The Feel Good Factor Snowball Effect
How would you describe the feeling when an experience leaves you ‘feeling good’?
These are a few of the words I would choose:
Happy
Content
Understood
Special
Connected
Satisfied
Relaxed
Heard
Energised
Elated, even euphoric.
It brings a big smile to my face to read a list of such positive emotions.
Back in 2018, I wrote an article on LinkedIn about the basic needs of employees, which create the foundation for the feel good factor, and how to build these into your long-term plans. Read it here
In this post I’m going to explore how your organisation can build on those basic needs to create the feel good factor in your team and develop an emotional connection with your customers, evoking the positive emotions listed above.
Scoring the winning goal feels incredible
When the feel good factor runs through your organisation it’s a winning situation. Your employees win, your customers win, and your company wins.
Everyone enjoys a win. Winning breeds loyalty and gets you more fans. Your team will feel amazing. Customers sense this and feel pretty good too. The result is like seeing the ball hit that back of the net - euphoria! And the best thing is that feeling is addictive. Once you’ve experienced it you want more and more.
What happens when you create the feel good factor at work?
So many good things can happen as a result of building the feel good factor. I like to think of it as a recurring cycle where everyone connected with your organisation has the chance to feel great and experience positive outcomes at every stage. As the cycle repeats, the potential for positive impact grows.
Employees feel more engaged and involved in the business
Productivity increases as people work more effectively and efficiently
The organisation is more likely to achieve its financial goals
Customer experience improves and people tell their friends about their outstanding experience
People perceive your organisation to be trustworthy and are more likely to choose to do business with you
You develop a portfolio of loyal customers, which leads to stability and security for employees.
How do we know when we have that feel good factor?
With so many coffee shops to choose from these days, how on earth do you make a decision about which one to visit? Yes, you go to the one that serves your favourite, quality blend that smells divine as you walk in. But there are always other factors at play. The place you return to again and again is the one where the barista remembers your name and drink of choice. The one that greets you with a smile, engages you in chatty conversation, and makes you feel welcome - every time. This is symbolic of the feel good factor.
How to create the feel good factor in your team
To achieve the feel good factor, leaders need to have one eye on the prize and the scoreboard (how we’re doing on reaching our goal) and the other on how their team are feeling and performing.
Take the following actions to start building up the feel good factor:
Explain how you rank against key competitors and where you aim to be
Talk through the objectives and your team’s role in delivering these
Share exactly what your team need to do to carry out their role
Maintain focus on customer needs and customer experience
Offer training to bridge skills gaps and boost confidence
Create a safe and secure environment where employees can perform well
As a leader you are responsible for showing your team what to do and how to do it, guiding, correcting and supporting them where necessary. Sometimes this might involve a bit of tough love - that’s all part of managing people. Creating a supportive environment often has a ripple effect where colleagues become naturally supportive of each other.
Organisational culture is key to creating the feel good factor. A workplace where people feel valued, treated with dignity and respect, and able to ask for help and guidance when they need it, is a workplace where people feel happy, healthy and fit to do perform their role to the best of their ability.
Do you aspire to be number one, the best, or even better?
If you do, you’re in good company because Zest for Life shares your aspirations.
Our ambition is to create a HUGE feel good factor in organisations across the UK. That’s why I wrote my book ‘Exceptional Service Makes Sense...Business Sense’.
The book guides organisations to reach the holy grail of embedding the feel good factor in and around their business. It takes time, effort and dedication from everyone in the organisation, with commitment from every level. And it’s absolutely worth it. When customers see people loving what they do, and doing it with infectious energy and enthusiasm, they feel it too. The feel good factor snowball effect starts to grow and your business reaps the rewards.
As an employee or a customer, we all know how good it feels to get what we want - and how much more intense that feeling is when we get more than anticipated. It’s a real Wow! moment that stays with you. You tell your friends what you loved about your experience and share how it made you feel. Believe me, the good news will travel far and wide very quickly.
I’ve witnessed many happy people getting hooked on the feel good factor and come back for more. What’s stopping your employees and customers experiencing it too?