Developers and builders: CreatorCon 2020 is coming to you!
Build. Code. Play! Join us for CreatorCon 2020—a one-day, digital experience coming October 27. As a developer or builder, you’ll have the opportunity to learn how to build apps fast, as well as get up to speed on the latest Now Platform® Paris release capabilities.Your day will begin with an engaging Opening Keynote with Pat Casey, CTO and EVP of DevOps, and Chuck Tomasi, Senior Developer Advocate, discussing how to prepare for the future of work. Next, the CreatorCon Spotlight will continue with sneak peek demos from Joe Davis, SVP of Platform Engineering, and Marcus Torres, VP of Now Platform Product Management. They will share how the Now Platform is accelerating application development with no code, low code and professional development capabilities.The rest of your day is up to you! CreatorCon 2020 will be a digital destination for all creators – whether you’re a no-code builder or an experienced developer.Workshops are available nowFeatured workshops are available for your completion now. Take the next couple of days to work on these workshops and then come to our Live Workshop Guru office hours that begin at 11:45am PT on October 27.We'll also have product managers available to take you through the new Paris features in our Ask the Experts sessions and LIKE.TG experts on hand in our Live Networking and Social sessions. This is a fabulous opportunity to talk to the gurus themselves about your future app development journey. We would love to hear your thoughts and questions!Builder trackWe are excited to educate you on how to quickly build apps on the Now Platform, without traditional software development skills. Check out our builder channel to discover how low-code capabilities can create amazing workflows.We have a great line up planned, including sessions on citizen development programs (AKA builders) from Medtronic and our own Now on Now team. These sessions focus on tips to get started and the benefits of investing in citizen developers. They will showcase app examples that have streamlined manual work processes.In addition, we have a Builder Toolbox session which will give you the building blocks to get started on your journey. We are also offering a special opportunity to Build with Chuck! Build an app from the ground up with this hands-on live session. Even if you’ve never built an app or written a line of code before, you’ll be amazed at what you can do in such a short time. Developer trackImprove and extend your LIKE.TG application development skill set in our developer channel. Rapidly build, test, and deploy applications that make work better for your organization. In one of our featured sessions, Top Paris features for developers, we will highlight some of the many Now Platform® Paris release capabilities aimed at developers. Our developer MVPs will also cover topics on Flow Design, IntegrationHub, Script debugger and more!Now that you’ve worked hard... it’s time to play hard! Join us for our Live Coding Happy Hour. Developer Advocate’s Andrew Barnes and Brad Tilton will work on developing and enhancing real applications with unscripted and unprepared examples. Learn problem solving techniques all live on the Now Platform.Once our interactive sessions conclude, you can choose where you wish to go next, depending on your interests and skill level. Our content will be available on-demand until the end of the December.CreatorCon 2020 will offer educating experiences for developers and builders of all backgrounds. Come and network with our community and get involved in the developer ecosystem. And don’t miss out learning how to build apps fast the Now Platform ®.
Developing a culture of observability
In the race to attract and retain customers, businesses must deliver great customer experiences, release reliable products fast, and scrutinize costs to achieve consistent growth.That can either be a well-oiled machine or a tangle of disjointed communications and workflows that frustrate customers, employees, and management alike. By developing a culture of observability, you can have a framework that harmonizes the experience for everyone.An example of observabilityObservability is the ability to quickly and efficiently gain insight into the health of your tech estate by gathering, correlating, and interpreting metrics, distributed traces, and log data. This data is also called telemetry.Let’s look at an example of observability in the world of healthcare. If you’re having a heart attack, first responders quickly gather metrics (blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation) and log the event, including important information such as health history and recent meals.To learn more about your heart’s health, a healthcare practitioner takes a trace of your heart with an electrocardiogram, or ECG. The ECG describes the health, timing, and physical condition of your heart.The shape of the trace corresponds to where it was conducted through the heart and where the problem most likely exists. To a healthcare practitioner, the shape conveys your heart’s health.A blood test can yield additional metrics to confirm a diagnosis and guide the care team. All of these elements are forms of observability. The same logic applies to computer code and systems. As with life-saving medical treatments, time matters when it comes to the health of your tech estate. By tracing running computer code, we can understand where problems may exist. A deep, real-time inspection of running processes can yield fast resolutions, captured by metrics such as mean time to resolve (MTTR).Ultimately, you want your customers and employees to have a positive, seamless experience. If an issue arises, you want a quick resolution and an easy way to examine the outcome so that everyone benefits.How can you develop a culture of observability?Your observability journey may begin with a few enthusiastic team members evangelizing the practice and enrolling stakeholders to adopt it. This is where proofs of concept, demos, and showcases come in. By helping key technical and organizational leaders understand why strong observability will have a positive impact on the business, you’ll more likely get buy-in and sponsorship.Fostering a culture of observability can begin anywhere. When an executive asks the product or engineering team, “How could we have caught that?” it can trigger an observability exercise to determine the services involved and how to resolve issues.If a customer contacts support with an issue, the product or support team should lead the exercise. Invite people to the conversation and create modes of accountability through health targets such as service-level objectives. Reducing incidents and improving quality should be consistently encouraged and incentivized.Why should you develop a culture of observability?It’s important to ask, “Why would we do this?” Create a list of possible reasons, addressing three key areas: customer success outcomes, forces that can lead to burnout, and anticipated high-level business outcomes. Here are some answers to consider: Improved MTTR Increased operational efficiency Proactive issue detection Improved customer experience Ability to redirect resources to innovation Business and/or revenue growth Reduced employee burnout/ turnover Increased speed to market Predictable OpEx Observability culture is a journeyObservability is a journey of continuous improvement. It starts by identifying and implementing critical workflows or services, followed by observing them over a specified time period to determine health targets (such as service-level objectives). Then, alert thresholds can be set.Your goal is not to overwhelm product or support teams with “alert noise,” but to achieve a balanced number of accurate alerts with strong health targets. By taking time to observe, you can fine-tune the thresholds.Think back to the heart attack example. Without metrics, logs, or traces, patients would face a higher mortality rate, which could lead to negative outcomes for providers. Institutional funding could be jeopardized by negative key performance indicators.If this is happening in your organization, it’s time to evolve to be able to see the overall health of your organization improve. Observability should be seen as an opportunity cost, not a sunk cost. Adopting open-standard technologies and refining your observability strategy can help your organization grow.Schedule a demo to see how you can increase operational efficiency and make your tech estate and your teams more resilient.
