A lot of people dislike the concept of remote work. Understandably so, seeing that there are so many stereotypes against it. The lack of supervision would make workers more lazy and less productive. They would also be more lonely and unhappy. Company culture and communication would suffer because of it. It leads to a lack of work-life balance. Well, you’ve probably heard them all yourself, right?

As I see myself as a “the glass is half-full” type of person, I wanted to investigate if remote work could also have a positive effect on CX. And as it turns out, there are quite some benefits to be reaped here, even some more unexpected ones.

But in all these cases, culture is absolutely key if you want remote work to have a positive effect on your CX. If your culture does not put the customer first, well, then it’s obvious that remote work won’t change that. But if you have a customer-first culture, chances are that – contrary to what your intuition might tell you – remote work will also benefit your customers.

Help desk software company Help Scout, for instance, which is well know for its remote-first culture, makes it very clear that it always puts the customer first and is only interested in hiring people who do the same. This is the first thing your see on their careers page:

Love delighting customers? We’d love to have you.

Join a diverse team that’s customer-first—for real. At Help Scout, you can craft exceptional customer experiences from wherever you are.

Other essential ingredients of remote companies with great CX cultures are of course empowerment, trust, transparency, effective communication, continuous feedback loops, customer obsession and effective empathy. If these are not in the DNA of your company, you will need to adapt if you want to integrate remote culture in your strategy without loosing connection with your employees and your customers.

That being said, these are some of the advantages of a remote work strategy for your customers:

1.   Increased flexibility and availability

This is perhaps one of the most obvious advantages but having a remote team spread around the world, also means that customers can contact your team 24/7, without any of them having to work in the evening or at night. So, your customers profit from more flexibility, faster response times and better coverage across different time zones. Social media management platform Buffer, for instance, and Zapier, a company that provides integrations for web applications, both have an international remote customer support team that is always available, no matter where or when a customer needs them.

2.   Enhanced employee satisfaction leading to better CX

You know that I’m a firm believer in the trickle-down effects of employee experience to customer experience. If your company culture is centred on treating employees right, they will be focused on treating your customers right, too. It’s about being human-centric, on all sides of the supply chain.

Remote work can be a big part of creating more employee satisfaction, which in turn leads to more positive interactions with customers. In fact, studies from Google, Buffer, FlexJobs, and IWG show that employees who really value autonomy and flexibility can experience new levels of joy and productivity in an all-remote environment. Gitlab for instance, found that companies often experience lower employee turnover and higher morale with remote work. And as happy employees often beget happy customers, you’ll see what this would mean for CX.

3.   Cost savings reinvested in CX improvements

In times of uncertainty and rising prices, companies tend to prioritize agility and cost efficiency. In fact, 65 percent of businesses say that a flexible workspace helps them reduce capital and operational expenses. If you wonder how this could possibly help advance the CX of a brand, well, think about this: if you can cut costs in a place which will have little effect on your customers, then you will also be able to reinvest this money in areas where you can improve things for your customers.

Shopify, for instance, transitioned to a remote-first model which allowed them to reduce overhead costs associated with physical office spaces and then reinvest that money in customer service technologies and training, allowing for better support to their merchants.

4.   An empowered talent pool making fast decisions

GitLab – which has a VERY extensive online handbook on remote work (quite a lot of tips and tricks to be found there, actually, about remote work) – outlines that an all-remote work environment naturally attracts self-motivated people. If you hire partially or fully remote employees, it’s very important that they have a highly developed sense of autonomy and accountability. That’s one part of the equation. The other is that you empower them to fully develop these talents.

It’s very interesting to note that empowerment and trust are both highly relevant characteristics of successful remote cultures as well as successful customer cultures. If employees need to go through an entire chain of command before they can make a customer decision, this will result in frustration on the customer side (slow results) and take away the sense of autonomy and self-trust of employees. The latter will certainly result in more unhappy employees, which will then also reflect on their level of service towards customers. Empowerment is such an important part of company cultures on so many levels.

5.   Increased Productivity and Efficiency

Remote work tends to eliminate distractions and improve focus, leading to increased productivity. Additionally, remote workers often have more flexible schedules, which can allow them to work during peak hours for their customers.

According to Shopify, 67 percent of business leaders think that workplace flexibility can improve productivity by at least one-fifth. And GitLab believes that remote employees are more productive with fewer distractions, so long as leadership is supportive in equipping teams with the requisite tools, structure, and culture to thrive. For instance, GitLab has a KPI of 65 tickets closed per support staff per month. So how does this impact the CX? Well, working more efficiently of course leads to faster response times and better customer outcomes.

6.   Expanded Talent Pool and Diversity

Remote work allows you to hire talent from anywhere in the world and greatly expand your potential talent pool. That’s interesting for those talent profiles that are in high demand and hard to find. Plus, it can lead to a more diverse workforce as well. The latter can positively impact customer interactions and the understanding of some types of cultural behaviour. Plus, it can also lead to more customer-centric innovation and problem-solving because teams have a more wide range of experiences and perspectives, that are often bigger than the sum of their parts.

GitLab, for instance, prides itself into offering the opportunity to meet and work with people from many locations around the world, which not only widens its employees view of the world but also creates opportunities to learn about new cultures.

Do you have a remote work culture at your company? And if so, how does it affect your CX in positive ways? Let me know in the comments.