Get Change Management Strategy right to embed customer experience in your organization

– use an all-inclusive approach to enhance your customer experience  

The dynamics of business in today’s world (as was the case in the past perhaps but a little less so p) has become very much like the situation on the battlefield where quick decisions must be taken in life-threatening situations. The existing and emerging sophisticated technology tools have empowered modern organization with capabilities and real-time information that can be used to harness resources to meet current and emerging needs.  As it stands CX initiatives tend to trigger change in organizations as the concept of customer-centricity is not easily embraced. CX leaders thus find themselves thrust into the role of Change Agents.

Therefore, regardless of the job title as a CX lead you find yourself having to implement programmes cross-functionally relying mostly on borrowed authority, to navigate your way through the complexities of organizational change and journeying milestones through a culture of learning and collaboration across the organization. Whatever the makeup of your organization you can make a positive difference for your customers and stand out as a reputed customer experience change agent by volunteering to drive and support your organization’s change agenda.

The nature of CX change or the form it takes is largely unpredictable. All CX initiatives tend to be a little different requiring tact and a willingness to explore the unknown with one thing in mind, the balance between your business goals and the needs of your customers. According to Jeff Sheehan a CX author and advocate, while change may require different approaches in each change segment one thing that is clear, is that, all CX initiatives involve, and rely on people adapting to change. The need for CX change will trigger internal responses and therefore drive a need to address the employee experience as part of the change initiative.

Customer experience management thrives on continuous improvement with a focus on cross-functional changes, and minimizing the tendency to operate in silos to reap the business benefit. There are a range of approaches to making change happen within an organization. Nike for example implemented digital orders during the covid era to ensure that they could offset damage to their retail trade. Initiatives of this nature require that you manage the process efficiently to achieve your goal. Today’s business world is changing at a fast pace as a result of the evolving technology and customer trends.

Here is a technical definition of Change Management by Haiilo the business solutions provider. “It is a systematic approach that includes dealing with the transition or transformation of organizational goals,  core values, processes, or technologies”. The operative words here are systematic, transformation, and transition. Systematic means the process has to be orderly and deliberately planned. To transform according to the online dictionary means to change in form, appearance, or structure. Transition means changing from one position to another. To sum up, change is an intentional process.

This process has to be carefully managed. Therefore, in the real world, we will normally adopt a proven approach to ensure that the outcomes are worthy of the effort and investment in resources. I have chosen the ADKAR model to explain CX Change in this context. First, to ensure that you sustain the change you must make employees aware of the need for change. Second, employees must desire to participate and fully support the change. Third, gather knowledge about the change process and the ultimate goal and communicate to employees. Fourth, let employees know that it will help improve their skills. Fifth make it clear to all employees that there is no turning back.

Awareness

There is an interesting video I saw on social media recently. It was about a wild deer that had gotten trapped by a fallen tree branch and was struggling to disentangle itself from it. It appears that in doing so it had further exacerbated the situation and being the deer that it was had gotten itself totally trapped. A passerby who was doing his morning walk saw it and decided to help the poor deer. Initially, the deer was apprehensive and protested as the gentleman drew close. However, he calmly held the deer and suddenly the animal realizing that the man had come in to help stopped struggling and observed as the man unstrapped him from the tree.

This step in the change journey is about ensuring that everyone has an awareness and understanding of the need to change. Each individual needs to know why the change is happening and necessary. Without a full understanding of why the change is necessary, employees will be unmotivated, and change is less likely to succeed. Some may even resist the change as the uncertainty about the change makes them very uncomfortable. It is imperative therefore that Hence, that the organization’s management ensures that everyone understands the need for change and that there is buy-in for the change.

The lesson here is quite straightforward. Employees must be aware of the need for change to get them to agree to go along with it. This means an intentional process of educating all employees about the need to ensure that customers are well catered for must be a conversation on everyone’s lips. The frontline staff need support from those at the backend as they face and engage with customers daily. It is about influencing a culture of customer-centricity. It doesn’t happen as a “flash in the pan”. Leadership must plan and execute a change process employing all the known engagement strategies namely email, website, intranet, focus groups to keep all aligned.

Employee participation

To achieve significant success in your customer experience management programme you need the full participation of all employees. One way to address this is to assess the journey map and all the steps taken to communicate with the customer. The customer’s journey must be communicated to everyone highlighting potential pain points such as how much time and effort it will take to improve the process, particularly to digitize it if the business can make that investment. The goal is to find out how much time can be saved in automating the process for example or removing obstacles to speed up processing time for customers.

