Delivering total experience for long-term success

Geopolitical unrest, soaring energy prices, inflation, impending recession, and climate change are all compounding an air of uncertainty. This cascade of calamities has given rise to a new term: ‘polycrisis’.

People are in a state of cognitive overload as they try to ride wave after wave of crisis. This stress on mental capacity places increased pressure on organisations to create a more positive total experience for customers and employees alike.

Businesses must reconsider how they prioritise experience and adopt a systematic approach.

Experience is everything

Companies such as Uber, Amazon, and Airbnb have seen success in their respective industries by making their existing services better. Today’s economy demands that every interaction for both customers and employees generates a great experience.

“It’s all about people,” says Jordi Ferrer, vice president and general manager of ServiceNow UK and Ireland. “Every organisation says they’re the most important asset. Give them the tools and environment to be at their best and perform their best work.”

The first step in delivering total experience is acknowledging that providing a great experience for your customers directly relates to a great experience for your employees.

This is something ServiceNow customers are realising. Joanna Rowland, director general of transformation at HM Revenue & Customs, the UK Government’s tax, payments, and customs authority, explains:

“Behind the tax system are humans trying to manage their own lives, whether that’s running a business, earning an income, or raising a child. If we don’t think of those people as customers, how will we ever put ourselves in their shoes? We need to help them interact with the tax system and help them to understand how to pay and when in a way that is relatively painless. In our business, every employee is a taxpayer too, so there’s a lot of crossovers.”

Simplification and connection

The next step is to consider how you can implement the right platform to enhance experiences for both employees and customers. To understand what this platform should look like, you have to approach it from both a people and technology perspective.

For the latter, let’s put it into context: When a customer changes their mind or makes a request, a lot of processes on the back end occur, potentially spanning multiple departments. The aim is to make the complexity of these processes invisible for customers on the front end. The same principle can be applied to your employees on the back end.

It’s just as important that you provide employees with a simple, seamless experience when handling customer requests. This is where the people perspective comes into play: understanding employee needs as well as customer needs.

That’s the approach Lanarkshire Council in Scotland takes. “We needed to take into account the diversity of our workforce and how to tailor it to them,” explains Jennifer Hardy, HR operations and workforce manager at Lanarkshire Council.

“Occupations such as teachers, binmen, and roadworkers make up about 80% of our staff. They don’t have the same level of digital skills as those in HR or finance, so we need to ensure the technology is easy for them to interact with,” she says.

Simplicity is key. Organisations need a digital platform that shows the journey of a request or escalation by optimising processes and eliminating silos. The aim is to create a golden thread that runs across the enterprise and provides a singular, seamless experience for every interaction.

Harnessing the total experience

By focusing on total experience and taking a comprehensive approach, you’ll be able to change the entire perception of your business. It’s an overarching strategy to weather the polycrisis and emerge better equipped to navigate the challenges that lie ahead in the age of experience.

Find out more about how ServiceNow can help you deliver total experience.

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