- MIT says that companies at the top of the scale in employee experience (EX) score twice as high in customer satisfaction compared to companies occupying the bottom fourth.
- Using technology to enhance employee experience and employee collaboration can boost customer experience.
- A collaboration platform that produces digital transformation requires forethought and a great partner.
The digital transformation is underway. Smart leaders know their companies must take part. But digital talent is in short supply and competition is fierce. Winning the larger war on the bottom line is about winning the smaller war by hiring people who can drive the company forward. That accounts for all areas of the organization including customer service. Delivering on customer experience starts with employee experience. Happy employees equal happy customers.
That sentiment is more than a slogan. It is backed by hard data. Research by MIT shows that companies at the top of the scale in employee experience (EX) score twice as high in customer satisfaction compared to companies occupying the bottom fourth.
As MIT explains: “Traditional command-and-control organizational structures are not effective in this rapidly changing workplace. Required instead are flatter hierarchies, an innovative mindset throughout the company, and fluid test and learn environments in which employees can be both proactive and reactive in fulfilling customer expectations. Creating a great employee experience to enable more complex work is critical to success.”
Collaboration Is What’s Needed Most
Digital talent craves the ability to collaborate with colleagues to create, innovate and problem-solve, all in real-time. Digital transformation is not about technology so much as it is about what human beings can do with technology. It’s about the new heights humans can achieve as a result of the new world that technology opens. So the real questions for forward-thinking companies are about how to use technology to enhance employee experience and employee collaboration, which then will boost the customer experience.
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Life Expectations Reflect Work Expectations
Convenience and speed are high on the list of modern expectations in the personal lives of consumers. If they want to know the score of the ball game, they have it in a few swipes on their phone. When they are seeking a Christmas gift for a friend or relative, they can find it, order it and, in the span of a few minutes, have the item scheduled to ship. And if help is needed, they can get immediate answers in a live chat.
Employees expect the experience of their personal lives to be replicated in their work lives. They want access to multiple channels and platforms to work with one another when creating, innovating, and problem-solving. They want self-service for matters they can easily resolve themselves.
Companies that recognize the importance of this kind of technology are well on their way to scoring high on employee experience.
Getting Smart About Devices
Demonstrating real smarts about technology is as much about how as it is about what. This means it isn’t enough to acquire and install devices. It’s about understanding how those devices can and will be used. It’s about matching devices to the preferred work styles of employees. And it’s about connecting people more than it is about the technical connections that make devices work.
An array of equipment like the line offered by Cisco can fill the needs, from headsets to Webex Desk Pro to Webex Room Panorama. These aren’t merely devices. These are tools of empowerment for employees. That ultimately is what employee experience is all about.
Seamless Employee Collaboration
The availability of channels and platforms is an important part of the equation, but by itself, it still is not enough. What employees expect is to be able to flow seamlessly from one device to the next, from one channel to another, from this platform to that one without a hitch. Collaboration software that requires a series of fits and starts drives down productivity and dampens the employee experience.
This is why setting up a system that truly produces digital transformation requires forethought. A services and solutions provider who understands this and knows the hardware and software needed to make it all work can ensure that a company’s well-meaning vision is more than talk.
One Company’s Experience
Based in Melbourne, Transurban is one of the world’s largest toll road operators. The company also is known as a leading innovator. That’s why company leaders recognized the need to grow its collaborative culture.
The first step was to review platforms. The results were stunning. The company discovered it was using five different collaboration tools carrying out similar functions in a mix of on-premise and cloud services. This left employees to sort out which platform worked best without guidance. The employee experience varied as a result.
Partnering with Cisco, Transurban settled on a single platform, a single user interface, and shared meeting space. Transurban employees now enjoy a much more meaningful collaborative work environment, which has enhanced not only their experience but their customers as well.
Happy employees do equal happy customers, and this harmonious relationship is how companies win.
Ready to take your employee collaboration to the next level with powerful AI? Download the whitepaper: The Future of Collaboration is Cognitive.
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