Full Circle back to the Customer
SNAPS DAY 293
10/20/20222 min read
It is fascinating how the global BPM industry has gone full circle back to the customer. The journey has shifted focus from Customer Satisfaction to Operations Excellence and now to Digital Customer Experience.
Before, we were so obsessed in placing our end-to-end processes under the microscope to analyze fracture points, process improvements and policies to make the BPM engine run faster, cheaper and better. In fact, several global standards of process excellence and practices have been created and institutionalized about how we hire, train, operate, transform and grow our operations to delight our customers. Still, the focus is on operations.
Guess what, the center of the universe has shifted back to the customer but this time it’s a customer holding a smart phone.
My advice is to deliberately reduce time sitting behind your laptop analyzing reports and business review slides because all of those happened in the past. What’s most important is what’s happening live. Go and sit beside your frontline Associates and listen to live customers calling or chatting. Ask your Associate for insights about why the customer called or chat. Ask for suggestions on how to create a better customer experience & user experience. Plan, organize, lead and control from the frontlines not behind your laptop.
This is why I recommend a change in the business model “from operations to delivery” because the focus must not be on operations… it must be in delivering human experiences that matter. It must be simple, intuitive and personal.
*About the photo
My 4 awesome kids are born in 1996, 1999, 2001 and 2007. Their individual needs, wants and goals have evolved through the years. Their interconnected desires, lifestyles, beliefs and social landscape in their respective communities at home, in school, at work and online are constantly transforming 24 x 7. These 4 human beings, you, me, your parents, your community and even the person next to you while you are reading this SNAPS are the customers of the future. All of them are not interested about our average handle time, net promoter score and scripts in the BPM industry. They are not self-centered, they do not wake up to call & get mad at our frontline Associates, and, they are not arrogant. They just want to be digital first, they want to be engaged in their chosen medium (omni-channel), they trust that their personal data is secure, and they want everything personalized based on their persona of choice.
Notice the photo of my 4 awesome kids in the bamboo forest in Arashiyama Kyoto, Japan last May 2019. All of them except Tres is holding a smart phone because I used Tres’ phone to take this photo.
