Wie kann sich SSC in einem dynamischen Umfeld an veränderte Kundenbedürfnisse und -erwartungen anpassen?

In a dynamic environment, SSCs need a solid foundational strategy & mindset to adapt to shifting customer needs to ensure long-term success. Strengthening this base is essential for navigating challenges and achieving results, with detailed focus on: • People: Upskill staff and foster customer-focused behavior. • Process: Employ agile, data-driven methods to enhance efficiency, allowing more time to focus on client needs. • Technology: Use automation & self-service tools aligned with customer needs—simple yet effective. • CSAT: Track changes, tailor interactions, gather feedback, exceed expectations, and improve resolution times. Set clear objectives like increasing CSAT by 15% to measure progress & consistently monitor & provide feedbacks.

In SSC world, It is crucial to understand your customer, and in my opinion, this is an ongoing process. It is more about helping customers / stakeholders to clearly define priorities and set clear expectations from SSC. In many cases, SSC leaders lose the momentum by focusing only on efficiency metrics & cost-cutting initiatives/ commitments. Without deep understanding of customers' needs and pain points, we're just spinning our wheels and will end with a serious disconnect in the expectation. It is important to gain trust of your customer and always to care about customer’s perception about partnership with you, in this regard (NPS) is a very useful tool which can tells a lot.

Shared Service Centers (SSCs) can adapt to changing customer needs and expectations by prioritizing agility and flexibility. This involves regularly assessing customer requirements, implementing scalable technology solutions, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Employing data analytics to anticipate trends, actively seeking customer feedback, and staying abreast of industry developments also play crucial roles. SSCs should invest in training to enhance employee skills and capabilities, ensuring they can readily adapt to evolving customer demands. Proactive communication and collaboration with stakeholders help align services with dynamic expectations, facilitating effective responsiveness to changing needs.

Key is to enable all agents to not only understand relevant SLAs, e.g. has a ticket been closed (and must be reopened later..), but to know whether the User considers the case resolved. Service Performance Mgt. should therefore include UX related KPIs, e.g. by adopting the google HEART framework into your SPM dashboard.

Could you talk to your customers? What one stakeholder says is most important to them may be the opposite of what a different stakeholder in an identical role thinks should be most important. Please don't assume that customers are similar. As a unit manager at ADP, I had clients focused on cost and others focused on employee experience. A top-notch SSC leader knows which and how to communicate with them differently and make them feel valued.

Align SSC services with business goals and translate support into outcomes: 1. Identify KPIs that reflect business objectives, such as cost reduction, efficiency improvement, customer satisfaction, and innovation acceleration. 2. Tailor your SSC offerings to directly impact these KPIs, ensuring your services contribute to the broader business strategy. 3. Communicate how your support leads to tangible benefits: reduced operational costs, enhanced process efficiency, improved customer experiences, or faster time to market for new products or services. By making the outcomes of your support quantifiable, businesses can see the value of SSC services in achieving their strategic goals, fostering a partnership that drives mutual success.

Aligning services with the business goals of customers is essential for meeting their needs and expectations. Shared Service Centers (SSCs) must actively collaborate with clients to understand their strategic objectives. This involves tailoring services to contribute directly to these goals, whether through cost reduction, process efficiency, or innovation. Regular communication and feedback loops help maintain alignment, ensuring that the SSC's services continuously support and enhance the overall business objectives of its customers.

Important for client management is to go beyond an operational level, i.e. talking about concrete escalation cases only. Instead, tactical and strategic level of client management conversation needs to be prioritized. Including overall NPS with key stakeholders in addition to proper UX-oriented client satisfaction per ticket.

The SSC Operating model is also a model that defines collaboration model between the functions and SSC. Such collaboration must be at two levels; 1. Strategic level and 2. Operational level. At the strategic level collaboration, alignment between the service model and business/ functional goals must be a top priority which defines how the SSC will operate. This is by the way not static but something that should be revisited at least once year as part of annual planning and whenever there is a significant change in the organization which demands a realignment. Such alignment leads to partnership, accountability and ownership in SSC-Functions collaboration.

To adapt to changing customer needs and expectations, SSCs must:Embrace Technology: 1. Utilize AI and automation for efficiency and better service. 2. Gather Feedback: Collect and act on customer feedback to refine services. 3. Upskill Staff: Continually train employees to meet evolving demands. 4. Adopt Flexibility: Use scalable service models to adapt quickly. 5. Form Partnerships: Collaborate for broader capabilities and innovative solutions. 6. Use Data Wisely: Apply analytics to predict and meet customer needs effectively. 7. Relevant KPIs: Refresh the performance matrix as the business needs. This approach ensures SSCs remain relevant and competitive in a dynamic business environment.

