Boosting business by creating outstanding experiences

The post-pandemic world has brought varied challenges for business houses. It has shattered the concept of a traditional workspace — the office. Businesses must now cater to different models of work place – be it a hybrid model, satellite offices, or the work-from-home concept. The new generation is now looking for flexible options that suit their personal needs and lifestyle, and business houses understand they need to quickly embrace this change to retain employees.

In the changing business environment, employee satisfaction has become an important metric that translates into higher productivity and in turn improves the experiences of customers. Therefore, it becomes crucial how an organisation responds to the new challenges post pandemic and provide a work model to its employees that can check the high attrition rate.

At Mint present Mastermind 2023 – Decoding the Value of Experience, we have with us Mr. Atul Dhawan, the Chairperson of Deloitte India to discuss how pandemic shifted greater focus on creating happy customer and employee base.

Dhawan explains how pandemic has forced a change in the work habits of the employees. “The new generation is now demanding to work around different work models. What businesses are now beginning to do is to look at what work we are doing and break it down to see how that work is to be delivered,” he said.

“I think industry is one, looking at how to re-scale, second looking at ways to engage the workforce in a different environment. Like, creating remote offices that have its own social impact, you are creating new areas of development, reducing carbon footprints, reducing travel, by taking away travel time you are creating more valuable time available to the individual. So those are the kinds of things we are all doing.”

Dhawan says businesses are now trying to understand the needs of their workforce to arrest the attrition rates. “To ensure greater engagement, you are understanding what the work force wants as an experience -- social responsibility for example. While businesses are taking up their social responsibilities, it is also investing very heavily to address the workforce, what motivates them and how do you satisfy that. And we are finding that wherever such issues are being addressed, attrition rates are falling.

“It’s an unsettled area right now. So, you have to look at how you will address changing circumstances, react to them, try and see the curve ahead and get to the point where your workforce feels empowered. They should feel cared for and have an experience to enjoy. One more dimension I would like to add is it’s about their own individual self, actualization that you need to address and businesses are beginning to look at that and say 'we need to do that.'

Dhawan is clear the future belongs to businesses that focus on customer experience. “If you dig deeper you will find the world at large expects greater responsibilities from businesses. Your customer wants a greater experience, they want to be treated in a different way, they don’t want to be treated like a commodity. Businesses that go completely customer-centric are the ones that will thrive,” he says.

“The ultimate output of any organisation is the work. What you really need to do is breakdown the elements of work that you need done and co-relate it back to the two-three attributes like the culture, the innovation, the technology --how is those going to be addressed that you have set out to do and then using that you have to see how the elements of work get delivered.”

Dhawan feels employee experience along with customer experience drives a successful business. “In today's world everybody expects to be treated in a special way. Also given the state of economic development and social development that we have had. This is pretty much universal -- not just India specific – that you have to treat people special. The objective of any business organization apart from running the workforce is also to ensure that your customer is delighted, not just happy. In our organization, we used to talk about two elements, just two factors that drive the business -- talent and clients, and customers. If you don’t have talent you can't serve your customers and if you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business,” he says.

We are living in an experience driven economy. People everywhere want to be valued and prioritized. Good customer experience and employee experience have emerged to be the pillars of growth for any business. They provide long-term benefits, a loyal customer pool, increased sales, low acquisition cost. It is a win-win situation for the companies- that get their profits boosted, as well customers-who go home satisfied enjoying a superlative experience.

Nucleus Office Parks strives to create ‘spaces that speak’ through innovation in design and technology to enhance employee workplace experience vis-a-vis customer experience — which form the building blocks of Return on Experience. Click here to watch the complete ‘walk and talk’ series by Nucleus Office Parks.

Disclaimer: This article has been produced on behalf of Nucleus Office Parks by HT Brand Studio.