scenario modeling digital twin simulation total experience

Are you the total package? Driving a better total experience for your customers and employees

Peter McInally Sep 20, 2022 2:45:43 PM

Picture the scene: you've snagged a coveted reservation at the buzzy new restaurant in town. The ambiance is great, with soft jazz playing in the background. You've heard the food is fantastic, and the smells wafting from neighboring tables promise a wonderful meal ahead. After an overly long wait for your server, they finally appear at your table, sullen, rude, and clearly not happy to be at work. While your food is delicious, and the service is prompt enough, the server's attitude sours the entire meal and ruins your evening. Sound familiar? Most of us have been there at some point in our lives.

Lots of things could have been happening for that server. Perhaps a terrible boss. Maybe an overly demanding work environment. What we do know is that customer experience and employee experience aren't separate things; they're intertwined. A company just focused on their customers but ignoring their employees' experience is unlikely to win top marks for customer satisfaction. As this Forbes piece points out, "Employees matter as much to your customers as to your business. While it's good to have a "customer is king" mindset, it's just as important to remember the other people whose happiness is vital to your organization's success. If happy employees make happy customers, you can be sure that unhappy employees make unhappy customers."

And these days, in particular, employees seem restless at best and often unhappy. There's been a lot written in the last couple of years about The Great Resignation. But what about the employees who don't quit but are still miserable? According to a recent Gallup report, "along with dissatisfaction, workers are experiencing staggering rates of both disengagement and unhappiness. Sixty percent of people reported being emotionally detached at work and 19% as being miserable. Only 33% reported feeling engaged."

Beyond their personal experience of your employees' dissatisfaction, savvy customers have become more concerned about company values and your treatment of employees. There are many examples of serious brand reputational harm caused by the perception of bad labor practices. This issue came to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic when the disparity of experiences between white-collar workers who could work from home safely during lockdown with blue-collar frontline workers became something that the average switched-on customer couldn't ignore. According to this academic study, "consumers perceive q-commerce grocery retailers that provide good working conditions as more trustworthy, reputable, honest, having a long-lasting nature and strong values even if their prices are higher than the prices of similar retailers."

The days of the average consumer's "let them eat cake" attitude are over. It's no longer enough to provide a great customer experience (CX) at the expense of your workforce's employee experience (EX). Gartner states, "By 2024, organizations providing a total experience (TX) will outperform competitors by 25% in satisfaction metrics for both CX and EX." And in this internet and social media age, when every employee has a megaphone if they want it, companies can't just pay lip service to their employee experience. There's an increased demand for transparency from consumers and regulators around all aspects of a brand and an increased risk of brand reputational damage without such transparency (or when bad business practices come to light). Customers want to know how and where materials are sourced, that labor practices are fair and legal, and that processes are environmentally sustainable and socially just.

The benefits of such transparency are multi-fold, "More than one study even emphasizes that company transparency was the number-one factor in determining workplace happiness. And when employees feel happier to work, they're up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees. For salespeople, happiness has an even greater impact, raising sales by 37%."

But with the best will in the world, it's hard to be transparent if you don't know what's going on within your organization and its processes. As well as your customer and employee experience, what’s your supplier experience? As we discussed in a recent blog, “Becoming your suppliers’ customer of choice should have the same priority as becoming your customers’ supplier of choice.” From customer journey to supply chain to employee onboarding process, and throughout your organization, BusinessOptix can provide business process transparency enabling accurate auditing and reporting. It also enables an organization to identify opportunities for process improvement that can drive a more efficient, effective, and satisfying customer, employee, supplier experience.

Nothing can lose customer and employee loyalty faster than a poorly implemented change. Or one with an unintended negative consequence. After modeling processes, BusinessOptix Scenario Modeling & Process Simulation improves your ability to move quickly and reduce risk by creating, testing, and learning about potential changes before roll-out to your customers and employees. But a static, one-time snapshot of your organization has limited value. Creating a real-time, dynamic digital twin of your organization (DTO) enables you to ensure continuous improvement throughout your entire customer and employee journey. In fact, through every aspect of your organization.

Taking the appropriate steps to understand, monitor, and continuously optimize your customer, employee, and supplier experience is an opportunity to reap the full benefits of transformation. It's an opportunity to build brand loyalty from a 360-degree perspective and drive positive business outcomes, even in the most challenging times. Bon Appetite!