Developing Black and Latinx leaders at LIKE.TG
This is part one of a three-blog series about the Strive leadership program at ServiceNow.When LIKE.TG announced Strive, a leadership development program, in January, “I jumped on it because I didn't see myself represented in leadership at my previous organizations,” says Marco O., a senior technical curriculum developer for ServiceNow.Marco’s mother came to the United States from Mexico when she was 11. Raised by her and his father, Marco is the youngest and first of his family of five to graduate high school and attend college. He built a life with his husband since 1997 and found his way to LIKE.TG in 2019. Today, Marco is on the Pride at Now leadership team, LIKE.TG’s LGBTQ+ employee Belonging Group.“We know there is less access and less Black and Latinx employees at leadership levels," saysLynnetta S., director of diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIBs) at ServiceNow. Lynetta brought in the leadership program as part of a DIBs strategy focused on hiring inclusively and building greater equity in career advancement for underrepresented populations.Breaking the negative cycleBlack and Latinx populations have been systemically marginalized in a variety of ways, including through a lack of sponsorship and mentorship. When leaders look at succession planning, for example, they find people tend to go to those with whom they mesh well, have similar experiences, or have the same college in common. Black and Latinx people may not traditionally fit into those buckets.The yearlong Strive program is geared to disrupt the status quo. It creates visibility, provides networking, and teaches leadership skills, such as: Critical conversations and managing up Leading with empathy Learning through feedback in 360-degree reviews Invitations went out to members of the Black at Now and Latinx at Now Belonging Groups. Fifty senior managers and below formed three cohorts as individual contributors and people managers. A safe space for career growthEach cohort is led by an executive coach. Lynnetta intentionally selected only coaches who are Black or Latinx so that participating employees see and have access to executive coaches who look like them.April O., head of deployment, solutions enablement at LIKE.TG, was the first in her family to graduate from college. April says she was motivated to join the Strive program because many employees leave their jobs due to their manager. “I didn't want to be that person,” she says. “My goal is to pour into people, to help them see their potential, and grow.”Eric C., a single parent of three children, is a LIKE.TG solution consulting manager. He read about the program’s growth mindset and decided he wanted to develop as a leader. He joined the program with the goal of becoming “the best leader LIKE.TG has ever seen.” Eric especially likes the group sessions. “It's like group therapy,” he says.April agrees. “You feel like this is a safe space to explore and explain what's happening in our careers and not be judged for it. You're in a cohort of people who are facing similar situations. We're all there to learn and grow and lift each other up.”Managers grow tooManagers of participants in the Strive program do their own work to better understand how to incorporate DIBs into their management style—by working to eliminate bias from their performance reviews, for example. “When both the manager and employee are doing their work, I can only see amazing outcomes from that,” Lynnetta says.Carolina R., who is from Colombia, moved to the Netherlands, where she works as a senior analyst in sales operations for ServiceNow. She worked very hard to become proficient in both English and Dutch and to become a people leader across cultures.Carolina’s manager is supportive of her participation in the program because they understand that to lead people, you have to not only be good at your job, but also know how to connect with the team.“I am a person full of values. I like trying to make a stronger team while bringing culture to the new team members,” Carolina says.A positive outlookAs Lynnetta and team evaluate the effectiveness of the program, they’ll look at engagement, gather feedback on participants’ sense of belonging, and follow their careers at ServiceNow. Although participating in the program doesn’t guarantee promotion, it will help employees drive career pathways they're looking to achieve.Carolina’s approach is to build a work plan to improve. “If you don't change the situation, the situation won’t change,” she says. “We need to improve ourselves and evolve.”In the next blog in this series, employees will share what they’ve learned in the Strive program.We’re hiring. Check out careers at ServiceNow.
Digital government comes of age
Governments around the world have long understood the advantages of digitising their services. It’s fair to say, however, that most public sector agencies are just beginning their digital journeys.Public agencies face unique challenges compared to the private sector. Notably, they serve citizens rather than customers. This simple difference means greater pressure to deliver digital services within strict budgetary limits while protecting data and complying with regulations.In the age of digital government transformation, government departments also face immense pressure to deliver new solutions, improve agility, and provide governance at pace while their budgets shrink. When you throw in the huge complexity of many public sector organisations – to say nothing of challenges like navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and delivering Brexit in the UK – these challenges look quite imposing.So how should government agencies build and enhance the digital public services of the future?Put citizens and users firstStep one is to focus on two main constituencies: the citizens who consume government services, and the public sector teams that deliver them. Citizens want better experiences and outcomes. Increasingly, they also want to access government services in the same way they interact with consumer brands.The world is going mobile, and so government services like renewing a driver’s license or paying taxes should be mobile-first. Public sector employees also want better experiences and outcomes, whether that’s faster onboarding, streamlined communications or better access to shared data.From the user perspective, public sector IT clearly needs to be simpler, more streamlined and better integrated. Simplifying IT delivery – rather than relying on complicated systems that exist in isolation from each other – is key to delivering better, more efficient, more automated experiences at scale.Respond at speedTake the example of how Buckinghamshire Council – a local government authority in the UK – has used technology to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.When the UK government announced a national lockdown in early 2020, Buckinghamshire Council become the frontline in delivering new, critical services to support the most vulnerable citizens. They included delivering food parcels and medicines, helping isolated citizens living on their own in lockdown, and much more.The Council had to deal with a huge array of new data – both from central government, and from the hundreds of citizens who were asking for support. The key was ensuring that Council staff, community hubs and volunteers all had the right information to act on.A redesign of the Council’s operational approach, bringing together IT, HR and financial services onto the LIKE.TG platform, created a new automated database – with more than 90 fields of essential information that are managed and updated in real time.The end result was a simplified user experience that enabled the Council to respond at pace, ensuring thousands of vulnerable residents received the services they needed.Practical stepsThis example shows that improving digital service delivery doesn’t necessarily require high-profile, complex or flashy projects. In fact, huge benefits can come from practical, straightforward steps designed to simplify infrastructures and processes. Applying digital thinking to IT workflows can quickly highlight repetitive processes that can be streamlined and automated.It bears repeating that digital transformation poses unique challenges for the public sector. Moreover, the drive to implement digital technologies continues to evolve rapidly – moving beyond core IT services to include the adoption of AI, IoT and immersive technologies, for example.The key is taking a step back and viewing the IT challenge as a whole – rather than thinking about individual solutions to individual challenges. Have a clear roadmap and align your tech strategy with your organisational goals, not the other way around.Simplification and consolidation will deliver the service improvements that citizens and government employees deserve.
Digital inclusion in India: A journey of growth and innovation
India is slated to grow faster than all world economies between 2023 and 2027, according to a LIKE.TG-sponsored Economist Impact report. Perhaps that’s because 98% of business executives in the country see digital inclusion—the ability to access and use technology in the workplace—as a competitive advantage.LIKE.TG is one of the companies thriving in this market. In fact, we were named among India’s Best Workplaces Building a Culture of Innovation by All, by Great Place To Work.Our platform labs in India “aim to contribute to products and features that will propel the company to the next level over the next five to 10 years,” says Vinamra M., a staff software engineer who joined LIKE.TG in 2014.“This decade belongs to both India and LIKE.TG,” adds Venugopal G., a senior manager in software engineering management at LIKE.TG since 2019.
Digital transformation in government and the citizen experience
There are many moving parts when it comes to the digital transformation of government and the citizen experience, and just as many questions about how to make it happen.What lessons can the government learn from the private sector in creating high-quality digital services and experiences for citizens? What role does digital identity play in delivering these services? And what factors would enable the government to simplify its digital transformation journey?We explore the answers to these questions and more in our second episode of the Canadian Leadership Exchange, where we met with Imraan Bashir, partner of cyber and digital solutions at KPMG Canada to discuss how the Canadian government can evolve the way it delivers digital services to its citizens.Imraan breaks down how digital transformation in government should not be treated as a single project to be completed by a certain date. Rather, digital transformation is the ongoing effort of improving agility and responsiveness to ensure government is able to meet the evolving needs of citizens.When it comes to improving how the government manages digital identities and the citizen experience around them, Imraan explains that the various personal attributes and documents belonging to each Canadian need to be handled in way that is privacy respecting and convenient.The Canadian government is currently evolving the way citizens use digital identities by eliminating unnecessary barriers to the experience. In provinces like Alberta and B.C., citizens can possess a digital identity and use it to access both provincial and federal services online without having to manually provide personal information.Watch the video below to learn more about how government can successfully digitize citizen services with a practical approach to digital transformation.
