long-term brand advocacy. 

Ready to turn every customer interaction into a memorable experience? 
Book a free demo with Xoxoday Plum and discover how rewards can redefine your customer experience strategy.