Employees will participate in customer experience initiatives when they are convinced that it will bring some form of benefit to them personally. The CX lead must focus on making everybody feel dissatisfied with the status quo. It is about demonstrating to everyone how streamlining the process can positively impact their work. The goal is to manage all touchpoints efficiently. This will require that internal processes are well aligned to support those at the front end directly dealing with the customer. To this end, all must understand the negative consequences of keeping things as they are.

In one of my earlier articles, I emphasized the need to ensure that employees have that feeling of inclusiveness in change initiatives. When they feel included, they pay back that favour through their performances across the organization. Front liners are beneficiaries of this culture and therefore are more likely to share this feeling with the external customer. When this feeling is embraced among employees, they will wholeheartedly support the customer experience by providing all the support to their front-line colleagues. The common sentiment today is “customer experience (CX) belongs to everyone”.

Sharing Knowledge

The major driving force behind today’s change is technology. This state of affairs is a trigger for a myriad of challenges that must be dealt with effectively to attain change objectives. When we initiate any form of change, we must be aware that the outcome of this step is not just the change we seek but that the individual affected by this change must know how to change. In change, we go through a transition requiring that every member of the organization knows how to change and what they need to do during the transition, the future skills and behaviors they need, once the change is in place.

The goal as shared by Pennington (2016) is to get the company to use the word customer and talk about the customer more and more. This requires using different means of increasing knowledge including training, coaching, and mentoring workshops to keep staff informed about the customer experience at all levels. One of the strategies employed over the years is the use of sound bites. Our experts put it very simply, “employee engagement = better customer experience delivery = customer advocacy = job satisfaction/pride = lower staff churn = employee advocacy of company and service/product = business growth = business bottom line improves.

A formal way of sharing knowledge is through design and experience improvement workshops. This may be organized away from the workplace to minimize disruptions and distractions. Experiences should not happen by accident. They must be intentional hence the term experience design. There is a need to be sensitive to the customer when engaging them. It is about thinking outside in and engaging with your internal processes to determine how to shape the experience. for example, if a person lost a loved one would you ask for a detailed list of items before you paid out an insurance policy? The goal is to meticulously examine scenarios and craft responses to be executed as the standard for all.

Apply improved skills

This phase is about demonstrating new skills and behaviours to address customer issues skillfully. It is about translating theory into practice and supporting individuals to practice the new behaviour (ability). With new abilities, employees will be better able to address the concerns of customers knowledgeably. Following the COVID pandemic, there have been very significant changes to how we work. tools for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Feedback Management (CFM) Artificial Intelligence (AI), Application Programming Interface (API), Chatbots, and so on play a major role in fostering strong relationships with customers.

When most employees have a good understanding of the customer people will confidently play complementing roles to address customer needs productively.  For example, Not everyone will need, or have the time or skills, to conduct interviews or journey mapping or do analytics on organization-wide data. That is probably best left to a CX team who will share a common view of the customer across the organization and detailed information on improvement opportunities to specific functions. It is also good for everyone to have feedback on their performance in terms of CX when possible.

Front-line staff for example should have access to their customer feedback to find areas to improve. Regular communication with customers by listening actively, speaking, using positive language, and showing empathy. using different channels and formats to communicate with customers, such as phone, email, chat, social media, video, or face-to-face are all indicators of improved skills. The ability to harness these skills to adapt to the customer’s situations, moods, and personalities, ultimately conveys trust, respect, and value. The customer experience thrives in a learning environment where lessons are shared consistently to improve customer experience.

Reinforcement

Every change initiative concludes with this step. When the new change and any new behaviors are reinforced within each individual, you want to avoid the risk of reverting to the old ways of doing things. There are methods for ensuring that change is embedded and not erased. Several approaches to this include taking corrective actions quickly, positive reinforcement, feedback, rewards, and recognition celebrating success, and rewarding excellence in applying the new knowledge. Implementing change within an organization is a complex process that requires careful planning, effective communication, and strong leadership.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are often confronted with the need for change due to a plethora of internal and external factors. These factors may range from technological advancements to market shifts, regulatory requirements, competitive pressures, organizational growth, or the desire to improve efficiency and productivity. In whatever form the change occurs it is necessary to adopt the right strategies to embed the change. Sustaining the change is best achieved by ongoing reinforcement and integration into the organizational culture. Another technique (very effective) is to celebrate success.

It is about reinforcing desired behaviours, and ensuring that the change becomes the new norm. The way forward with this is continuous communication, monitoring progress, and addressing any challenges or resistance that may emerge during the implementation. The ADKAR model offers tips that can enhance the change implementation process within an organization to improve customer experience. it is about creating a culture of change that embraces flexibility and adaptability. Knowing what change is in a business context there’s no doubt that customer experience management is a terrain that is froth with change and continuous improvement.