Digital transformation requires upskilling and broad buy-in
Digital transformation isn’t just about rolling out new apps and services. It takes skilled employees to put these new processes and platforms into practice. Companies must ensure these people have the right skills for the job. In turn, that means securing buy-in at all levels of the organization.Buy-in at all levelsAt this year’s Knowledge conference, I had some interesting discussions with executives from the financial services sector who detailed their experiences with implementing LIKE.TG inside their organisations. These executives emphasised how important it is to get upper management buy-in when rolling out new platform initiatives. It’s equally important to obtain buy-in from stakeholders who will come into contact with new technologies on a day-to-day basis.We need management on board, but we don’t want too many managers sitting around the software development workshop when they don’t need to be there. We want to be talking to the people who actually push the buttons, especially in highly regulated environments like banking.Creating internal change agentsVery often, organisations do things in a particular way that’s how things have always been done. This mindset is especially prevalent in highly structured environments like banking.Traditionally, organizations spend a lot of time trying to change peoples’ minds and work them round to new ways of thinking. A better way is to create “champion calls” where employees are encouraged to dial in, get informed and become change agents who convince their peers to work differently.Transparency as an enablerIn financial services, we recently did a substantial implementation involving the LIKE.TG ITSM solution and our employee experience platform. Implementing these two solutions involved two different sets of stakeholders and users in the business. They were architected by two different implementation partners, so it was especially challenging to bring them online in parallel. These kinds of deployment challenges often occur, and they do certainly highlight the importance of transparency.One speaker at a Knowledge 19 session noted that the further you get into an implementation project, the more you need to involve employees who will be responsible for keeping the lights on during the normal course of operations. If you are transparent with these people, they will be more likely to support the new process when it becomes business as usual.Roadmap pipeline awarenessA key LIKE.TG banking customer is currently moving to the Now Platform Madrid Release and plans to move on to the New York release thereafter. With such a clear path to upgrade and progression, this business wants to make sure users know what functionality is on the roadmap so they don’t try to create tools and functions that are already in the planOur customers know they must continually upgrade their skillsets. That means running a program of information and knowledge exchange throughout the business.I’d like to thank all the financial services, banking and related business specialists who came together at LIKE.TG Knowledge 2019 to discuss the challenges that teams face when upskilling people to drive digital transformation. It was a pleasure to analyse and break down this compelling subject with them in Las Vegas.
Digital workflows: We’re just getting started
Digital workflows can enhance collaboration and work quality. Imagine the payoffs when companies fully embrace them.Workflow Quarterly dives deep into one topic in each issue, presenting original research and reporting in an immersive online experience. In the inaugural issue , renowned IT strategy scholar Thomas Davenport explains how digital workflows can improve the employee experience and help companies drive higher profits.Our survey of more than 6,000 employees on the business value of digital workflows and automation shows impressive results, but the future looks even more promising than the present.Roughly 8 in 10 employees from highly automated companies say automation technology simplifies work processes, enhances efficiency, and boosts productivity. They also say it improves job satisfaction, and increase both time available for creativity and opportunities for advancement.Yet most automated processes today tend to be confined to highly structured and back-office tasks, such as installing software, setting up passwords, and tracking invoices. The use of automation in collaborative tasks and knowledge work—such as decision-making, strategy, and new product development—is limited. Surveyed workers reported that only 27% of the processes they worked with were highly automated or automated. This was true regardless of company size.Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, is investing significantly into process automation. After more than 100 years in business, it has launched an enterprise-wide “Second Century Enterprise Systems” initiative that aims for total digital transformation. As Rob Muszkiewicz, senior manager of Operations Transformation in Boeing’s IT organization, explained to Davenport:“We are on a journey with LIKE.TG—some capabilities are in production—and we have also done a lot with RPA. We have already eliminated hundreds of thousands of work hours in areas like invoicing reconciliation, for example. But Second Century is first and foremost a business process transformation, including a consolidation into single systems in engineering, manufacturing, and even HR to support processes in those areas. We will be looking at the potential for automating cross-functional workflows throughout the company.”When business processes are simplified, work becomes easier.“We need to become much more efficient and remove manual toil, so that people can do higher-value work,” said Muszkiewicz.Visit Workflow Quarterly for the full interactive article.
Digitize and reinvent your career – online learning and certification now
During these unprecedented times, LIKE.TG is here for you. From our COVID-19 customer care program with apps and resources to support your crisis response to our Training and Certification program which helps you build expertise and boost your career, LIKE.TG is here to help you continue to make work, work better.Did you know that LIKE.TG offers over 250 On Demand and Virtual learning options on the Now Learning website along with opportunities to get certified in dozens of competencies? With approximately 150 On Demand courses, over 30 instructor led courses that can be taken in a virtual classroom, 11 online simulators, 3 dozen certifications and over 50 recommended paths for you to follow, there are learning opportunities for almost everyone. Read on to learn about the various online learning options and certifications available to you.CoursesExplore the LIKE.TG portfolio at your own pace with videos, live and recorded webinars, and interactive tools to help you accelerate your learning. Ouron-demand courses are offered to you completely online and free of charge. This allows you the flexibility to fit learning into your own schedule and for you to learn at your own pace from any location where you have access to the internet! Many of these On Demand courses lead to micro-certifications, allowing you to test and get recognized for your expertise.Our most popular On Demand course, LIKE.TG Fundamentals runs 13 hours in duration and is made up of instructor videos, hands-on activities, guided tours of the Now Platform, and knowledge checks to test your understanding of the content. We are excited to announce that we are extending our offer for a FREE certification voucher to register for the Certified System Administrator (CSA) exam upon completion of this course. Live ClassesThe virtual, instructor led options for our popular live classes cover our fundamentals and implementation courses and allow you to take advantage of a live instructor without the expense of travel.SimulatorsSimulators allow you to practice what you’ve learned and are a great resource that can work for individuals or teams to get real-world hands on practice with the LIKE.TG environment. Using what you have learned in associated courses you can apply your new knowledge in a simulated setting. Simulators help guide your work by providing feedback and recommendations along the way.CertificationsOnce you are LIKE.TG certified, you can gain industry recognition, competitive differentiation, greater productivity and results, increased user community satisfaction, and a tangible measure of your educational investment.Mainline CertificationsLIKE.TG offers a comprehensive certification program and all exams are available to take via a remote, proctored session. There are separate registration listings for the remote versions of each of the exams within Webassessor. To learn more about Online Proctoring click here. LIKE.TG Certification exams demonstrate mastery of LIKE.TG products and certify that a candidate has the essential skills and knowledge necessary to manage the configuration, implementation, and maintenance of the LIKE.TG Platform. Getting certified boosts your career and sets you up to contribute even more to your organization's success. Once you are LIKE.TG certified, you can gain industry recognition, competitive differentiation, greater productivity and results, increased user community satisfaction, and a tangible measure of your educational investment. Once you have a certification you are able to maintain it through Delta exams available in Now Learning. Micro-CertificationsMicro-certifications validate your expertise in newer or niche areas with online, non-‑proctored exams available free of charge on Now Learning. LIKE.TG expertise is tremendously valuable and in demand and as organizations scale and utilize LIKE.TG in more ways than ever before. Getting micro-certifications in specialized areas can help you validate and gain confidence in your unique set of skills. All courses associated with micro-certifications are available either in On Demand or Virtual Instructor Led formats and many of these courses are available to you to take free of charge on Now Learning!
