Why do so many companies have such difficulty utilizing business technologies to their full potential—even technology-focused companies? The answer is relatively simple: these companies are neglecting to consider the single most important factor of digital transformation: the user experience. More specifically, they are neglecting the employee user experience.
In this article, I’ll discuss how companies can actually achieve significantly more success by placing a greater emphasis on the employee user experience.
Solid Employee User Experiences Foster Organizational Cohesion
One of the main issues that companies face with technology is succumbing to application sprawl—a phenomenon whereby the number of applications in use continually grows. Although it might not seem so at first, this is, in fact, a user-experience problem.
When companies choose to use software that has a confusing user interface or fails to provide proper onboarding support, the user experience inevitably suffers. As a result, employees feel that they must seek out more user-friendly alternatives to fulfill their duties adequately. Before long, this situation can devolve to a point where there are multiple applications in use for the same purpose across the company. This breeds confusion and inefficiency within the organization and is detrimental to the business’s overall performance.
This kind of issue is a common occurrence for companies that use complex enterprise software such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. CRM systems are platforms that store and manage all customer data. Their purpose is to serve as a single point of reference for employees across product, marketing, and sales teams. However, if employees begin to use different means of keeping track of customer data, sales teams inevitably end up working off outdated information at some point. This can greatly harm the customer experience, cause the company to lose sales, and result in considerable revenue leakage as customers opt to take their business elsewhere.
However, businesses can alleviate such issues effectively by placing a much greater emphasis on the employee user experience. By carefully selecting accessible, easy-to-use software and facilitating digital transformation through proper onboarding support, companies can make complex tools such as CRM systems work for them optimally. Choosing the best applications available and providing adequate training in their use ensures that all employees are proficient in these tools and puts everyone on the same page, which fosters cohesion, improves alignment, and boosts employee productivity.