Digitalized operations make happier employees

When considering to digitalize operations, companies tend to merely consider the benefits from a customer satisfaction or a (cost) efficiency perspective. Next to these irrefutable upsides, another less expected perspective is a key driver to initiate the process towards digital operations, be it in the domain of Supply Change, Finance & Operations or CRM and the like: employee satisfaction and employee engagement.

The customer benefits of digitalized operations are up for grabs: speed of service delivery, supplier’s response time or the quality of the preferably custom-designed product.

It does not take too much effort to guide C-level decision makers over the bridge toward digitalized operations. Especially when next to these outcomes, also the efficiency and TCO of the operations and products or services delivered are significantly improved by shifting to a digitalized process enabled by new technology.

"Digitalize for your employees' sake"

 To complete the benefits horizon of digitalizing operations and introducing new applications one should however never overlook what's in this for the workforce.

It is largely acknowledged that mastery and autonomy are among the key elements of job satisfaction and employee engagement. Let this be an asset of a well-designed & rightfully implemented digitization.

In search for some evidence? Hereby three examples from an ongoing CRM project in the utility business, where the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics Customer Engagement (CE) is a key lever to increase the pleasure on the job and thereby the engagement of Contact Center & Back Office employees:  

360°view on the customer in a glance: when being called or mailed by a client, Microsoft Dynamics CE provides a real-time full view on the history & the actual situation of this client; the operator is instantly provided with the relevant customer data (contacts, contracts, requests ...) to provide individualized service, being acquainted with the context of the customer
CRM as communication hub for all customer contact channels: E-mail, phone, a form on the website or social media, the Contact Centre operator (or back-office agent) works with one single Microsoft Dynamics CE hub to handle customer contacts; no more need to shift between three or four applications with different interfaces. All channels are grouped and managed from within a single app, Microsoft Dynamics CE; and the customer's timeline groups all previous communications in a single view - up to the results of the customer satisfaction enquiries (equally managed from Microsoft Dynamics CE)
Knowledge bank: Microsoft Dynamics CE provides a user-friendly solution to instantly provide the required information (on processes, products, services and more) for the operator to be able to respond correctly & swiftly to the information needs of the customer. First time right assured!

So when considering to digitalize and innovate ways of working for the sake of customers and cost (aka: efficiency), one should not hesitate to also bring the workforce into the equation. With their engagement your employees will reward you for the pleasure and the satisfaction triggered by the mastery & autonomy provided by new technology.  

Looking for guidance & a sparring partner on how to launch such a digitalization?

For the benefit of your company, your customers ànd your employees?

Reach out to us!

Best regards, Raf, Senior Project Manager, Mentor and Men