Discover Customer Insights: Types, Strategies, Examples
Are you looking to improve your product offerings, start a new business, or get your failing business back on track? It would be best to equip yourself with customer insights to know where to begin.When you study your customers, you identify your target market and can get to know and understand your potential and existing customers more deeply.Customer metrics can show you what they want, what influences their purchasing decisions, their behavior, lifestyle, and more.These customer insights will help you make smart decisions, improve what your brand offers, and in the end, shape your business’s future.In this blog, we’ll talk about why understanding your customers is so important, how to do it right, and how it can lead to success for your business. What are customer insights?Customer insights are conclusions derived from a thorough analysis of consumer data. These insights help businesses enhance customer service and make decisions for business growth.Companies can get this information by looking at how people interact with the company and its website online, what they buy, their feedback, etc.Types of consumer insightsFor any business to succeed, it is important to know its customer base. This list looks at different types of customer insight that help organizations better understand their target market:Personal interest and lifestyle: This is when you find out what your customers like to do in their everyday lives. It could be their hobbies, activities, values, and preferences. Knowing this helps you customize your product or services to fit into their lives better.Demographic insight: This is when you find out the distribution of your customers across categories like age, gender, how much money they make, and where they live.Feedback and sentiment analysis: Here, you see what customers think about your brand, products, or services. This can mean overall satisfaction, things they do and don’t like, and the kind of people for whom they perceive your offerings to be intended.Sales trends and purchase history: This is a type of consumer insight where you spot any purchasing patterns that might help you predict what customers will buy next.Behavioral insights: This is an understanding of how customers use your products. Where did customers hear about you? Are carts abandoned at the same spot in the shopping process? Knowing these sorts of things will help your company improve.Where to get customer insightsFor a company to succeed, it has to be well informed about its target audience. The following methods can help you gather data for powerful customer insights.Collecting customer feedbackAsk your customers about their experience with your brand. While reviews are often submitted by customers with either exceptionally great or exceptionally awful experiences, this direct feedback can still let you understand your customers better.Online reviewsAccording to research by Luisa Zhou customer spending can rise by 31% as a result of positive ratings.Most customers will look up customer reviews online before they interact with your website or make a purchase.Read what people say about your product or service online to understand the message potential customers are getting. This also helps you understand how customers use your offerings.Analyze activity data from purchasesAnalysis of this sales data can be used to identify purchase patterns and determine what customers buy and when. This tells you what to market when and to whom.Social mediaKeep an eye on what people say on social media. This tells you what they care about and informs your response strategies in order to more carefully craft your brand image.Website dataOrganizations can use tools such as Google Analytics to monitor the activity of consumers on your app or website.Analyze data like page visits, bounce rates, and conversion levels to learn more about how users engage with your online services.Competitors’ reviewsOther sources of data useful for analysis are ratings, comments, and feedback on your competitors’ goods and services.These can offer insight into consumer preferences, satisfaction levels, and opportunities for growth in your sector.Businesses can analyze these reviews:To improve their products or services to suit customer needs and preferences better.To learn more about what customers like and dislike about comparable offers.To spot market gaps and chances for unique selling points.Tips to create a customer insights strategy that worksThe following are the customer insights and best practices to help you make business decisions. Identify the specific data you need to collect and analyzeThe first step is to identify the exact information you want to gather and examine that answers questions about your clients’ demands, tastes, and behavior.State your goals and the reason for needing customer insights.The data may differ depending on:Company goalsTarget marketIndustryMarket trendsThe questions you haveThis helps you focus your analysis to answer the questions about your customers most useful to your planning.Define the methods and metrics you needFigure out what data you have already, and what data you need to start tracking. Make a plan that specifies the methods you will use to gather and analyze customer data, such as website data or surveys.Choose the metrics you will track. For instance:Customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey resultsCustomer retention scoresNet promoter scores (NPS)Decide how often you need to review these metrics and make a schedule.Focus on customer relationshipsOther kinds of insights come from tracking your relationships with clients over a long period of time. This includes tracking their choices, previous transactions, and interactions with your company.When it comes to the latter, especially for companies with fewer clients, keeping written testimonies of clients’ interactions with your customer service team can give insight into their issues later.You may understand their needs more deeply when you give them personal experiences and make notes.Ask your support team about their customersOne of the most effective ways to get valuable consumer insights is to ask your support staff about their customers.Members of your support team often interact with consumers in person; they are very familiar with their needs, tastes, and problems.You may learn a lot about common issues, customer behavior, and areas for growth by often asking your support staff for input.Practice active listeningActive listening is more than simply hearing what your consumers are saying; it’s understanding what they’re saying. It’s asking for clarification.You can discover much about your consumers’ wants, needs, and pain points when you listen carefully to them.Why is customer insight important for business success?When you understand your customers well, it sets a strong foundation for your company to succeed.Make smart decisionsCustomer insights help organizations to make more informed decisions on issues such as:The best marketing strategies to adoptProduct improvements to prioritizePricing optimizationResource allocationExpansion opportunities to considerWays to avoid or reduce risksCustomer insights enable businesses to be customer-centric, give them a competitive advantage, and ensuring their continued growth.Improve customer experienceWhen you know what your customers need and fix their problems, their experience improves.If the customer experience at your company improves, customers will stick around and recommend you to others.Customize your marketingCustomers will likely stick with your brand and spend more money when they feel understood.According to research by Mckinsey, 71% of customers want businesses to provide them with personalized experiences. And when this doesn’t occur, 76% of them become irritated.Insight into who your customers are and their preferences guides your marketing team as to which channels to concentrate on and which features to promote.You’ll know where they spend time online, what they value most in your products, and the kind of ads to which they respond best.Make customer journeys betterIf you use customer insights well, you can keep customers happy from the start of their journey to the end.Businesses can customize experiences, anticipate needs, and speed up operations using customer insights, which shed light on customer wants, habits, and preferences.By utilizing these insights, companies can build smooth experiences at every touchpoint and increase customer satisfaction.Real-life examples of using customer insightsBrands worldwide gather customer insights and use them to fit their products and services better to their customers. Let’s look at some examples.Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is an American corporation founded in 1892. It is one of the largest soft drink brands, holds the largest market share in the world, and sells its products in over 200 countries.The company’s extensive customer research, including surveys, market studies, and others, has helped it stay relevant.Coca-Cola’s dedication to using customer insights has allowed it to maintain a strong connection with its consumers. For example:Coca-Cola Zero Sugar was introduced in response to consumer demand for fewer calories.To build customer loyalty, they have engaged with them on social media and quickly reply to their reviews.KFCKFC, an American fast-food restaurant specializing in fried chicken since 1952, is another excellent example.Through the years, they have stayed relevant in this competitive sector by using consumer insights wisely:To improve and quickly address consumer issues, KFC continuously seeks out and listens to customer input through social media, online surveys, and customer service interactions.Based on what their consumers like, they have consistently added new menu items and promotions, such as the Famous Bowl and the Double Down Sandwich.With the use of digital technology, KFC consumers can place online orders, use self-service kiosks, and order delivery services that are tailored to meet changing needs for ease and flexibility.Invest in customer insights for your business growthCustomer insights help you know your customers better and effectively meet their needs and wants.Collect feedback, listen to what customers say, especially through your support team, and use that information to create marketing strategies.Utilize LIKE.TG to gain valuable consumer insights that can fuel your business growth.You can explore its capabilities with a free trial or schedule a live demo. LIKE.TG’s customer support team can provide further assistance if required.We hope this blog post about consumer insights was helpful. Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences in the space provided for comments below. We value your thoughts very much!Related readsEmpathy in Customer Service: Essential Tips and Importance7 Reasons Customer Feedback Is Important for Your BusinessWhat Is Customer Service Experience? Definition, Tips, and Examples
Discussions HR Can Have with New Hires to Build Trust
