Customer Experience

When the customer

experience starts at home

To serve end customers better, begin with your employees.

Sylvie Bardaune, Sébastien Lacroix,

M AY 2 0 17
and Nicolas Maechler

1 © Zbigniew Nowak/Getty Images

Charity, the saying goes, begins at home. So too does The good news is that these efforts can run in
a superior customer experience. parallel with externally facing customer-experience
programs, each complementing and reinforcing
Growing numbers of companies are coming the other. This exercise delivers results. In our
to recognize the benefits of customer-centric experience, redesigning customer journeys raises
strategies: higher revenues, lower costs, and customer-satisfaction scores by 15 to 20 points,
stronger employee and customer loyalty. In the effort reduces costs to serve by 15 to 20 percent, and boosts
to transform customer journeys and refine direct employee engagement by 20 percent.1
interactions with clients, however, many companies
overlook the need to engage the whole organization, This article focuses on assessing the benefits of
including its support functions, in a customer- engaging support functions in customer-centric
centric transformation. transformations and defines the methodology and
principles for leading such programs successfully.
That’s unfortunate. Turning the support functions
(such as information technology, finance, human Why transforming internal services matters
resources, purchasing, and real estate) into excellent A superior customer-experience strategy goes well
customer-service operations is a powerful lever beyond making products and services as good as
to sustain and expand a full customer-centric they can be. It weaves a seamless web of “customer
transformation. It helps to create a new service culture first” activity that extends from the vision of
that deepens customer-centric efforts in all layers of boardroom executives to the individual actions
the organization. It promotes a longer-term impact of frontline workers in day-to-day exchanges
and the full engagement of the staff by applying with customers. The closer a company can align
the principles of customer excellence to employees’ its commitment to customer-centricity with the
journeys. At leading customer-centric companies, interests of its employees, the closer it will get to
such as Disney, creating great customer experiences achieving its customer-strategy goals.
begins with a common vision and requires an
engaged and energized workforce that can translate Yet many companies struggle to align themselves
individual experiences into satisfying end-to-end internally behind these goals. Some, like banks,
customer journeys. The logic of extending that face security and regulatory constraints that make
commitment inside, to support staff, is powerful. it hard to deliver internal services in a smooth and
quick way—for instance, tight criteria for storing
In our experience, successful large organizations and sharing data limit the access of employees to
think more and more about end-to-end multiple sources of information across locations.
transformations that focus on internal customers— Worried about noncompliance, some companies
their employees—as well as external ones, to gain a place extreme limits on themselves, hurting their
durable competitive edge. Not that this is easy to do. efforts to work efficiently, smoothly, and quickly.
Such efforts can take two or three years to execute One bank, for example, stored all its data at the
fully for all internal customer journeys. And rather highest level of confidentiality, restricting its
than being a kind of employee-satisfaction exercise, employees’ access to useful nonconfidential information.
typically conducted by the HR department, an effort
to bring support staff into a true culture of customer At other companies, siloed organizational functions
service requires clear and ambitious objectives, address individual touchpoints in a customer’s
earmarked resources, and involved sponsorship journey but leave no one responsible for the end-
from C-suite leaders. to-end experience. What’s more, in the search

