Forrester Research published a list of key trends that will influence business processes in 2011 and beyond. One of these deserves more attention.
Business processes will focus on the customer
Keeping your customer happy [or just keeping your customer] should be the highest priority. If you want to increase revenues, make it easy for your customers to do business with you.
When discussing process improvements, my friend Terry Schurter always talks about the 'hand-off's' and the 'customer touch points'.
Hand-offs
When looking for ways to improve your processes, this is a good place to start. As you might imagine, the hand-off can be troublesome. When an activity is completed within a process, how is that acknowledged and how is the next activity started? If the worker needed information to perform their activities, where was it? How did they get it? If they generated documentation, where did they store it? How does it get to the next person that needs it?
Customer Touch Points
A customer touch point is where the processes within your company interact with your customer. Make your processes that interact with your customer efficient and customer friendly. Ultimately, you want your customers to be so ecstatic about doing business with your company that they will even refer their friends to you.
Making it easy to do business with your company can't wait. While the economy is struggling to get back on track, now would be a good time to 'just do it'.
Your Thoughts...
What is holding up your BPM project?
Leave a comment