Welcoming new hires into the office brings exciting growth and fresh faces and perspectives to a company. In order to establish a strong relationship with new hires, it is important that HR takes the time to sit down and have meaningful conversations with these employees. Here are a few of the discussions that HR can have to build a deeper trust with their new hires. Prepare an organized onboarding process Oftentimes, the HR team might be some of the first interactions that new hires have on their first day in the office and even beforehand. Because of these early interactions, a way to gain credibility with your new employees is to be as streamlined and organized as possible with your onboarding process. This guide was designed to help you navigate through those difficult tasks and help determine the right software for your organization, download our ebook now. Download now With advancements in onboarding software, companies now have the opportunity to drive employee engagement from day one. Whether this includes utilizing electronic signatures, mobile app notifications, or effective payroll and tax form management, finding ways to help employees adjust to a new work environment and taking the hassle out of mandatory onboarding procedures can go a long way. Onboarding provides insight into your company’s culture and can act as a way to make a great first impression for your new hires. Be transparent with growth opportunities The opportunity to grow within an organization is something that most employees prioritize. But considering they are just entering into the office, they may be less likely to ask questions about how this process works within your organization. One way that the HR team can develop trust with new hires is by outlining this process early on in their employee onboarding experience. Kaylee CollinsHR Analyst of Osmose Utilities Services, Inc “Our hiring managers now have a reliable system that is easy to navigate. Our HR team can actively monitor the process, and assist if needed, but Onboard has helped them save so much valuable time and effort while increasing data accuracy. All of this has helped us improve compliance and gives us a powerful tool to achieve even more results in the future.” Equipping workers with the correct and adequate amount of knowledge surrounding the procedures, requirements, and opportunities available within your organization creates a united front. Similarly, outlining the specifics, such as conducting annual performance reviews, sets the stage for fair promotion and leadership opportunities. This open communication from HR can help give employees a better idea of the timeline and what to expect in their career advancement opportunities. Provide an in-depth explanation of benefits Employee benefits are something that new employees will certainly be interested in learning more about—especially considering that a benefits package differs from company to company. Of course, reviewing this benefits package is typically part of the onboarding process, but you can better build trust with your new employees by spending extra time to ensure they are maximizing their benefits. This exemplifies your commitment to helping them reach their full potential in and out of the office. To promote transparency and build that trust, you can even discuss the areas where the benefits your company offers may not be enough to fulfill the new employee’s specific needs. For example, while many employers offer some sort of group life insurance coverage, this amount is oftentimes not enough to adequately cover the needs of their entire family. Being transparent about your company coverage is important when building rapport with new hires. Discussing your company limits regarding additional coverage or even recommending other life insurance companies for a private policy outside of your network shows your capability to help a new employee feel more secure when starting a new position. Discuss the future of the company An HR department carries many responsibilities, but a critical role to consider especially when welcoming new members to your organization is discussing the future of the company. While it may seem premature to discuss big changes, such as shifts in management, business strategy, or internal workflow, this sense of transparency in any upcoming changes ensures that everyone is on the same page. While this level of communication is key, deciding the best way to effectively communicate based on the department and employee also creates a personalized approach in incorporating everyone’s needs to not only help your employees grow but the company as well. With the nature of HR, it is essential to maintain a level of professionalism. With that being said, it does not mean that you don’t have the opportunity to have meaningful and memorable experiences with new hires. Considering the stresses that come along with starting a new job and how an HR department can help ease the transition and create trust with new hires from the start. About Author: This article is written by a marketing team member at LIKE.TG. LIKE.TG is a leading provider of proven HR solutions, including recruiting, onboarding, employee communications & engagement, and rewards & recognition. Our user-friendly software increases employee productivity, delivers time and cost savings, and minimizes compliance risk.
Disruptive HR Trends: Loud Quitting vs. Quiet Quitting
The current labor climate presents many challenges for today’s HR professionals. Across all sectors of activity, we are seeing a rise in employees leaving their jobs. It’s gotten so bad there’s even a catchy, if not overdramatic, word for the phenomenon: The Great Resignation. And currently, in the US, there is a labor shortage that, in some regions, has gotten to the point where there are twice as many job openings as there are people looking for jobs. Workmates by LIKE.TG can help improve employee recognition and reduce the rate of quiet quitting. The software allows for an easy and streamlined process for managers to provide regular employee feedback and recognition, which can help boost morale and engagement. It also includes tools for employee self-evaluation, which can help identify areas of concern or dissatisfaction before they escalate. By staying attuned to employee needs and proactively addressing them, companies can help prevent the disengagement that leads to quiet quitting. With the difficulties HR managers are currently experiencing in filling open positions, the problem is further exacerbated by an overall decrease in employee retention rate. HR professionals are having to fight the battle on two fronts. The rise of both quiet quitting and loud quitting is only one of the recruitment challenges to be aware of in 2023, but it does give us the opportunity to open our eyes, examine the factors that contribute to a growing problem, and look for lasting solutions. In this short article, we’ll take a closer look at some of the factors that are contributing to a low employee retention rate, what preventative actions can be taken, as well as the subtle and not-so-subtle signs that an employee may be on the verge of leaving–either quietly or loudly. What Is Quiet Quitting Compared to Loud Quitting? Both quiet quitting and loud quitting are expressions of a frustrated employee, one who either feels underappreciated, taken advantage of, or simply not given the opportunity to express their talents in a meaningful or rewarding work environment. The difference lies in the way the employee chooses to express his or her frustration. In quiet quitting, the employee chooses to physically remain at their job, though emotionally, they have checked out. They disengage, put in less effort than they normally would, and opt for a more passive-aggressive way to show their discontent. Loud quitting is more demonstrative. In loud quitting, the frustrated employee will vent, either to their employers or on social media (if not both). In some instances, loud quitting isn’t really ‘quitting’ at all. It is a negotiation strategy wherein an employee will ‘loudly’ state their objections to either the work environment they are in, the leadership they are working under (or lack thereof), or the compensation they are being offered. Regardless of the motivation behind loud quitting, it remains an employee’s expression of frustration and discontent. What Are the Root Causes of Quiet Quitting and Loud Quitting? We’ll start at the core and work our way outward. We could boil down the root causes of both quiet quitting and loud quitting to employee frustration. Employee frustration stems from reality not lining up with expectations. The reasons for this could be multiple, and we’ll take a look at some of the more common examples of those in a bit. But we can avoid quiet quitting and loud quitting by avoiding frustration, which in turn means stacking the odds in our favor so that reality lines up with expectations. Expectations Avoiding employee frustration begins at the recruitment process. In an effort to fill open positions during a period of drastic labor shortage, many HR professionals oversell the position. This will inevitably lead to problems down the road. Reality is unlikely to line up with the high expectations created in the mind of the recruit. Ask yourself: Is it better to take longer to fill an open position but have the employee stay at the position for a long time or to fill the position immediately but have to repeat the process a few months later? In most instances, HR professionals prefer the former to the latter. Similarly, in an effort to land a job, many job seekers will overstate their qualifications. This, as well, will lead to problems down the road as reality is bound to set in and fail to line up with the expectations the job seeker has set in the mind of the recruiter. To a large extent, this is par for the course. However, there are measures HR professionals can take to curb the negative effects of this common practice. Consider placing a greater emphasis on soft skills as opposed to technical skills or industry-specific experience. A candidate who shows that they have a high capacity to learn and adapt often has more staying power than a candidate with purported technical skills that are most likely overstated. Stagnation Employee frustration sets in when there is a lack of growth. Quiet quitting is synonymous with disengagement, and an employee who is not challenged and who does not grow, learn, and develop has very little reason to engage. Again, avoiding stagnation begins with the recruitment process. Every job description should anticipate growth and employee development. It is not enough for a job description to state what the role demands. It must also identify and define what the role will do a year, two years, etc., down the road. Communication Employees need a clear channel of communication to voice their concerns, ask for assistance, or gain a better understanding of the tasks they are responsible for completing. Without this possibility, employee frustration is inevitable. In fact, loud quitting is characterized by an employee venting his or her frustration in a demonstrative way (often online or on social media platforms), ways that circumvent or ignore a company’s internal communication channels. This is clearly an indication that the employee doesn’t feel like they can have their frustrations heard and addressed by management. Sometimes, it is not enough to have channels of communication open for employees. Some people are by nature timid or non-confrontational. In these instances, their frustration manifests in apathy or disinterest (quiet quitting). For such people, reporting requirements such as regular requests for feedback and regularly soliciting suggestions for improvement are needed. When it comes to communication, there isn’t an optimal one-size-fits-all method. Instead, have a talk with your employees and ask them for insights as to how you can best provide them with comfortable and effective means for them to share their concerns should they have any. Having clearly defined and agreed-upon expectations, fostering growth and development, and keeping clear lines of communication open are the pillars of workplace culture. And workplace culture and employee engagement go hand in hand. Improve workplace culture to improve employee retention. Introduction to Conflict in the Workplace(and How it Erodes Productivity & Culture) Download the Ebook Now What Are the Signs of a Disengaged Employee? When an employee loses interest in their work, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to the employer. There are tell-tale signs that are easy to spot when looked for. A decrease in productivity - Lack of motivation isn’t the only potential cause for a drop in productivity. However, even if there is a different cause, chances are high that a decrease in productivity will also lead to a decrease in interest in the job. An increase in absences or showing up late more frequently - Physical withdrawal from the workplace is a dead giveaway of employee frustration. Unwillingness to accept praise or criticism - When an employee balks at accepting praise or recognition for their work, that might not be due solely to humility. Often, frustrated or disengaged employees will seek to distance themselves from their work. This can translate to a refusal of ownership: not accepting either praise or criticism since they don’t feel like the work represents them or what they are capable of. Negativity - Complaints or criticism of an employee’s work or the work of their colleagues ceases to be constructive when it comes to characterizing the overall impression of that employee. It often takes a good leader and a good communicator to sift through the negativity to find the root cause of the problem. Conclusion - What Preventative Measures Can Be Taken to Avoid Quiet Quitting and Loud Quitting? Both quiet quitting and loud quitting stem from employee frustration. This problem is best anticipated right from the hiring process. Make sure to be clear, specific, and honest with your expectations for the employee in the role they are given. Additionally, it is also vital that the role be anticipated to grow. An engaged employee is one who is challenged, learns, and grows on the job. Every employee wants to be better a year down the road than they are right now. Without an employee developing and expanding on his or her skills, they will inevitably become stagnant. Stagnation leads to complacency, which leads, invariably, to apathy. Provide your employees with opportunities for growth and development. Even demand that of them. Identify what methods of communication would best suit an employee’s specific individual character. Avoid implementing a one-size-fits-all approach to communication. Everyone is different, and identifying then respecting those differences is key to developing good communication.
