When I started brainstorming this post, I tried to make a list of all the things companies leave to chance. But even after some thought and reflection, the page was almost entirely blank!
The conclusion I eventually came to isn’t really that groundbreaking: smaller companies leave more to chance than bigger companies, as they simply don’t have the resources to engineer every small detail of the company.
But I also realised that many companies leave their culture to chance. As a result, it ends up being defined by a few dominant personalities. While this can work for very small companies, this ad-hoc culture usually fails to encourage a positive attitude and behaviour and is disconnected from the public brand values and promises.
Lastly, companies tend to leave their customer experience (CX) entirely to chance. This is what happens when they don’t map out desired customer journeys and put processes and systems in place to encourage customers to follow those journeys.
When this is left to chance, customers often find their own ways of engaging and doing business with companies. Unfortunately, the journeys they forge rarely lead to high levels of satisfaction. And, as a result, they don’t become repeat customers or brand advocates.
When I made a list of things that companies actually do engineer, I filled the page quickly with things like:
- Financial Compliance – to ensure a company is operating legally, accountants and auditors are hired, the software is deployed to manage financial transactions, and papers are filed with regulatory organisations.
- Hiring – job descriptions are written, ads are posted, interviews are conducted. These are all planned in advance and each step is carefully evaluated to ensure the best candidate gets the job.
- Software Development – most companies have a technology or IT team that either creates and manages bespoke software to run their operations or deploys and manages software products that achieve the same. All of this is architected and data flows are built, with clearly defined reasons for selecting certain products over others.
Company processes that are carefully designed and engineered are not only more consistent, they can also be measured and improved upon. This, in turn, leads to predictability and scalability, both of which are vital for any successful business.
So if your company doesn’t have a defined culture or customer experience, and there isn’t a plan in place to bring them to life, then you should make them a top business priority. Anything less, and you're jeopardising the long-term survival and sustainability of your business.
At Huble Digital, we have spent a great deal of time defining our culture and customer experience journeys and we are here to help you do the same - Get in touch to start the conversation.
