Thread: Bad Change Management Can Impact Customers

Bad Change Management Can Impact Customers

Poorly managing change is endemic, it is often done badly and the processes of change management as well as the forms of resistance envisaged are too simplified by most management prescriptions for an effective process to be put together. We all know that if we do not manage a change program well, resistance will occur, and we rationalize this opposition to our plans by assuming the people resisting do not understanding the rationale behind what is being proposed, are acting irrationally, and need educating and convincing of the need for change. The argument being that if they see the reasoning behind the change they will buy-in and drop their resistance. This sort of thinking process results in the communication battery's and forceful top down missives often put in place during major initiatives that have little effect on the ground.

One of the more hidden consequences of poor change processes is the way people respond to the new circumstances - they often do so in indirect ways that can directly impact customer satisfaction.

• Poorly managed change has been seen to be linked to a total lack of decision-making. People are aware that the old way of working is not correct but are unclear regarding the new ways required – they therefore decide to minimize risk by making no decisions at all! In this circumstance a form of organizational paralysis occurs.
  
• There is also a lot of evidence of staff turnover resulting from poor change management, the better staff who can more easily find alternative employment become dissatisfied with the organization and leave. Some change processes break the attachment people have with a an organization and the better move on and the less able remain which can result in a degradation of service.
  
• Organizational citizenship behaviors also reduce. As staff are unclear or even nervous about the change they stop putting in that extra effort that oils the wheels in an organization - such as staying late to ship that last minute order or going the extra mile for that disgruntled customer.
  
• It is possible for change to go in opposite direction to that desired, for example if an organization aims for a more flexible customer facing organization a poor change process can actually lead to a more bureaucratic, self-facing (fear led) organizational culture. The change process itself actually reinforcing existing organizational tendencies during a period of uncertainty - people retreat to the familiar during change.

If we accept that most organizations need to change to remain competitive and/or survive, the implications of reduced effectiveness from the above processes are serious and can have material impacts on customers and clients.

The difference between a well managed change or a poorly one is not good communication – that is necessary but not sufficient. The key is to broker change, to be active and where the action is - demonstrating commitment to the change. Often managers in organizations are poorly prepared or even oppose the change themselves and if so are hardly in a position to support staff through difficult processes - so make sure they understand what is going on and take into account their fears.

It is important to realize that it is not possible to create successful change by pure top down enforcement supported by a few PowerPoint slides - at best this ensures compliance that will break down in time (if you're lucky after your watch) and result in payback. Perhaps the key to successful management of change is to think through the entire process, take account of all the stakeholders, and if possible increase their involvement. Above all cover both the rational and emotional aspects of the transformation it will pay dividends in the long run and not impact on customers who after all are the key stakeholders in any change.

REM

I am responsible for migrating a support contract from a 3rd party supplier into our software support team. We operate a customer satisfaction index (5 point scale with 1 being completely satisfied and 2 being very satisfied) and we have a target based on the number of survey respondents who choose the top 2 scale points.

I am looking to find out the expected impact of migrating this work to the inhouse team AND how long the impact would last for. What is the industry standard?