Do price revisions correlate with innovation?
Today, most businesses rely on cloud-based solutions to operate smoothly and cost-efficiently. Dependence on the cloud is often based on the convenience of software maintenance, the flexibility to adjust licenses based on usage, and the reduced costs of use and operation it provides.However, not every software solution on the market offers these benefits. Take, for instance, Zendesk.When Zendesk introduced its customer service software solution, businesses were drawn to its simple and easy-to-use offerings. A short time later, in 2010, Zendesk announced a price increase, leading to a 300% increase in some users' monthly fees. In response to customer backlash, the CEO grandfathered pricing for existing customers and expressed a commitment to provide "the best product and the best value for all of the additional functionality we roll out in the future." However, the product that once enabled businesses to operate smoothly grew in complexity. Since 2010, Zendesk has undergone several changes, the most significant being its acquisition by an investor group led by Hellman and Friedman, and Permira. A few months after the announcement, there were speculations about employee layoffs, a change in CEO, and a price increase. One by one, these all came to fruition. Are there more changes ahead for Zendesk's customers? Once again, only time will tell.Recently, Zendesk announced a 15% price increase for its service software and a 20% price increase for its other add-on products, citing the same reason they did in 2010: product innovation. While many customers expressed unhappiness, others chose to opt in to multi-year contracts to temporarily save their businesses from increased costs. This workaround meant customers could no longer enjoy the pay-as-you-go subscription model, one of the reasons many opted for a cloud-based solution in the first place.Now comes an important question: Is increasing prices wrong? Not as long as customers get the value the vendor claims to offer. This is why we decided to dissect Zendesk's current pricing structure against the value it offers to customers. As you may know, this pricing is only for one part of a more complete customer service solution. If you choose Zendesk as your customer service platform, you will need to piece together multiple applications to make it work for you. Essential features, like call, chat, messaging, analytics, and the help center are available as separate products for purchase, and have also seen a 20% price increase.Some basic features are either absent from the application or offered as extensions. Moreover, every time Zendesk acquires a new feature, customers have to pay for the acquired feature as an add-on or as part of a high-priced bundle edition.This means you will be paying for Zendesk's acquisitions, as well as Zendesk's acquisition of $10.2 billion. As a leveraged buyout with a history of 10 years of consistent losses, Zendesk and its investors are bound to look for better returns on their investment. With an exorbitant debt to pay, a history of losses, and an uncertain economic situation at present, will Zendesk be able to continue to innovate through acquisitions? And will customers have to continue paying the price for it?At LIKE.TG, we believe that there is a better way. We built our products through years of sustainable research and development to deliver efficient software at the right price. We've been reliable, self-sufficient, and profitable for 26 years.Switch to our customer service software, LIKE.TG. Trusted by companies like Daimler, Godrej, and 100 thousand other businesses around the world to build lasting customer relationships.To learn more about how LIKE.TG's functionality stacks up against Zendesk's, head to this comparison page. Disclaimer: Facts cited are based on our internal research.
Driving culture and motivating our people in challenging times
Creating an empowering culture is important for every business. And in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, protecting that culture and finding new ways to keep people connected, engaged, and healthy becomes even more essential.Earlier this year, the Workplace Services team launched several initiatives for LIKE.TG employees in the EMEA region, allowing them to come together, learn something new and build their networks.We had also invested in our main office workspaces, including our sites in Staines and Dublin, to create amazing settings to inspire creativity and boost productivity.But the dramatic, almost immediate, shift to working from home in March 2020 meant we had to pivot quickly to adapt our strategy.Going digitalWhen the COVID-19 pandemic hit Europe, Workplace Services had to ensure the initiatives we introduced didn’t stop just because our people weren’t physically present.So, we transferred them online, using video calls, our internal social media network, webinars and more. We offered HIIT classes and Yoga, socials and quizzes, and educational sessions, like how to work from home effectively and how to deal with anxiety.We also embraced delivering support services remotely throughout the lockdown period. Through virtual hangouts, employees can raise queries or ask for help with any aspect of their work set up.There is now greater collaboration with our IT colleagues as well, despite being separated physically, as we run joint employee support sessions and meet online regularly to align our programs.An unexpected up-sideIn many ways, the move to virtual service has been incredibly positive, reinforcing our commitment to creating a culture of diversity, inclusion, and belonging.We’ve not only kept our initiatives going; we’ve made them much more accessible, which is evident in the large number of signups. The barriers have been removed for those who couldn’t participate because they either weren’t in a LIKE.TG office, had to get home to family, or didn’t want to exercise in front of others.The social sessions are very popular and are bringing together people from across the LIKE.TG EMEA workforce — business leaders, colleagues from different departments, and employees from various countries, for instance — often for the first time.Our quiz nights are a great example. They have become household affairs, with employees bringing their families and friends online -- with the promise of a pizza delivery for the winning team proving to be a great incentive!Being apart has, in fact, brought us together in a way we hadn’t achieved before.A resounding successThe response from employees has been immensely positive. They are participating in activities they wouldn’t have previously and connecting in novel ways with colleagues from across the region.I’m proud of our team for adapting so quickly by turning an extremely complex and difficult situation into an opportunity to drive positive changes. Our success really comes down to four key factors: Clarity: We’ve been very transparent in our communication with employees on what we want to achieve and the initiatives we are running. Everyone is clear on what we can offer and how they can get involved. Proactivity: We acted quickly to transfer the activities program online, promote the new approach company-wide and look for input and feedback to drive continuous improvements. Structure: We launched new initiatives or transferred existing ones online thoughtfully. Although actioned quickly, our approach was considered and planned, ensuring support from senior management. Buy-in from my team was secured to drive the delivery. Agility: Though guided by our North Star, we also know we must be flexible. The COVID-19 crisis is continually changing how we live and work, so we make sure we can tweak things as needed. A ‘one size fits all’ approach simply won’t work, so we take a global framework but empower delivery locally. Looking to the futureOur pivot to a digital program was essential to support our remote workforce, but we are also starting to plan our eventual return-to-work strategy.We’ll continue to run virtual sessions even after some employees return to a LIKE.TG office, but we’ll also start new initiatives at our sites, including a garden community for our green-fingered colleagues in Staines.This period has taught us just how important inclusion and belonging are within an organization. By evolving our Workplace Services program, we will continue to make work better for our own employees throughout and beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
