My dream and purpose in life has been and still is to ensure we build more human centric organisations. That means organisations that focus on three pillars: customers, employees and purpose. And in that specific order.
Why that order?
To prevent a fluffy 10 year culture program without any business impact.
With this order the following happens.
Our unique driver analysis technique finds what matters most to customers.
244 out of 246 times, the human aspect was the number one driver (the other two times, it was the number two driver).
Meaning, the fastest way to reduce costs or enhance revenue through customer experience, is to design a more human experience.
Think of giving a sense of more personal attention.
Being there for customers when they need you.
Treat them with respect.
Give the feeling you value them.
This human driver is a direct driver for Employee Experience.
Most employees feel a sense of relief and almost “I told you so”, when we show these results.
Because often, this is the reason why they chose to work for this organisation in the first place.
To help others.
To make a difference to customers.
The drivers of customers are therefore a super tangible, measurable, business impactful way to enhance the sense of meaningful work for employees.
They feel they are making more impact in their daily work.
For customers or colleagues.
More meaningful work is an easier bridge to the deeper layer of purpose.
Now you can start combining making an impact as an organization on customers to the purpose of the organization and the more personal layer of purpose of the employees.
OK, how is this bit of context related to AI?
Many CIO/CTO/CDO’s really appreciate our driver analysis technique.
Why?
Because most tech initiatives are focused on fixing frictions.
Make it easy.
Make it fast.
Make it accessible.
Fixing frictions is not the same as enhancing differentiators.
Frictions tend to focus on the transactional side: speed, ease of doing things, network, etc.
Relevant of course, because for example if my network as a telco is very bad, customers will leave.
But if your network is amazing, customers will not rate you an 8, 9 or 10.
Network as such is a basic need, a hygiene factor.
For this 8+ experience, you need to design for the human experience.
These tech c-level leaders know that the human aspect is crucial, but they lack a tangible guide to translate this human aspect.
That’s where the drivers come in.
Because this human experience has a two-fold link with technology and AI.
The first link is to enhance these emotional, human drivers.
These are your design principles.
It doesn’t always mean that a HUMAN needs to deliver it.
It means that you need to think how your app, your website, your MyAccount can give a sense of personal attention, being there for me when I need you etc.
Sometimes that’s also the wording used.
Or that I can easily reach out to you via chat in the app, with either truly amazing AI that can personalize my answer or when needed can connect me to a person.
The second link is to create more time for employees.
There is still SO MUCH time wasted by employees on non value adding tasks.
Think of those nurses who spend over 50% of their time away from patients to do admin.
Think of those teachers who spend over 50% of their time away from students to do admin.
Think of those recruiters who still need to admin vacancies instead of talking to candidates to really understand their needs and find the best match.
Think of those government agencies that can not spend enough time with customers who have a very complex situation because the employees are spending a lot of time on formal procedures and admin.
For this part, I still think 75% of the win is in workflow automation, not necessarily AI.
But still, technology in general, still needs to do a lot more heavy lifting of repetitive tasks that are not inspiring for employees and don’t add a lot of value to customers and thus the business.
If that would work, how much valuable time would we unlock for people to spend with each other.
That to me is where the biggest potential still lies for technology in the coming years.
Not the sexy AI pilots, but the unsexy removal of repetitive, admin tasks so people can thrive and add value to each other.
End of rant 💪😇 sparring, then for me this has been one the most valuable applications of AI so far.
This blog is part of a new blog series by dr. Zanna van der Aa
AI and CX: Demystifying the Hype