Vale implantar no CSC a cultura de "identificar formas de fazer melhor", substituindo o "como sempre fizemos", como impulsionadores da inovação e melhoria contínua. Com a equipe engajada, será mais natural identificar oportunidades de automação e otimização nos processos, melhorando a qualidade, eficiência e eficácia dos serviços oferecidos aos clientes e entregando maior valor agregado.

To meet customer needs and expectations, continual innovation and process improvement are imperative. Shared Service Centers (SSCs) must foster a culture of innovation, leveraging emerging technologies and best practices to enhance operational efficiency. Regularly reviewing and optimizing processes ensures adaptability to changing requirements. Feedback loops and data analytics contribute to identifying areas for improvement. By embracing a commitment to innovation, SSCs can stay ahead of evolving customer expectations, delivering services that are not only effective but also reflective of the latest advancements in the industry.

Key is enabling and upskilling your team to monitor service performance real time and own exception management e.g. via process mining dashboard. And linking this to ideation chains so that improvements are triggered at both ends, bottom-up as well as top-down, incl. investment prioritization.

In my role driving change and efficiency, diversifying our toolkit is essential for evolving with customer needs in an SSC. Beyond lean and agile, exploring cutting-edge technologies like AI for predictive analytics or blockchain for secure, transparent processes can revolutionize service delivery. Incorporating design thinking fosters a user-centric approach to innovation, while cloud computing offers scalability and flexibility. It's about blending traditional methodologies with modern tech to create a compelling, forward-thinking service model.

I recommend an Innovation Forum between the Function and SSC that focuses on leveraging process, policy, technology, data, governance and cultural change aimed at improving efficiency, effectiveness, controls and outcome. This forum is well positioned to lead digital transformation to address functional needs and constraints and enhance customer value and experience. This forum should not focus on ideate, design and build but also govern the execution and sustenance of transformation. Make sure the objective of such transformation initiative is fully aligned with the functional and organizational goals.

Meeting customer needs involves collaborative efforts and co-creation. Shared Service Centers (SSCs) should actively engage with customers, fostering a partnership that involves mutual input and innovation. Through collaborative initiatives, SSCs can better understand unique requirements, co-design solutions, and ensure services align closely with customer expectations. Open communication channels, regular feedback mechanisms, and joint problem-solving contribute to a dynamic and responsive relationship. This collaborative approach not only enhances customer satisfaction but also establishes a foundation for long-term success and adaptability in a rapidly changing business environment.

Sometimes client perceptions are triggered via single escalation cases, while data evidence on overall high-level service quality is not consistently made transparent to the client function. Co-creation in joined product- or design-teams will not only accelerate UX- vs. process-driven solutions, but also help giving exposure to and fully acknowledging the GBS/SSC impact.

It is always about a "seat at the table." If you need a relationship manager from SSC to attend your customers' internal meetings, make that investment today. While in the relationship manager role at UPS GBS, I quickly learned that one of the biggest challenges the enterprise operations struggled to overcome was triggered by the Customer Service Representatives in GBS. I remember thinking, "Whoa, I can fix that very quickly." That one win with enterprise operations got me invited to even more district meetings. I learned that if I could capture their goals, I could better align GBS goals with theirs, and it was SYNERGY.

Anticipating and responding to changing customer needs is essential. Shared Service Centers (SSCs) must proactively monitor industry trends, analyze customer feedback, and stay agile to adjust services swiftly. By being predictive and responsive, SSCs can align their offerings with evolving expectations, ensuring a proactive approach to customer satisfaction. This involves continuous market research, feedback loops, and a commitment to flexibility, enabling SSCs to anticipate changing needs and promptly adapt their strategies to meet evolving customer expectations.

GBS/SSC are uniquely positioned to deliver foster dynamic shared ownership. They can dynamically deliver on relevant capabilities in an ecosystem, incl. not only process-, but also project- and transformation- and digitization capabilities. And they can flexibly leverage digital labor in tandem work, e.g. in context of genAI application.

In a dynamic environment, SSCs should evolve from process expertise to balancing it with a deep understanding of business context and customer needs. Enterprises must invest in SSCs to extend their focus beyond internal customers and gain insights into end customers. Building business context involves aligning definitions of success, implementing targeted secondments (talent mobility), and utilizing technologies like AR/VR (where relevant) in L&D for a comprehensive understanding of front-office setups. This adaptation ensures SSCs stay attuned to changing customer expectations. Here - I am assuming SSCs are largely offshore/nearshore based. Also, think "GBS" in this context.

Here's a view: While we strive to adapt to customer needs and expectations, there's a challenge of adapting to every needs and expectations. It can open the floodgates. This goes back to what's the alignment with business. Do we adapt to every item or do we prioritize at what aligns to the business? This comes from the experience related to benefits where every benefits are requested to be added to the current list of benefits. Couple of ways to anticipate is by 1) getting customers input. 2) understanding the market (what's evolving through research, forums/conferences, industry reports)