Three Thoughts for Creating Customer-Centric Workflows

Companies can significantly improve their workflow outcomes by keeping the customer at the forefront during the design process. Achieving high customer satisfaction goes beyond offering good products or services; it requires a well-designed workflow that prioritizes the customer at every step. Here are three ideas to help you better focus your workflows on bringing the most value to your customers.

Define Your Customer

Customers are typically defined as the purchasers and recipients of your products and services. However, not all customers are a priority, and you can't be all things to all people. Start by listing who your customers are and determine which ones require your most focused attention. You can also categorize customers into internal and external groups. Internal customers are the teams or departments within your organization that receive the output of your workflow. While understanding your external customers is essential, don’t overlook the internal teams that rely on other teams to do their job effectively.

Understand the Customer

Once you’ve identified your customers, the next step is to understand what they care about and whether your workflows meet their expectations. Ideally, you can gather this information directly from customers through interviews or surveys. Keep in mind that depending on the workflow, customers might not have insight into the key activities within your organization. For example, if you're in an IT Service Desk team, other employees (internal customers) may not know what systems you use or policies you follow to handle tickets. However, you should be able to capture how the result impacts their ability to do their job. Also, ask about their expectations for service levels. For instance, they might expect a response within a day for a new application request, but they might need a password reset within minutes.

Incorporate Feedback Into Your Workflow

Now that you have a better understanding of what your customer wants and how they define success, apply this information to the key activities of your team. Walk through the workflow from the customer’s perspective. Imagine they are with you, looking at a mapped-out workflow or observing how you work behind the scenes. Ask yourself whether they would see value in the task you're working on. If the answer is no, consider removing it if it brings no value, or automating it if it brings some value or can't be removed for an essential reason.

Some might wonder how a customer could understand the workflow enough to determine if a task adds value. A better approach is to simplify your workflow so that you can easily explain it to a customer. Sometimes, workflows become overly complex due to band-aid fixes instead of addressing the root problem. Therefore, identify tasks in your workflow that wouldn’t make sense to a customer, and then assess whether they should be there in the first place.

This approach is simple and quick, making it easy to apply with your team to any workflow you want to improve. Start by knowing who your customers are and what outcomes they expect. Finally, use that feedback to refine the workflow itself. Even if you can’t have a customer walk through it with you, use the feedback to put yourself in their shoes. Consider whether the workflow truly meets the customer's needs and where it might fall short.