Driving customer experience with connected digital workflows
The success of any organization, brand, product, or service hinges on customer sentiment. Positive customer experience leads to positive feelings. To deliver the best experience for every customer at scale, companies must address needs quickly, transparently, and proactively. That starts by connecting customer engagement, operations, data, people, and processes in a single system of action.With LIKE.TG, customer issues and requests are broken down into tasks that can be automated. Multistep processes are standardized and orchestrated to save time and money. This frees agents to focus on delighting customers and allows you to create experiences that make each customer feel seen and valued.Creating a seamless customer experienceAlthough experience is everything, many businesses still operate with disconnected systems (legacy or otherwise). Delivering seamless experiences requires connecting people, processes, and teams to: Reduce resolution time. Eradicate muddy experiences. Rise to meet customer expectations. Blackhawk Network, which produces the gift cards for sale in grocery stores, is transforming customer experience with a LIKE.TG form called Submit an idea. It allows employees to suggest customer service improvements. Each suggestion gets its own ticket, making it actionable and trackable as it goes from idea to demand to implementation to measurement right on the Now Platform.In two years, Blackhawk Network received nearly 1,200 employee ideas, implemented about half of them, and paid its agents $16,000 in rewards. The employee-submitted suggestions have saved the company more than $2 million. Putting the flow back into workDigital transformation investments, which were already expected to account for $7 trillion between 2020 and 2024, according to IDC, have accelerated due to COVID-19. With those increases comes the need to take experience off the page and make it reality. To do that, businesses need to connect their front-, middle-, and back-office teams, technologies, and processes.Dreamworld, Australia’s biggest theme park, uses LIKE.TG to monitor, troubleshoot, and service everything that happens across the 40- to 50-acre property. The details, including food safety information for several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of food in the park’s fridges and freezers, are all recorded in ServiceNow.Internet of Things (IoT) sensors attached to all of the park’s refrigerators and freezers enable Dreamworld to gather all the temperature readings, work orders, and everything else needed for an inspection in one click. Just this effort saves team members more than 500 hours per year. Scaling customer operationsGerman parking solutions company Scheidt & Bachmann has “intelligent mobility” transportation-related divisions. To better deliver satisfactory experiences across its 10,000 parking lots in more than 50 countries, the company needed a platform-based system with end-to-end integration.Scheidt & Bachmann connected its customer service, field service, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes using ServiceNow. In a surprising addition, the company used the customer portal that comes with LIKE.TG Customer Service Management to allow its customers to make requests for on-site service.Boris Ansorge, director of global service at Scheidt & Bachmann, said 97% of customers are satisfied or very satisfied with the service.Learn how your organization can offer superior customer experiences by downloading our Customer Workflows Book of Knowledge.
Driving equity and inclusion through strategic partnerships
At LIKE.TG, we don’t see our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a program or initiative. It’s a moral imperative. Our vision is to embody DEI in everything we do. It’s our business to create better work and life experiences for our people, customers, partners, and communities.When I talk to our customers and leaders across industries, I see we share a deep desire to make our organizations more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We believe one of the best ways to do that is through strategic partnerships. These can help us accelerate our business objectives while working closely with our customers to better represent global diversity throughout the tech industry.Partnering for the greater goodThat’s why the DEI team at LIKE.TG has established strategic partnerships with the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA), AfroTech, Blavity Inc., Catalyst, Disability:IN, The Executive Leadership Council (ELC), Hispanic Technology Executive Council (HITEC), and PowerToFly.“As the first national Latino professional association in the United States, we aspire to be the business partner of choice for companies seeking to hire and develop Latino talent,” says Damian Rivera, CEO of ALPFA. “We love to work with LIKE.TG because we can open career pathways for Latinos to showcase their innovation and tech skills, both at LIKE.TG and with its customers across industries.”We’ve also worked with teams across our company to create or expand strategic partnerships with organizations such as Colorintech, Girls Who Code, and INROADS."At Girls Who Code, we know all too well the challenges women of color face in the tech industry,” says Tarika Barrett, CEO of the organization. “Our partners at LIKE.TG understand that the future of tech depends on a tech workforce representative of our diverse world. We are grateful for their support as we work to level the playing field for our most marginalized students."Improving diverse representationCompanies with the most ethnic and cultural diversity among their executive teams are likely to outperform less diverse companies by 36% in profitability, according to McKinsey. Organizations with the most gender-diverse leadership teams outperform the least diverse by 25% in profitability. Diverse and equitable organizations are more innovative, efficient, and successful.Righting long-standing inequities is not easy work. That’s especially true in the technology industry, where women and people of color have often been marginalized. Representation in tech has vast consequences. We must come together and share what works. Prioritizing DEI in techAs companies decide whether and how to cut costs in the face of economic uncertainty, people are still counting on us to follow through on our DEI commitments. “Tech layoffs are decimating human resources and corporate diversity teams,” according to SHRM. But “the slashing of HR and DEI as companies tighten their belts isn’t a widespread phenomenon yet.”Organizations cannot be shortsighted regarding the benefits of DEI. HR and DEI leaders may need to fight to ensure this vital work remains a top priority, especially as we grapple with a competitive talent market and a tough financial forecast.By engaging strategic partners, we introduce our company to underserved communities, drive talent to open positions, and build bridges of opportunity into the tech industry. Our NextGen Professionals Program, part of RiseUp with LIKE.TG, is a good example.The program helps create generational, diverse talent engines for our customers and partners. Across 15 countries, more than 6,300 NextGen Program participants have secured jobs through training, education, and partnerships—many with our customers.NextGen opens more doors for everyone to participate in the digital economy, and LIKE.TG customers benefit from more diverse talent. CANCOM, for instance, plans to use Service Portal technology created by NextGen students.Unlocking DEI breakthroughsWe’ve made significant commitments to deliver meaningful change at our company, in the technology industry, and beyond. I’m proud of how business leaders have worked with community leaders, employees, activists, and dedicated people around the world in recent years. Much work remains, but I’m confident we’re making noteworthy progress. Now we need to accelerate even more.DEI will continue to make teams, businesses, and customers stronger. Strategic partnerships can help organizations unlock significant DEI breakthroughs. No person or company can manage this imperative on their own. As companies prepare for more uncertainty in 2023 and beyond, we can navigate the challenges by working together to shape the new world of work for all people.Find out more about LIKE.TG’s commitment to equity and inclusion.
