Prioritizing end-user experience
“Things that are ultimately complex must have a simple end-user experience if they are to be successful” – doesn’t this hold true for enterprises in today’s competitive world? The end-user experience ultimately determines whether the business will prosper or collapse. In reality, end-user experience is directly related to brand image, functionality, presentation, system performance and assistive capabilities of the interactive system. Market research also confirms the fact that “for every dollar a company invests to increase usability, it receives $10-$100 in benefits, and wins customer satisfaction and loyalty.”
Balanced work life towards positive change
Believe it or not, over the years there has been a paradigm shift in people’s work life. Demographics, latest technologies, social norms and end-user experience – all of these contribute towards transforming the way people work. Thus, organizations are trying to revolutionize the employee experience through managing business in such a way that this change in work life can be balanced and employees can leverage the scope to transform the future. Also, enterprises are moving towards ensuring an enhanced form of seamlessness in end-user experience in order to gain competitive advantage for both, attracting and retaining the top talent.
Familiar technology yields better result
Even with in-house IT capabilities, a lot of time and effort is invested on daily operations of device management, system availability, application performance management and so on. This leaves little scope for resources to focus on innovation. Since, the new-gen workforce is empowered with relevant tech-savvy skillsets, it demands innovative yet familiar ways of working with technology. Hence, the workplace technology should be compatible for the employees. This boosts job satisfaction, as a technology that is familiar with employees, helps resources to connect well and build a cohesive environment.
According to a market survey report, IT professionals of enterprises are usually provided with high-quality, seamless IT solutions in order to keep employees engaged and productive. Although this is an ideal scenario, where the end-user experience is positive, yet companies struggle to deliver results as per expectations. Infact, organizations have realized the need to bridge the gap between end-user expectations and actual experiences.
Ways to improve the end-user experience for organizational success
Outsourcing workplace IT service
Outsourcing of IT services is one of the methods adopted by many top-tier companies. This ensures opportunity for the in-house IT team to focus on business growth and critical projects, while the IT service partner provides workplace IT services along with managing office solutions and application performance management. With outsourcing of hardware, software and cloud applications deployment, enterprise operational speed can also be increased. This will benefit organizations who outsource, which in turn will create positive impact for end-users.
Self-service resolution – Is it effective?
Millennials need faster resolution for technological challenges to stay focused; this calls for a detailed scrutiny of the IT support model of organizations. To enhance productivity and reduce downtime, companies can ensure that their support model is not a traditional ticketing tool with slow interface that can delay Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and are also expensive at the same time. The modern workforce demands a hassle-free experience. Hence, the industry leaders have a difficult time introducing a conducive IT support model and critical business initiatives. This has compelled them to transform the end-user support to self-service resolution.
This concept of self-service is revolutionizing IT support and ensures faster resolution, saves time and reduces support cost. Due to increase in demand for smooth functioning of self-service portals, companies are focusing on intuitive interface that can do the job with minimum clicks.
Remote user testing to initiate change
Big companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook improved their end-user experience through remote user testing. Since, it can be remotely conducted hence, it is affordable and quick and can be executed in participant’s natural environment. Testing a remote service also allows greater diversity. By conducting remote user testing, an organization can analyze the required changes necessary to improve conversions. Usertest.io is one such remote user testing tool that enhances user experience.
Empowering users through education
Ideally pointed out by an industry veteran, “Education is the process of reducing user anxiety, enhancing user trust, and proving the value of a product in the mind of the user”; definitely nothing works better than educating users to improve user experience. Mere presence of technology cannot guarantee end-user satisfaction, adequate training is an integral requirement for a seamless end-user experience. Knowledge empowers users and enhances end-user experience.
HTTP 404 – the path thereafter
The end-user experience can also be improved by considering page 404. Google Analytics data can be useful here in determining the number of users reaching the page and the navigation through which the users can be led towards a better end-user experience from 404 pages of the organization.
Technological assistance to work remotely
Currently, the industry is witnessing a shift in the work culture and profile of the workforce. Hence, there is a requirement for constant connectivity and an ability to work remotely. A recent Survey confirms the fact that 85% of resources prefer working remotely. Thus, it is essential to have the right kind of technology which is able to support such employee requirement. The complex propagation of devices makes application performance management and end point security a constant endeavor for the IT support team. This means that in order to run the business in a smart way, one needs to secure it through appropriate allocation of resources. All of these attributes, in a conjoined manner, help organizations ensure improvement in end-user experience, imparting the option of working remotely to its employees.
Consistency plays a key role
Consistency plays an important part in improving end-user experience. Uniformity and reliability are desirable when considering services across all communication channels. This can enhance the end-user experience through proper end-user management. Usage of a single technology across the interface can empower users to locate information quickly.
Advantage of real-time communication
A live and real-time communication channel can address the problems faced by users efficiently. An online communication channel, in place of a service request, can resolve the issue faster and the interactive mode of operation can keep the end-user connected and satisfied.
Teamwork is the new work culture
Enterprises are focusing more and more on collaboration and team work. This increases efficiency, creativity and productivity of resources. As per market research, 94% of North American resources believe in teamwork among which 83% depend on technology to connect with remote workers in real time. Technologies such as cloud-based unified communications, high-definition audio/video devices for conference, mobile devices etc. support continuous collaboration and teamwork.
Improving end-user experience - the ultimate goal!
The current competitive business structure demands upskilling and talent upgradation for employees. Empowering connected workforce with latest technology can enhance employee experience, which in turn can attract and retain top talent. Hence, through modernization of technology, an enterprise can improve end-user experience and drive productivity. From a different perspective, poor user experience results in poor conversion rate, hence, companies are advised to invest more time and money to pace up end-user experience levels.