The Gallup Organization
Level 18, 99 Walker St, North Sydney, NSW 2060
Website: www.gallup.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Engaged Employees Key to Excellent Customer Service
Sydney, Australia, 31 March 2005 - Recent research conducted by The Gallup Organization in New Zealand found that high
levels of employee engagement are related to excellent customer service over time as well as the likelihood of an
employee recommending their company’s product and services.
Gallup’s research has shown that 9 in 10 “Engaged’ workers in New Zealand always strive to provide excellent service to
their customers. By contrast, only 50% of workers in New Zealand who are “Actively Disengaged’ try to provide “excellent
customer service”. Gallup research has also shown that while 74% of “Engaged’ workers in New Zealand recommend their
company’s products and services, only 18% of “Actively Disengaged’ employees will do so. These findings are particularly
important for organisations with customer facing employees. Gallup’s customer research conducted worldwide has shown
service quality to be as important as the product quality, brand name, its promotion and location.
Gallup classifies employees into three categories - Engaged, Not Engaged and Actively Disengaged. “Engaged’ employees
are loyal and psychologically committed to the organisation. They are more productive, more likely to stay with their
company for at least a year, less likely to have accidents on the job, and less likely to steal from their company.
“Disengaged’ employees on the other hand are not psychologically connected to their company. They are more likely to
miss workdays and more likely to leave their company. More serious however are “Actively Disengaged’ employees, who are
physically present but psychologically absent. They are unhappy with their work situation and insist
on sharing that unhappiness with their colleagues. Gallup’s recent research has shown that just 17% of workers in New
Zealand are “Engaged’, 68% are “Not Engaged’, and disturbingly 15% are “Actively Disengaged’.
According to Anita Pugliese, PhD., Managing Consultant at Gallup, it is certainly no surprise that employee engagement
impacts customer relations and the bottom line so significantly.
“Organisations with low levels of engagement are effectively suppressing the potential of their employees to create a
legion of loyal customers. There can be no doubt that an employee’s level of engagement affects the quality of tasks
performed. For example, most people should be able to recall a dining experience where the level of service was so bad
that they vowed never to return despite having great food. Chances are high that the poor service employee is not
“Engaged’.
Gallup finds that the best way to increase engagement is through intervention and action planning at the local level of
an organisation, as the specific drivers of engagement differ from workgroup to workgroup.
Statistics
The New Zealand Engagement Study was conducted 27 October to 26 November 2004 among a sample of 500 working people, aged
18 years and older. The maximum sampling error for this study is +/-4.4 %.
The graph below represents the percentage of respondents in each engagement group who strongly agree with the statement.
About Gallup
The Gallup Organization is one of the world's most respected management consulting firms, with offices in 33 countries
and over 2,500 consultants worldwide. The Gallup Path is the conceptual framework that relates an organisation's
financial performance (or accomplishment of mission) to effective strategy execution by harnessing the Human Difference.