It was very frustrating for the Chief Operating officer to continually receive reports that most of the company’s sales had errors. Either the customer data was wrong, the services offered to the customer was below standard or pricing some items incorrectly. The customers were also getting frustrated and losing confidence in the company. Something had to be done with immediate effect to stop this. Attempts by the COO to apply technological-based solutions to reduce these errors failed terribly as a result of inconsistence processes by the business. The business opted to prioritize the IT infrastructure more than the sales processes as well as the whole company at large.
It is difficult to work in a culture that is built on challenges as this will affect the productivity and the general profits of the business, and the COOs have to deal with this every day. However, to deal with this effectively, it is very important for them to involve the right stakeholders and again to do away with the politics and concentrate more on what is more valuable in the business. A clear view of the customer operations and integrated customer operations approach is the key to address this challenge effectively and requires well representation. Better involvement with all the departments may it be, sales, operations, legal, marketing, finance or the internal audits help the business to make the right decisions.
Focusing on the right issues comes hand in hand with involving the right stakeholders. Focusing directly on the customer’s experiences by the use of personas and scenarios is very important. The persona focuses on what both internal and external customers care about the most and what issues the organization needs to resolve. The scenario on the other hand, creates an understanding of what needs to be done to optimize a smooth process or transaction. Businesses have a lot of requirements to meet the needs and want of the customers; some may be very expensive while others may take too long and are unnecessary. The organization, therefore, has to determine which of the requirements they need to prioritize based on what impact they have on the business. This approach will help the business succeed and bring notable transformations.
A change in the management component is also a great approach to an integrated customer operation. Gathering the right stakeholders and soliciting their input into the organization. Involving them early and frequently means improving efforts moves forward. The use of these approaches enables the COO to bring about lasting changes in the organization. This transformation is scenario-based, value-driven and technology-based.
It is noted that after the change, the sales order processes change the relationship between the organization and its customers fundamentally increasing the sales in return. It also gives the organization the basics needed to create a definite culture with transformation programs feasible. The involved stakeholders also get a feeling that they are a part of the outcome. The organization can, therefore, design and optimize all operations thus reducing costs and increasing productivity. Giving enough and equal attention to all the departments in the organization that drives value that is positively effective for the whole business.
