In recent times I have been professionally challenged to find new ways to enhance client experience as a management consultant at Optum+.  In my delivery of service to my clients I always differentiated myself by being an Enabler – leveraging my knowledge and years of experience; being an Client Advocate – making my client successful in his/her job or endeavor  and being a Management Consultant or Manager successfully delivering projects. However I was challenged to find new ways to enhance client experience as I realised:

First, the nature of competition has changed

Vivek Wadhwa rightly says in his article in WSJ - How the Nature of Competition Has Changed “… “you can no longer see the competition coming. Technologies are no longer progressing in a predictable linear fashion, but are advancing exponentially — and converging. Fields such as computing, medicine, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, robotics, nanomaterials  and synthetic biology are simultaneously making advances, and combining these allows one industry to rapidly disrupt another — before market leaders even know what hit them”.

Secondly, a renewed focus on the customer and the human side of business through digital transformation

Brian Solis in his article Digital Darwinism: How Disruptive Technology Is Changing Business for Good talks about digital tools are invading the business environment, provoking significant changes in the way we work, communicate, and sell.  He further goes on to say: “Social, mobile, real-time, and other disruptive technologies are aligning like never before to necessitate big changes within organizations, forcing them to adapt in order to maintain relevancy. Digital transformation is significant because it is finally driving real change within businesses; they’re developing new models, team structures, and customer-centered philosophies along the way. “

Lastly, the competitive advantage resides in the minds of our clients

Niraj Dawar argues that most companies still look for competitive advantage where it used to be: through activities related to products and new product creation. But today’s advantage comes from interactions of a different sort—those you have with your customers. Companies that recognize and move on this shift win.

In this digital globalized economy we have to disrupt traditional process, and rebelliously discard old business clichés and remake the market landscape deliberately target situations where the competition is complacent and the customer has been consistently overlooked or under-served and greatly accelerate the way we operate to understanding customer needs and problems to keep pace with a rapidly changing disruptive business environment

To understand and address the challenge I encountered to find new ways to enhance client experience as a management consultant, I embarked on a journey which gets increasingly interesting through my daily learning on untethered thinking that offered the best of both aspiration and pragmatism to influence effectiveness in enhancing client experience. The results of my journey is being posted on SmartWerke. The information on this site is being posted as I learn, unlearn and stumble upon concepts and ideas and practices in my continuing journey on doing “Smart Werke” by enhancing client experience.

Turning Customer experience on its head by enhancing client experience in a completely new and different way is to:

Engage + Transform + Create

ENGAGE:

Enhancing client experience starts with engaging the client by understanding the background and the objective of the project.

Envision together a clear vision of project delivery

Identify client drivers & business objective of the project delivery

Determine project intent, objectives & criteria for effective project delivery

Agree to share the inherent risks & potential rewards of project delivery

Understanding the background and the objective of the project, further enhance client experiences by transforming the client engagement during project delivery.

TRANSFORM:

Transforming client engagement during project delivery within the changing project context of Design + Engineering + Construction will further enhance client experience.

Navigate the intent of the project objectives through the project lifecycle

Determine together fresh ideas & initiatives to deliver the intent of the project

Envision a new methodology for each construction elements &

Create new possibilities of delivery within those systems

Establishing a controlled & accountable ecosystem to meet outcome

Engaging the client through the understanding of their business and transforming our engagement of the client during project delivery will lead to creating sustainable value.

CREATE:

Create sustainable value to build long lasting relationship as award of a project delivery is a promise of value to be delivered & a belief from the client that value will be experienced.

Enable shortest time to market for client product or services

Meet the ROI of the business objectives of our client firm

Enabling clients to focus on their core business not manage the project.

Improve project overall NPV -Net Present Value

Reduce financial cost of project delivery

Assist clients to stay competitive

When value is delivered and experienced through effective project delivery, deeper and lasting relationship are built with clients.

Turn client experience on its head through a combination of Engage + Transform + Create in solving project complexity; find and fill unmet customer needs, plan for profitability, strive for sustainability, establish credibility knowing that the nature of competition has changed; renew the focus on the customer and the human side of business through digital transformation and the competitive advantage resides in the minds of our clients while becoming a trusted partner to clients by addressing “Customer’s point of thirst” (expectations) and removing “Customer Pain” (roadblocks).

How are you turning client experience on its head in your organisation? I would like to hear and learn from you on those experiences.

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