A Gallup Poll study released on June 23, 2014 echoed what RSR has consistently found in our own research: namely that engaged and pleasant sales associates have a far greater impact on company performance than price, promotion, or social media. The study goes a step further to observe that organic growth in consumer-facing industries can only happen when fully engaged customers are invested in the business’s brand.

While the current frenzy of corporate mergers and acquisitions creates growth, that growth is far more expensive than actually improving engagement with current customers in current brands. As Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup observes in the study’s forward, “You can’t ‘acquire’ true believers. “

The study, The State of the American Consumer, focuses on several industries including banking, hospitality and retail. The retail observations in particular, are fascinating.

Let’s start with showrooming. Gallup reports that the showrooming trend has been vastly overstated. While 40% of polled consumers claim to have ‘ever’ showroomed, only 6% said they had showroomed during their most recent trip to a retail store. Retailers are acknowledging this truth as well.

In fact, in our 2014 Retail Pricing Benchmark study, only 24% of retailers surveyed cited “Price Transparency ” as a top-three Business Challenge they face, down from 33% the prior year. While it is reasonable and appropriate for shoppers to comparison-shop for high-priced merchandise, and the smartphone explosion has allowed them to conduct this comparison shopping in near real-time, the activity itself has been commonplace for as long as retail has existed. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, those comparisons were done by ‘driving around’ to different dealers. Now, shoppers literally let their fingers do the walking. In truth, no one should buy a $1,000 TV or a $2,000 mattress based on faith alone. A reality check is in order. Consumers do those reality checks, but ‘close enough is good enough’ if the customer is fully engaged with the retailer.

The next subject discussed is the famous (and mostly US-based) pricing “race to the bottom. ” This phenomenon drives everything from 24*7 store opening hours during the all-important holiday season, to endless television commercials touting “lowest prices of the season (department stores), ” and other commercials simulating cash register tapes from competing grocers (Walmart vs. pick-the-regional-grocer-of-your-choice). Is there any value to these frenzied promotions?

The survey acknowledges that consumers are more price-conscious than they were in the years prior to the Great Recession. No surprises there. But the survey also points out, rather pointedly,

“…customers only shop based on price when price is the only thing that separates competing offerings. In other words, customers shop based on price when there is no emotional connection to a particular retailer — when they are not engaged. “

Our data shows that unfortunately, a majority of retailers don’t believe this. Consumer price sensitivity is cited as a top-three business challenge by a majority of retailers (56%), roughly equal to 2013’s study. Ironically, they also recognize that the endless race to the bottom is eroding their brand equity, and ultimately lowering the value of every existing customer. Despite any empirical knowledge that it “works, ” retailers really can’t help themselves. They promote low prices, even when they can’t prove it.

The Gallup study is telling in this regard. Citing consumer electronics shoppers, they point out that fully engaged customers spent an average of $373 during their past visit, vs. $289 on average spent by actively disengaged shoppers.

Now comes the fun part: what differentiates retailers with engaged customers from those with disengaged customers? It’s the employees. To quote the Gallup study:

“The true differentiator in retail (and nearly every other industry) is the people who are responsible for delivering the brand promise. Gallup research has shown that the “people ” factor is the key driver of customer engagement. People are powerful, and they outweigh the combined effect of products, advertising, layout, technology, and price — all of the various components that brick-and-mortar retailers often think define their competitive advantage. “

That’s a really telling statement and retailers are slowly waking up to this reality. In our annual benchmark on the state of the store, the most frequently cited opportunity for in-store technology was to “make our employees ‘smarter’ and better informed. ” That’s a dramatic shift from the mid-ought’s, when self-checkout and other self-service technologies were used as a justification to take payroll out of stores. While there are some good uses for customer-facing in-store technologies, nothing is more important than giving employees the opportunity to be really helpful.

It doesn’t help that the traditional store employee-retailer relationship has generally been a very arms-length one. A transient workforce was expected to at least know where merchandise was located in the store, but absent that, was expected to know very little. While chains like Home Depot made their names on employee-driven service, leaders came along who dismissed that value at scale.

As we all know, Home Depot has, with its current leadership, re-introduced more customer-facing store associates, with phenomenal improvements in sales and earnings. Similarly, Best Buy has abandoned its cries about showrooming and put employees back in the store as well. Their results are telling the tale.

Ironically, pure-play eCommerce retailers like Zappo’s and Amazon.com have become America’s favorites. Zappo’s is famous for offering new recruits $1,000 to leave the company when their training periods are over. If they stay, the logic goes, they must care about working there. The engagement of their customers is legendary.

Gallup recommends that retailers and other consumer industries define their brand promise and constantly re-evaluate if they’re keeping that promise. Retailers like Publix, Nordstrom, Zappos, The Container Store, Costco and others are clearly on that journey, and are rewarded with customer loyalty and engagement.

Employees drive that engagement. They even trump products as a traffic and sales driver. That’s a pretty compelling consumer statement. Retailers are wise to evaluate where they stand in the race for employee engagement. At the end of the day, they are standing out as assets rather than a large expense line on the P&L.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on a blog for Forbes Magazine, and seemed fitting to re-post for Retail Paradox Weekly readers.