Temkin Group recently released new research, “Introducing Employee-Engaging Transformation,” which identifies what it takes for large organizations to improve customer experience (CX) by driving and sustaining change.
Organizations have ambitious goals for improving their CX. But CX change isn’t easy; it requires significant transformation across almost every aspect of operations. Temkin Group’s research uncovered a core insight: CX transformation must be focused on changing the way employees do their every-day jobs.
Based on this finding, Temkin Group has developed an approach to CX change that it calls Employee-Engaging Transformation (EET), which it defines as, “Aligning employee attitudes and behaviors with the organization’s desire to change.”
“Employee-Engaging Transformation represents a significant shift in how organizations approach change today–from putting a focus on processes and rules to instead concentrating on aligning the actions and behaviors of their people to the organization’s desire to change; from ‘what’s changing’ to ‘why change is important,’” said Aimee Lucas, vice president, Temkin Group, in a statement.
EET represents a significant shift from how most organizations currently approach their change initiatives. To succeed with EET, organizations must master five practices:
- Vision Translation: Connect Employees with the Vision: The organization clearly defines and conveys not only what the future state is, but why moving away from the current state is imperative for the organization, its employees, and its customers.
- Persistent Leadership: Attack Ongoing Obstacles: Leaders realize that change is a long-term journey and commit to working together until the organization has fully embedded the transformation into its systems and processes.
- Activated Middle Management: Enlist Key Influencers: Middle managers are invested in the transformation and understand their unique role in supporting their employees’ change journeys.
- Grassroots Mobilization: Empower Employees to Change: Frontline employees operate in an environment where they help to shape and are enabled to deliver the change.
- Captivating Communications: Share Impactful, Informative Messages. The organization shares information about the change through a variety of means that balance both the practical and the inspirational elements for each target audience.
“Any company that has ambitions to dramatically improve its customer experience should read, and master, Employee-Engaging Transformation,” said Bruce Temkin, managing partner, Temkin Group, in a statement.