Telecom & Technology Consulting
The sales team used to be solely responsible for driving revenue and profits. That’s not the case anymore. Company growth is now also a key responsibility for CIOs and their teams, which is why tech leaders are increasingly focusing on building customer-focused work processes and cultures.
Instead of a technology-first IT strategy, smart CIOs have been ensuring that the call center has robust customer content. This is all part of an omnichannel focus that prioritizes making it easy for customers to complete transactions and receive prompt service. Ultimately, this strategy accomplishes what matters most: creating exceptional customer experiences that drive loyalty and foster growth.
There can be a number of elements that comprise this customer-first strategy. At the core, it’s vital to align the business and IT teams, and create a system of collaboration. This may mean, for example, creating a team that includes software engineers, a user experience designer, a business product manager, a data analyst, customer service reps, and sales and marketing personnel. With a range of perspectives on the team, you gain a holistic view for how to best implement the strategy.
Collaboration has to be baked into the strategy. In fact, collaboration must begin early in the process – and often. For any given project there will typically be stakeholders and user groups, but IT often engages them too late. That’s why it’s key to identify the right business stakeholders and users from the outset, as well as continue to engage those individuals for the duration of the initiative.
This is fundamental for aligning the final product or service with the business team’s goal. For example, developers often think they fully understand the scope of work, but IT can never grasp everything in its entirety; there’s always something that the stakeholders must explain in more detail. So having the business team involved from the start speeds up the process and optimizes results.
After laying down the foundation of the strategy, it’s time to create a customer-centric IT culture. This means shifting the IT team’s mindset from one that focuses purely on technology to one that focuses on providing world-class customer service. To flip the script on job expectations, CIOs should explain the benefit of the customer-first approach and why it’s critical for the success of the organization. Also point out how each team member is a key cog in that wheel – how consistency from one person to the next is paramount for achieving the larger goal. Of course, a new culture doesn’t manifest overnight. However, with proper planning and precise communication, you can begin to transform how IT workers view the rationale of their jobs.
Modernizing the culture isn’t enough. Depending on the context, some organizations may also need to upgrade the tech stack to ensure that experiences not only meet customer demands, but that they also keep pace with ever-changing 21st century market requirements. For some, this means bundling tech modernization work with other initiatives to guarantee the shedding of legacy systems that may hinder innovation and delivery capabilities. A modernized tech stack can translate into the ability to deploy new features quickly, often within minutes, allowing you to be more responsive to customer preferences and changing business requirements.
Any customer-first strategy wouldn’t be complete without increasing the urgency to fully unleash artificial intelligence. Specifically, CIOs should accelerating adoption of all variations of AI including chatbots. Customers now expect to see AI chatbots in their shopping and customer support journeys. A poor version of this tool, or lack of one altogether, can negatively affect revenue, erode brand perception, and in the long run clog the path to company expansion.
The focus should always be on the customer. And with the right strategy, it’s easier than ever to do so.
