Since the internet boom, today’s organizations have begun involving customers in their organizational journey by giving them the right experience. This is even more critical with B2B client-enterprises.
Technology is no longer a support function, but rather an integral part of core business operations. Companies aim to leverage technology to bring their customers, suppliers, distributors, and employees on a single collaborative platform.
However, what is known is that state of the art technology alone does not ensure a great customer experience. What if there is a disaster and you have to ensure you don’t lose your customers? Are you prepared?
A classic example of this is within the airline industry. In May 2017, due to a power failure, British Airways had to face a catastrophe. Its entire IT system was knocked out and this caused tremendous chaos because it was one of the busiest weekends in that month. The airline company was unable to contain the crisis which was evident from its incompetent customer service handling and disheveled PR.
Is anyone to be blamed for this? No, but the organization as a whole is accountable. Yes, it is the responsibility of the CIO to address the issue at a technical level, but that does not mean he gets the entire blame. Instead of pointing fingers at each other, the entire company should come together, take ownership, and fix the problem.
In such a scenario, an organization should effectively take three important steps:
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Parallel System
Companies need to take care of its customers. Customers should not be made to suffer and even if there is a delay, a parallel system should be set up. This will keep the customers engaged and you won’t lose them. While they are setting up this parallel system, they should keep the customer informed through proper PR activity, which was missing in case of the British Airways incident.
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Rectifying the main system
As soon as the system is in place, CIO team should start working on rectifying the main system. One of the challenges that CIOs usually face here is the involvement of external parties and if it’s an outsourced provider then the protocols and service level agreements comes into play which might cause a possible delay in this process. These external parties are not always aware of the ground reality.
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Due Diligence & Root Cause Analysis
Once the dust has settled, then it’s time to find the true cause behind the entire incident and do a thorough due diligence to ensure the right persons/teams are held accountable and such mishaps don’t occur in the future. This is not about blaming an individual or a team, but it’s about accountability and defining or redefining the disaster plan.
During such a technical crisis, it is the task of top management to extend full support to the CIO’s team to go above and beyond the status quo.
Anirudh M. for TechFunnel.com
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