Growth is the mantra of businesses across many sectors. And growth is fuelled by showcasing great customer experiences – CX. So is great CX the primary goal of your CRM planning? Or is there something else you need to think about first?
Spoiler: employee experience trumps customer experience – as outlined in the 9-point plan below. But first here’s the background. Last year the ManpowerGroup survey covered 39,000 employers. The survey showed that 77% of companies across 41 countries have a problem finding the talent they need for their businesses. In the UK the figure is 80%. Source: hgo.manpowergroup.com/hubfs/MPG_TS_2023_Infographic
The survey also shows that 71% of employers are upskilling and reskilling their current workforce and that 57% are offering more flexibility about when and where staff work. In other words, recruitment of talent is extremely difficult, so treat the people you already have very well. Improve employee satisfaction. Improve the employee experience of working with you and retain talent. Reduce employee churn. Reduce the need for recruitment and the heavy costs it brings.
If we extend this to the work of CRM and process automation, state-of-the-art platforms in this space have the ability to reduce repetitive tasks, deliver insights to support decision taking, inform next best actions, and genuinely make life easier. The argument follows that staff that are empowered in this way, and that have much of the ‘tedious’ taken out of their daily tasks, will improve the level of customer experience that they deliver from the organisation – happy motivated people generate better customer engagement. And this scenario is enhanced through the introduction of predictive AI and generative AI into daily workflows. In other words, the evolution of technology (and AI for business) has the potential to increase the employee experience.
And at this point, it’s worth pointing out that generative AI (GenAI) is not just tech looking for someplace to go. In 2023, a Pentagon task force found 160 use cases for improvements using GenAI. Source: National Defense Magazine.
A further point to consider about technology in this progression is that empowered employees – supported by employer focus on employee experience improvements – will evolve better ways of doing things. Better approaches to customer engagement. Improvements in the customer experience. And, in turn, these improvements may require changes to processes and automated workflows. If this is so, then you must be able to make rapid changes to your CRM world and other tech-based systems to capitalise on the evolution of ideas – better ways of doing things. And this means No-Code tech. You cannot hamstring your organisation with long delays as people wait for IT developments to deliver on these great employee initiatives. No-Code technology puts the power to make changes in the hands of the non-tech people at the sharp end of the business. All you need is the No-Code tools – and good governance to remain compliant with regs and quality standards and to protect all parties.
So now you have the answer to the question: employee experience (EX) is the start point for CRM and workflow automation planning, trumping a focus on customer experience (CX) every time.
- Start with great No-Code platforms for CRM and workflow automation.
- Identify areas that diminish the employee experience. Repetition, uncertainty, delay.
- Automate these areas of your organisation with workflow and AI. Take the pain away.
- Empower your employees with insights and predictions. Make life richer. More fulfilling.
- Encourage change. Support a critical thinking culture that looks for improvements.
- Encourage improvements in customer engagement and customer service.
- Support these initiatives with rapid changes using your No-Code tools.
- Watch customer satisfaction grow as the customer experience improves.
- And watch your business grow. Because you started in the right place. A solid foundation.
With over 20 years in the field of CRM and process automation, the team at Collier Pickard supports the view that EX is the right starting point for CRM planning and CX initiatives.
Educate | Empower | Evolve
Get in touch if you would like to see how this approach could work for you.