Driving IT operations excellence with continual improvement management
Since the early 2000s, when I was introduced to the Agile Manifesto at a small software company in Ann Arbor, I’ve appreciated how great things can be accomplished through iterative and incremental improvements.A vision of excellence is important, but the path to realization is a disciplined approach: recognizing areas of improvement, making adjustments, measuring, and repeating the process until you’ve reached a stable and acceptable result.The IT Service Management (ITSM) processes I oversee—incident, problem, and change—are no different than any other processes you might see in factories and need to be governed with the same mindset. This is called continual improvement management.Embracing continual improvementIn early 2020, we began to stand up a continual improvement practice for LIKE.TG IT. We had built solid processes, but our data showed room for improvement.Increasing key ITSM metrics—such as mean time to resolve (MTTR) and root cause analysis cycle time—can boost end-user productivity by reducing incidents and employee downtime. Knowing we could do better and doing the work to improve were two different things. We needed a tool to manage these efforts.We chose LIKE.TG Continual Improvement Management (CIM) to give us a single system of action to implement and track process improvements and support rep performance. Our process is straightforward and rigorous: When a key performance indicator (KPI) is out of tolerance with the set target, a CIM manager creates a CIM record. This is typically done in LIKE.TG Performance Analytics.An improvement coordinator meets with the service owner to set an improvement objective (e.g., 50% reduction) and a plan based on a series of CIM tasks. Teams monitor their progress until the metrics are within the agreed-upon tolerance range, usually when the tasks are completed. The CIM record is then closed.With this approach, we can track ongoing improvements in a single system with a set framework. To gain widespread adoption, we recognize each CIM success in our IT operations meeting and share it with leadership.Pursuing operational efficiencyOur first CIM project was to reduce the percentage of problem records that hadn’t been updated in the last 30 days, a leading indicator for problem record completion. More frequent record updates result in more problems to be resolved—a key metric for incident reduction. We set a goal to decrease this metric from 59% to less than 10% within three months.Using CIM, service owners were notified to update their records. The CIM team also began regularly checking progress of the issues. After three months, the percentage of problem records not updated in the last 30 days dropped to 4.92%. This signaled significant progress in the frequency of resolving problems.The number of closed low-priority P3/P4 problems increased from 39 in 2Q20 to 50 in 1Q21, a 31% improvement. This resulted in a decrease of 105 open incidents per month, as the IT support team was able to close old incidents more quickly, focus on new incidents, and lift productivity.CIM has helped us improve our operational efficiency in several other areas as well: Single sign-on incident service-level agreement (SLA) breaches dropped by 96% in only two months. Operational level agreement (OLA) attainment increased to more than 95% in three months. Abandoned changes declined by 96% in one month. Incident resolution customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores increased from 90% to 95%. Coaching human performanceIncreasing CSAT scores by 5 percentage points was the result of using the CIM Coaching plug-in. Coaching drives improvement in human performance within a process by detecting when a step has been incorrectly completed. (An increase of less than 10% may not seem substantial, but in organizations with significant employee/IT interaction, even small increases can bolster productivity and satisfaction.)For example, the CSAT improvement initiative included a task that created a coaching opportunity. It triggered an incident resolution assessment anytime a support rep received a low CSAT score. Coaching ensued, with the IT support staff providing interactive and real-time training on proper procedures for the support rep.Built-in, real-time coaching boosts performance by offering guidance and training at critical moments, resulting in increased satisfaction in future interactions. In the five-month period following the implementation of coaching, the CSAT rose to more than 96%.Always improvingWe attribute our success to several factors: Stakeholder visibility on the platform helped us understand where changes were needed. Automation drove action and set clear, measurable goals, along with a plan to achieve them. CIM provided clear justification for and progress toward improvement for many IT services without the customary face-to-face contact. The data captured by Performance Analytics indicators and the creation of coaching assessments were especially useful as our team began working remotely last year. Coaching allowed us to replace in-person mentoring, stop-by-the-desk conversations, and group feedback sessions with CIM so we could improve the skills and knowledge of our IT team. We can also connect process improvements to our business strategy and measure progress against those KPIs.We continue to expand our use of CIM and Coaching to enhance our operations. Not only do they help us create a culture that can evolve, but they’re also highly effective at instilling an agile mindset of iterative and incremental process improvements that drive operational excellence. Agile and continual improvement will never go out of style.Learn how CIM and Coaching improve IT service operations in our Knowledge 2021 customer meetup. Registration is free.
Driving long-term customer loyalty
Updated March 9, 2023Being your customer shouldn’t take work. Customers want a positive, consistent, and seamless experience at every touch point on their journey with you. They want to engage with a company that understands their needs, resolves problems swiftly, and helps manage issues proactively—regardless of the communication channel or time zone.Consistently delivering these fundamentals can create a cumulative connection to your brand, products, and services that builds trust. Trust over a long period leads to customer loyalty.Putting customer loyalty front and center of your customer experience strategy can be hugely cost-effective. The cost of selling to an existing customer can be significantly lower than that of acquiring a new one. In addition, loyal customers are more likely to act as de factor ambassadors of your brand.Toward a seamless customer experienceIn many organizations, functional silos and the inability to share insights and data across departments prevent continuity and consistency, creating a disjointed, frustrating experience.Many companies are realizing a single, integrated system of action—powered by one platform, one architecture, and one data model—can revitalize the customer experience. This approach connects processes and systems across the front, middle, and back offices.With a single version of the truth based on consolidated, real-time information, companies can automate and orchestrate work like never before. This can provide operational efficiencies while reducing time to resolution and significantly decreasing costs.The single system of action is the engine that drives all areas of the business to think and act as one in the best interest of customers. It unites teams, processes, and systems across products, services, and subscriptions for each customer. The result is a seamless, unified, and consistent experience that augments customer loyalty.3 ways to nurture customer loyaltyFor a growing number of organizations, LIKE.TG is the integrated platform of choice for a new era of customer engagement. It enables disparate, isolated teams to collaborate more effectively on the same goals and share critical data about what customers need and want. LIKE.TG can help organizations cultivate customer loyalty in three key ways: Make customers’ experiences seamless by removing system disconnects and enabling workers to manage requests and resolve issues quickly, communicate effectively, and predict and preempt problems. Harness the power of the entire organization by eliminating barriers to cross-functional collaboration and giving the entire team the tools and information to do their jobs with efficiency and ease. Reduce the cost to serve your customers by automating highly manual and repetitive processes for employees and empowering customers with self-service options that resolve issues fast and reduce the backlog of requests. Find out how companies are making customer journeys richer, more compelling, and more consistent in our Customer Experience Guide.
Early careers at LIKE.TG: Culture and opportunity for advancement
Ask any college student, “What attracts you to companies in today’s environment?” Two responses will almost certainly rank near the top: culture and opportunity for career development.We spoke about these topics with several early-in-career employees who came through the LIKE.TG intern program and decided to join the company full time.[Explore early careers at ServiceNow.]Culture is the key to commitmentHarini C., a software engineer, joined LIKE.TG one year ago after interning for five months. She says the open, “every voice matters” type of environment was a compelling selling point—and continues to be a major part of her daily work.“I have always believed the greatest asset of a company is its people, and my colleagues and seniors have been nothing less than a support system, both professionally and personally,” she points out. “We are encouraged to contribute any ideas—no matter how stupid or impactful we feel about them. At the end of the day, all we do is learn together as a team.” Harini describes the culture as a perfect blend of creative thinking, knowledge, fun, and growth. The same rings true for fellow software engineer Prasanthi P. She believes the open, two-way communication leads to a more comfortable working environment. The result: greater performance and results.“Your inputs are always valued—whether you are an intern or full-time employee,” Prasanthi says. “Transparency is the key. You are valued for what you do, and there are no proxies.”Business Systems Analyst Mica A. was attracted to what she calls LIKE.TG’s high-performance yet family-type climate.“There is definitely that work-hard, play-hard culture here that a lot of tech companies in the Bay Area try to emphasize,” she notes. “But at LIKE.TG, everyone wins as a team. It’s a family atmosphere in which any employee can ask any other employee for help with anything—without feeling intimidated.”Opportunities for advancementAdam S., inbound product manager, says the promise of career growth played a role in his joining the company full time.“LIKE.TG feels like a true meritocracy, where opportunities and recognition come when you are ready for it, regardless of where you are in your career,” he explains. “I have loved my role so far and see way more avenues for growth than I had imagined.” How can LIKE.TG promise these opportunities? Product Manager Srikar B. points to the expectation that every employee takes ownership of their projects. This increases their responsibility and accountability, he says, resulting in a higher degree of motivation.“At LIKE.TG, you don’t need to be in a leadership position to drive projects or initiatives,” he adds. “This culture provides the impetus to develop passion toward your work. Over a period of time, this quality inherently builds leadership skills. Career growth is taken very seriously here.”If you get a sense of monotony in your work, you’re encouraged to seek new opportunities, Prasanthi notes. “LIKE.TG is a place where employees can create opportunities for themselves,” she says, pointing to examples of innovation hackathons and the annual Knowledge event.“Growth and opportunities have been a constant. That’s why I’ve been here for seven years,” acknowledges Natalya C., social media manager. “I’ve always been encouraged to speak my mind and share ideas, which has led to more doors opening and new challenges.”Learn more about early career opportunities at ServiceNow.
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