When businesses develop their own processes, their primary aim is to smooth out operations to become as efficient and cost-effective as possible. Sometimes, in striving for progress, they forget a critical factor in any business’s success: what’s most important to their customers.
Customers want easy processes that move them through the buying experience efficiently and predictably, with as few bottlenecks as possible.
With care and attention, it’s possible to build internal business processes that also improve the customer experience, leading to greater satisfaction, more repeat business, and better long-term prospects.
Here, we’ll talk about some of the ways businesses can make internal processes more efficient while putting ample value on customer experience.
Business Process and its Effect on Customer Experience and Outcome
Internal efficiency is a good thing, and often the same steps that work to improve a business’s workflow will also lead to a better customer experience—but not always.
Consider some of the decisions a team could make to streamline their workflows, and how they may impact the customer’s journey—like if a team decided it made the most sense to batch customer onboarding so that they could service a number of customers at the same time. Makes sense internally, maybe, but for customers? Hard no. They want to be onboarded efficiently so they can get right to the benefits of the new product they’ve purchased. Being sidelined would definitely decrease their satisfaction.
Other decisions that don’t seem so stark can still have similar dampening effects on customers’ enthusiasm. Suppose a business created a rigid set of approval chains in an effort to improve compliance. If that process creates bottlenecks and delays, it could cause frustration for both employees and customers.
Some processes seem appropriate for internal teams in the short term, but wind up being detrimental for both business efficiency and customer satisfaction over time. Departments within a business that work independently from one another can move through their workflows quickly. But the resulting data silos mean those teams may be working with outdated information and need to repeat processes, costing time and money. Meanwhile, customers could get frustrated if they receive conflicting information every time they speak to a different department.
While it may take some effort to find processes that work for both the business and the customer simultaneously, doing so may provide the best long-term solutions.
How to Build Processes That Serve Both Business and Customers
Strategically building internal processes that work for employees, customers, and the business can reap many benefits across the company. Here are some of the best ways to create optimal workflows for everyone involved.
Simplify Approvals and Workflows
There’s a fine balance when it comes to internal approvals. Teams want to ensure all the checks and balances are in play so things follow a predictable pattern with no missed steps, but they also want the process to move quickly. The secret to finding balance in this equation may lie in automation.
Businesses can benefit from software solutions that help them set up triggers for data updates and actions, cutting out redundant steps that slow things down while avoiding missed steps in the process. These streamlined processes save time, prevent errors, and reduce frustration for both employees and customers.
Ensure Cross-Team Visibility
Too often, each business department works in its own little world, unaware of what’s happening in the rest of the organization. This isolation can lead to slowed workflows and problems going unrecognized. When sales, project management, and customer success teams all share the same information, they can avoid errors and solve problems faster, potentially saving the company money while vastly improving customer experience.
For example, the sales team could take a deep dive with a new customer, learning about all the issues the client experienced with a former product partner. By sharing that information, the sales department can help project management and customer success teams avoid any similar holdups with the new product, ensuring the customer’s satisfaction and working to improve processes for future clients.
Integrate CRM and Project Management Tools
Software solutions and applications can help a business drive progress in each of its processes. However, if those processes are kept separate and aren’t integrated in any way, they can contribute to more disjointed and complex internal workflows overall.
The result? A lot of wasted time. A recent Quickbase report found 53 percent of respondents spent 10 hours per week just tracking down information from different people and systems, and even more time is spent transferring data from one system to another.
Instead, businesses can capitalize on all the data they’re collecting to improve customer satisfaction and internal practices by connecting these systems together. The information contained in CRM solutions can help improve project management systems, while customer relationship teams can use the information in project management systems to cater better to their customers.
Use Customer Feedback to Improve Processes
The information customer success teams receive from clients is invaluable. Data from customer interactions, support tickets, and project handoffs can indicate workflow inefficiencies. This information can help businesses enhance future customer experiences and internal processes. This information can be used to educate businesses to improve their processes, leading to better outcomes in internal processes and customer experiences in the future.
The Business Impact of Customer-Centric Operations
Improved business efficiency doesn’t have to be a separate goal from better customer experience—both can get a boost when businesses strive for efficiency through shared data and more connected operations. When a company turns its efficiency-seeking eye to see things from its customers’ viewpoints, it can benefit in several ways:
- Happier, more satisfied customers: Smooth processes mean fewer frustrations and delays, which can drastically improve customer experiences.
- More efficient internal teams: Removing bottlenecks within internal processes allows individuals and teams to spend more time and energy on high-impact work rather than repeated manual inputs.
- Improved data accuracy and collaboration: When systems are connected for shared information between teams, they can all benefit from the same data, bettering performance and avoiding miscommunications.
Continuous Improvement and Adaptability
Looking at your internal processes is something that pays off over and over again. By regularly reviewing data from your CRM and project management software—and keeping a close eye on profitability—you can keep improving and fine-tuning things to get better results. Plus, customer feedback is a goldmine when it comes to figuring out how to tweak both your products and your internal processes. Staying flexible and open to change can also help you navigate challenges—whether they pop up in specific projects or in the market at large.
Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction: Complementary Goals
Efficiency is a great goal for any business, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of giving customers a top-notch experience—whether it’s through sales, onboarding, or using your product. In fact, customer feedback can actually be a game-changer when it comes to improving your processes, especially when paired with a focus on efficiency.
By streamlining workflows, improving communication between departments, and constantly checking how internal processes impact the customer experience, you can improve your customer satisfaction ratings and your business performance at the same time.
