Once you have decided to become a customer-led business or have taken the steps to focus on making your customers a strategic priority, a natural shift will occur in your business.
If you have made the conscious decision to change business initiatives and act on customer feedback as a matter of priority, this will have a flow-on effect onto your employees. Their day-to-day work may change, teams may form or split, new recruits may come on board, external agencies may take the lead – lots of change.
Why the need to manage “change”?
Why managing change in your business? With today’s booming eCommerce industry, customers have unlimited local and international options to purchase products and services. It’s no longer about you (it possibly never was). Your customers are in the driver's seat. However, with the right mindset and systems in place, your business can steer customers through the buying journey—be in online or in person—and encourage outcomes that benefit your business such as conversion, retention and customer loyalty. But for this to happen, your business needs to put customers first. Your business initiatives need to focus on providing an excellent customer experience, and resources need to be put in place to make it all happen, from your staff to the equipment they use and processes they follow.
Related content: Bulletproof customer service in 4 steps
What happens if you ignore change management?
Not preparing your organisation properly for a change in priorities and structure, or failing to make employees understand why a change is needed in the first place, can have detrimental consequences. Your staff may feel that new tasks coming their way are not "in their job description" and you may lose their support altogether.
In terms of customer experience (CX), you may lose valuable customer insights if they are never communicated to management. On the other hand, situations may occur when staff rationalise away feedback.
Related content: 3 steps to measure your employee feedback for change management
Get ready for change management
Creating an engaging, relevant and excellent customer experience is the key to being competitive in today’s business environment. Understanding that employees are the make-or-break factor in customer experience is step one.
To ensure that staff have the understanding and structure they need to deliver on this, actioning change management as a strategic initiative is step two.
You’ll never create a lasting change until your staff change their thinking, beliefs and actions. You may be able to recognise the need for change but actually putting this into practice is a completely different game.
You’ll never create lasting change until your team aligns their thinking, beliefs and actions with the goal. You may be able to recognise the need for change but actually putting this into practice is a completely different game.
Related content: How measuring employee feedback impacts change management
Check out our ebook on change management to learn effective strategies to implement change in your business. Get it for free here:
