Previously in this blog series, we explained why in-depth customer interviews and observational research are great for understanding and building empathy with any type of customer, from purchasers and partners to, employees and other end-users. In this blog, we\u2019ll focus on how customer understanding techniques native to the customer experience can also dramatically improve the effectiveness of your organization\u2019s processes, specifically in the front office.<\/p>\n
The front office is important to consider because it\u2019s closest to the customer, which means it\u2019s closest to revenue. It\u2019s a vital part of how your customers experience your brand and create their perceptions of what to expect when conducting business with you. Research<\/a> closes the gap between their expectation and your execution, and it helps you avoid problems that could negatively affect your brand.<\/strong> As a result, smoother front-office processes can dramatically affect your company\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n Regardless of the rationale for creating or reengineering a process, whether front office or elsewhere in your business, customer interviews and observational research will better inform the decisions you will make and the processes you will create.<\/p>\n Process designers and engineers use customer interviews in multiple ways. First, in a more traditional sense, stakeholder interviews help designers better understand leaders\u2019 and employees\u2019 needs. They illuminate what works, what doesn\u2019t work, work arounds stakeholders use, what would be nice to have and what the organization should avoid.<\/p>\n In this way, customer interviews help build a current-state understanding that illuminates pain points with your current processes. People most often use these to determine a desired future state, identify ways to future-proof their organization or both. When administered correctly, interviews with customers validate your designs, decisions or even hypotheses before you harden processes too much.<\/p>\n All of these positive results of customer interviews are especially important for front-office processes. Because the front office directly affects revenue, using customer understanding techniques to build smooth front-office processes helps prevent inadvertently creating a revenue shutoff, which can have short- and long-term consequences.<\/strong><\/p>\n For example, if your organization undertakes a digital transformation<\/a> and you\u2019re planning to replace old tech with new tech, interviews with customers help ensure the changes don\u2019t create frictions. This is critical, because with new tech comes new ways of using it for front-office teams. Replacing a legacy CRM with a new tool like Salesforce<\/a>, for instance, requires users to learn new ways of working you may not have anticipated. In-depth customer interviews<\/a> reduce those risks.<\/p>\n The key to executing customer interviews to achieve these results, however, is creating an interview guide and walking each customer through the new or expected process to ensure alignment with their expectations. To accomplish this, you may need some type of stimulus to illustrate how the new experience will differ from today. This allows you to collect direct feedback about the moments that matter to them.<\/p>\n Creating the stimulus \u2014 whether it\u2019s sketches on paper, screen designs or a working model \u2014 requires a process designer or engineer, or a supplemental resource or team. Even a stimulus on paper will increase the velocity of your research by focusing on the future state experience rather than the current state.<\/p>\n These practices ensure that your actual end user or customer has a voice in the design process, creating more profitable opportunities across the board, including:<\/strong><\/p>\nIn-Depth Customer Interviews and Process Design<\/h2>\n
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Observational Research and Process Design<\/h2>\n