G&S Consulting is providing HR solutions in Bangalore, India. It offers HR Services like Talent Acquisition, Strategic HR & IT services, before we look into a case-study on how customer experience can impact in this Digital Age.
In 2009, singer-songwriter Dave Carroll was travelling on a United Airlines flight from Halifax to Omaha.
As he was preparing to deplane, he overheard another passenger exclaim, “My God! They’re throwing guitars out there”! When Dave and his band members looked out onto the tarmac where the luggage was being unloaded, they recognized the guitars.
As expected, Dave soon discovered that his $3,500 guitar had been severely damaged. For the next 9 months, Dave tried to get a claim processed with United Airlines. He tried phone calls, e-mails, and even suggested that they give him $1,200 worth of flight vouchers instead of money. The response from United Airlines to all his requests and suggestions was “No”. They claimed that because he had waited longer than 24 hours to process the claim, there was nothing they could do.
Frustrated by this terrible customer experience, Dave used the only tool he had at his disposal to highlight his issue. He wrote a song about his experience titled “United Breaks Guitars”, accompanied by a video, and posted it on YouTube. The video instantly went viral and eventually received millions of views. In the aftermath of this event, United Airlines shares dropped by 10% in 3 weeks resulting in an estimated loss of $180 million.
In the Digital Age, providing a good customer experience is of paramount importance to businesses. Customers now have access to a variety of platforms to express their approval or disapproval of experiences that they have while interacting with a product, service, or specific department of an organization.
This includes the HR department of organizations. As the example of Dave Carroll and United Airlines proves, a poor customer experience (CX) strategy can very quickly change how a brand is perceived by its customers. In order to create an effective CX strategy for HR, leaders must first understand how technology has changed the customer experience landscape, and what is expected of them.
Proactive strategies: Given the increasing job opportunities due to the rise of new technologies, the job market is becoming more candidate-centric. Organizations must leverage the right set of tools and experts to foresee the needs and expectations of high-quality candidates and create effective strategies to engage and attract them. Similarly, the growing importance of culture in attracting high-quality candidates has forced organizations to implement proactive strategies to ensure their People are satisfied at the workplace.
Need for quicker turnaround times: In a world of “always on” digital consumers, businesses need to deliver an “always connected” experience to. Candidates, employees and clients expect their queries to be resolved, or at the least acknowledged, quicker than ever before. This means having a HR strategy where resources are well-trained and equipped to deal with the demands of stakeholders.
Consistent customer experience: Candidates and clients often interact with an organization multiple times through different Individuals and channels. HR strategies must ensure excellent processes and integration between the tools and functions within their organization. When stakeholders have a consistently good experience throughout their various interactions with an organization, they are more likely to have a positive outlook towards the organization.
An understanding of the impact of technology on customer experience in HR makes it clear that an effective CX strategy is no longer just about resolving candidate and client issues as and when they arise. Organizations must have customer experience at the core of all their endeavours. For this, the CX strategy must take into account the different types of interactions that a candidate, client or employee might have with a business and ensure that they optimize it to deliver a good experience.
Job Search: In the digital age, a career website or job posting is often the first form of interaction that a candidate has with an organization. After discovering a company, candidates are most likely to seek more information about job openings from the careers page on a company website. Organizations must ensure that the content on their site is relevant, optimized for viewing on various devices, and written in language that the candidate would relate to. Candidates that use the website of a business must be delivered a seamless experience. This means implementing intuitive design practices.
Embracing automation: With the abundance of tools that are now available, the HR departments must seek to automate processes that would otherwise require a high investment of time, people or financial resources. Automation, when used effectively, can drastically improve a customer experience.
Using technology to improve in-person customer experiences: While automation is a great strategy to address certain issues, the core to the success of HR will always be in having meaningful human interactions. Organizations must leverage technology to improve the quality of these human interactions. This requires that a CX strategy incorporate the use of analytics tools and promotes integration between tools and training programs. Employees that are well-trained to address the issues of the modern business environment provide a better customer experience.
In the digital age, customer experience in HR extends far beyond an interview or interaction with a member of the HR Team; it encompasses a customer’s experience, every time she or he comes into contact with an organization. It is the sum-total of an organization’s interactions with its stakeholders – a far-reaching, overarching experience that defines a stakeholder’s perception and opinion of the organization. Any business that wants to avoid having a song written about its poor customer experience strategy must seek to invest in long-term strategies that keep its stakeholders happy.
No 106, 4th Floor, Kodandarama Complex,
Gandhi Bazaar Main Road, Basavanagudi,
Bengaluru – 560004,
Karnataka, India.
CIN: U74140KA2009PTC048865
GSTIN: 29AADCG3547Q1ZY
Email: reachus@gsconsulting.in
Phone: +91-8026677804