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 for efficiency and the advantages of scale effects, value proposition to attract and retain talented
companies build large teams devoted to specific people. Moreover, encouraging a customer-first
topics, creating silos that disconnect support culture in support functions tends to inspire
functions from their users. Still other companies, back-office employees with a heightened sense
which emphasize their external image and customer- of ownership, which boosts their retention rates,
experience efforts to the detriment of internal just as it does in transformations of externally
services, treat support functions not as core drivers facing customer teams.
of corporate health but as targets for cost cutting.
ƒƒ Third, transforming the internal-customer
Such oversights can be costly. When companies fail experience will probably not only increase the
to maximize the quality of their internal services, satisfaction of employees but also help to cut
they disconnect the customer experience that their costs by increasing productivity, eliminating
employees encounter at work from the one they inefficiencies in processes, and reducing
aspire to create for their frontline people in dealing absences. For instance, digitizing manual
with customers. Françoise Mercadal-Delasalles, processes increases efficiency in a significant
group head of corporate resources and innovation at way and reduces wasted time for employees. In
the French bank Société Générale, says “that if our experience, such successful transformations
you want your front-end employees to be very good can cut the total cost of the journeys by 25 percent
at the relationship with their clients, then the core of within two or three years. These savings can be
the company, including the support functions reinvested in growth efforts and other projects.
in particular, has to be very good with the front”
(see “How good is your company’s internal customer Measuring and understanding internal-
experience?,” forthcoming on McKinsey.com). customer satisfaction
First and foremost, companies must understand
In short, the internal-customer experience often their employees’ level and drivers of satisfaction
lags behind the external one as a top-management with the working environment and services. We find
priority. That’s a shame because the implications for that the best approach is a structured one that truly
good customer service are many. reveals the sources of satisfaction and the way to
improve them. Too many companies do not measure
ƒƒ First, in our experience, the quality of internal employee satisfaction or the support functions’
services ultimately has a direct impact on performance effectively and so fail to understand
the experience of external customers. Which the needs of the employees using these internal
customer, for example, doesn’t rely on internal services. The result is a diminished opportunity to
services (such as IT) to define the customer take corrective action.
relationship? At one international airline, the IT
department failed to synchronize its front-office Why are companies ill equipped to assess internal-
tools with a new IT infrastructure. Without customer issues properly? Some put measuring
correct information on flights and bookings, employee satisfaction in the hands of the HR
employees couldn’t serve their customers, and department. Often, HR sends out employee-
that led to massive delays and flight cancellations. satisfaction surveys with disparate, generic
questions that don’t address the forces that drive
ƒƒ Second, in a competitive market for talented satisfaction or dissatisfaction and are disconnected
people, offering employees a seamless from the daily experience of work. That survey-
experience at work can be part of a company’s intense approach doesn’t help companies to

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understand the root causes of employee satisfaction a similar analysis is also possible for business-to-
and isn’t always followed by the appropriate business (B2B) services (for instance, IT services for
corrective action. Employees are left frustrated. IT operators).

A European bank, for example, discovered that its Defining the journeys of employees and preparing
employees were dissatisfied with their technology to survey them should follow a two-step approach.
and tools. To bridge the gap, it offered them tablets. First, you need to define a list of journeys to explore,
Most of these devices ended up ignored in drawers filtered by the criteria above. In most cases, only
because they were hard to use and full of technical ten journeys account for about 80 percent of
glitches. The bank thus added costs without making customer-satisfaction results. These journeys
its employees more satisfied. In the end, it generated are cross-functional by nature. It is therefore
additional frustration. important that key people responsible for all
departments that deliver services to employees
This missed opportunity highlights the need to gather to define the journeys and embrace the
assess in detail the drivers of internal customers’ customer perspective. Avoid trying to define
satisfaction before finding the right levers to improve it. journeys within organizational silos; for instance,
After launching a customer-satisfaction survey a journey like “I am a new employee in the firm”
devoted to the journeys of employees, the bank involves HR (to provide contracts and validations),
concluded that they were primarily dissatisfied not the purchasing office (to produce badges), the real-
with the obsolescence of the tools but rather with estate department (to secure an office), IT (to deliver
their complexity. Synchronizing passwords to log hardware and software), finance (to share bank-
onto applications, for instance, would have made account documentation), and so on.
the employees significantly more satisfied with
the hardware. Next, to ensure that the list is complete and
representative, test it with employees who use these
In many cases, companies choose to address their internal services. To survey employees about the
employees’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction in fine-grained elements of journeys, it is important to
the wrong way. Like many diagnoses of external- surface the details. In fact, the objective of surveying
customer experiences, employee-customer- employees about their satisfaction with internal
experience efforts often focus on touchpoints—the journeys is not just to assess it. Above all, this
individual interactions support staffers have effort aims to understand the elements that drive
with their colleagues—rather than on end-to-end satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the journeys and
customer journeys. That exposes a company to the in this way to identify and establish priorities for
possibility of failing to understand and improve its transforming them. To do so, the detailing exercise
users’ satisfaction because it can’t see blind spots should break down the steps employees go through
and misses important cross-functional issues. during these journeys, with input from those
who operate them and those who use them. Live
Defining and measuring internal satisfaction observation of the journeys should be part of the effort.
Measuring the satisfaction of employees with
internal services ought to involve a user-centric Analyzing the ratings and feedback gathered through
methodology. In most cases, these efforts focus the survey will help companies to understand:
on a set of 10 to 20 journeys that are relevant because
of their frequency, importance, or cost (Exhibit 1). ƒƒ what really influences employees’ satisfaction
While we illustrate this point for business-to- with internal services
consumer (B2C) services (such as IT for all employees),
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 ƒƒ the level of satisfaction with each of the journeys employee portal that aggregated all links to internal
requests and information about support functions.
ƒƒ what drives satisfaction or dissatisfaction with The IT team led the effort but didn’t analyze the
each journey needs of internal customers, test features with the
user base, or provide training on how to use them.
These findings will determine the priority areas After releasing the portal, employees were not using
for an effort to transform the internal-customer it at all, because it was complex and required several
experience.
Customer They will also2017
Experience help companies to avoid passwords for access. After a structured internal-
complex efforts
Customer Home that won’t be rewarded (Exhibit 2). customer-centric transformation, the company
Exhibit 1 of 3 refocused its efforts on improving journeys that
A European insurance company, for example, mattered more to employees. As a result, their
took more than a year to develop a comprehensive satisfaction with internal services increased significantly.

