In the previous article, where I discuss the Customer Experience (CX) dimension, it became clear that the target audience must be at the center of an omnichannel strategy. However, we cannot forget other internal aspects that make things work properly.
Because employees, organizational structure, and culture play a fundamental role in executing this strategy, and this should be reflected in the continuous pursuit of improving employee experience and embracing collaboration instead of siloed work.
Likewise, it's about recognizing staff attitude as an important factor for an impeccable customer experience. What does that mean? It means it's important to understand, in each organization, what the role of people is in the customer experience.
Similar to what I mentioned in a previous article, not all products, services, or experiences are equally \"binding\" in terms of CX. Some brands have greater relevance in people's lives, and it's undeniable that there are organizations where customer-facing personnel are a fundamental pillar of CX.
So, if you apply our Omnichannel CX Management Maturity Model to evaluate your company, you will find the People and Culture dimension, which includes the following criteria:
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Organizational structure: We have the appropriate organizational structure to execute the omnichannel CX strategy.
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Collaboration instead of silos: Our organizational model avoids working in silos and fosters cross-functional collaboration within our team.
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Channel leader review: We are continuously reviewing channel leaders to expand reach and include new touchpoints if necessary.
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Role of design: In our organization, we are embracing design as a problem-solving discipline.
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Employee experience: In our organization, we continuously seek to improve the employee experience.
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Staff attitude: Our staff's attitude is an important factor for an impeccable customer experience.
Before delving into each criterion in more detail, I want to open a debate, and for that, I leave you with the following question:
How utopian is it to abandon siloed work? Especially in large organizations where different contact channels emerged over time in a rather inorganic way.
In fact, the very concept of omnichannel makes sense especially for companies that started analog and/or added channels and touchpoints over time. Transitioning to omnichannel is, at least in theory, more complex for these companies than for those that were born digital (I'm thinking of companies like Netflix or Facebook).
To give an example, in the digital world - which I know best from my corporate work history and also from my role as a consultant - it is quite common to have digital channel teams; that is, someone in charge of the website, someone in charge of the mobile app, someone in charge of new developments, etc.
I'm not here to propose a horizontal structure that solves all problems; in truth, I don't know what the solution is, or if there is only one solution, or if it's a systemic and complex issue.
From the early stages of my doctoral research, when I started interviewing professionals in key CX roles, siloed work was a recurring theme (you can delve deeper into this in a paper we published in early 2022 in English).
Indeed, among all the dimensions of our maturity model, the people and culture dimension is the least studied, at least academically. In fact, some time ago I found the work of an Italian doctoral student who is precisely researching the organizational topic.
If you look at her research questions, you will realize their relevance:
- What new roles or coordination mechanisms should be developed to apply an omnichannel strategy?
- What kind of skills and competencies should be acquired to adopt omnichannel?
- What changes in performance management systems does the adoption of omnichannel imply?
Shortly after, I repeated the search, and indeed, her project is still among the top Google results. Quickly, I could say that the organizational topic within the omnichannel strategy is relatively new (note, my search has not been systematic, and I will explain what that means in another article).
What is happening in your organization? I would like to read your comments.
If you have invested time in reading my article, it means you are interested in learning more about omnichannel customer experience management. Therefore, I invite you to follow me on LinkedIn.
The original version of this article was published on LinkedIn for the Omnicanalidad newsletter in Spanish.
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