Fact: 70 per cent of all change initiatives within a business and organisational context fail1. Ensure you’re a part of the successful 30 per cent. Here, we'll set the case for why customer experience should be a main part of your change management initiatives, and how it can propel you in the right direction, regardless of what your business objectives are.
As you’ve probably heard a million times before, nothing is more certain in life than change. But it’s worth reiterating as change management is a big topic in the business world. In this blog, we’re going to talk about change management in relation to customer experience and explain why one pertains the other.
As you will know, at certain times of the year businesses set strategic goals they want to achieve within a certain time-frame. Whatever the particular goal may be, (and let’s assume it’s one of the usual suspects: performance, growth, efficiency or innovation), in order to achieve it, there’s a requirement for a solid strategic and tactical plan.
With any new company-wide directive, there will likely be the need for organisational change (whether smaller or larger scale). In order for this transition to be effective and lasting, both management and employees need to buy into the new strategic direction. Cue: the need for a change management initiative.
For sake of argument, your main business goal could be: "We want to be a $10 million business in five years, and in order to do that we need to generate 1,000 new customers by 2030."
Related content: 3 steps to successful customer experience change management
Regardless of what your goal is (and again, we’ll assume it’s growth or performance focused) and as a part of your strategic plan, the need to assess the status quo will arise, before you can even think of where you’re heading.
The two major impacts on your business are its customers and employees. So it would make sense to start there. Customer experience and employee engagement are crucial players for achieving your business goals, whatever those goals may be.
Basically, becoming a customer-led business in itself will have a big impact on whether or not you can achieve your goals, as knowing how you fare in your customer experience will help you understand your current state and the actions you need to take to improve.
For example if your goal is to have X amount of customers in ten years, having a strong customer retention strategy could be a part of this goal, in fact it usually is. In order to facilitate a strong retention strategy, you’ll need to know the current state of your customer experience, which includes how satisfied and loyal your current customers are. Being a customer-led business does tie into many company goals, as they often are growth focused.
And finally, it’s important to measure your progress and feedback throughout the whole process. If you don’t measure, you simply won’t know if you are on your way to achieving your goals.
This all qualifies customer experience as a highly relevant topic in the context of change management.
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.
With today’s booming ecommerce industry, customers have unlimited local and international options to purchase products and services. 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: 3 steps to measure your employee feedback 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.
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:
1. Leading Change, by Dr. John Kotter, renowned author and change management guru. Harvard Business Review Press, 2012.