When properly executed, digital technology allows a business to transform both customer and worker experiences. Such projects provide an ideal opportunity to critically analyse these journeys, identifying pain points and areas for improvement. For any digital transformation to be effective, it's essential to understand how customers and workers should interact with the new architecture, and how to drive the required behaviours internally so that the anticipated benefits can be delivered.
Customer and worker experiences are interrelated - we know that happy staff will help a business create a positive experience for consumers. The problem is that the process of transitioning employees and teams to a new way of working is often overlooked, which can severely undermine transformation programmes.
By following the simple five tips below, organisations can improve the worker experience and help ensure that digital transformation is as smooth as possible.
1. Set the right foundations. On its own, technology will deliver very little. It has to be cemented into strong foundations of outcome-focused strategy. Every transformation program needs a compelling and aligned vision, clear end goals and a tight set of metrics against which to measure success.
2. Recognise that transformation is beyond digital. Technology projects often seek to automate and remove manual processes, but customer journeys still require human interaction. Digital infrastructure needs to be supported, data needs to be governed and the customer journey should not be fully automated. It’s important take a holistic view of people and processes as well as technology. For example, a fantastic web experience to attract and engage new clients only goes so far. The sales and service team need to live up to the communicated brand promise.
3. Plot your change enablement journey. Transformation needs to be delivered by more than just a training session - businesses simply cannot expect workers to amend behaviour and adopt new processes from this single interaction. Organisations need to understand how the transformation will both impact and be perceived by employees and structure a change and communication programme to inform, engage, prepare, reinforce and evolve the right behaviours. Ensuring that workers have a voice throughout will help make them feel an intrinsic part of the journey.
4. Be flexible. Organisations should not just choose a digital framework and rigidly stick to it. Whilst it’s true that many cloud platforms can be adapted to a multitude of use cases, choosing the right tools for the right stages of customer and worker journeys is essential. Also, digital tools should be adapted based on experience rather than just theory. Agile implementation models make far more sense with cloud platforms as they allow businesses to take advantage of iterative developments.
5. Partnerships are key. Reviewing the partners that you work with is also an important step. If a business needs to implement change quickly, it is essential that it works with a like-minded, nimble, cloud-based organisation that can act quickly to service its needs.
Most organisations are going through a digital transformation. But, before this begins, they need to take the time to make sure they have a plan in place to improve the worker experience, get their employees on side and to ensure they are using the right technology to fit their needs.