Exhibit 1 Employees embark on customer journeys, too.

Types of internal-customer journeys (B2C-company example)

I use my working environment inside the office (workstation, collaboration tools, building,
1
elevators, networks, etc).

2 I use my working environment from a remote location.

3 I use mobile devices to access collaboration tools, including email, chat, and browser.

I request new products or services related to my workstation setup, connectivity, collabora-

4
tion tools, etc.

5 I request new products or services related to my desk, office, or building.

I work through a problem related to my workstation setup, connectivity, collabora-

6
tion tools, etc.

7 I work through a problem related to my desk, office, or building.

8 I am a new employee or an employee starting in a new role.

9 I move office or my team moves office.

I look for or receive information about how to use my workstation, collaboration

10
tools, office elements, etc.

11 I need to develop or share my expertise on specific topics.

Source: McKinsey Customer Experience Survey 2016

5
 What do employees want? ƒƒ the overall time needed to complete tasks
Over the course of conducting several internal- required by support functions
customer-experience surveys at large companies,
Customer Experience 2017
we have drawn some conclusions about the major ƒƒ the effort required to go through processes
Customer Home
areas of dissatisfaction employees experience with involving support functions
Exhibit 2 of 3 2
internal services. Among them:
Our research has also helped us compile data
ƒƒ the availability and clarity of information on categories of employee needs and sources

Exhibit 2 A B2C internal-customer-journey prioritization matrix can help companies avoid complex efforts
that won't be rewarded.

Internal-customer satisfaction by journey type and size of response

30 1

20 3 9 5 4 8,278
2

3,541
6,685 6,265 5,888
10
8,089

Customer- 6
satisfaction 0 8
index1 7
3,541 6,379

–10
5,752
11
10
6,209
–20

2,000

–30
0 5 10 15

Journey’s relative weight in

overall satisfaction, %
Journey type
1 Working environment (office) 5 Office request 9 Move
2 Working environment (remote) 6 Hardware/software problem 10 Information sharing
3 Mobile devices 7 Office problem 11 Expertise development
4 Hardware/software request 8 New employee

1 Percentageof answers with 9–10 level of satisfaction minus percentage of answers with 1–6 level of satisfaction. Customer-satisfaction score is a
customer-loyalty measure that gauges how likely a customer is to recommend a product, service, or organization.
Source: McKinsey Customer Experience Survey 2016

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 of satisfaction and to develop a hierarchy of Managing a cultural transition to refocus support
what employees want from customer-centric functions on the customer. Although frontline
organizations (Exhibit 3). The more advanced a employees are constantly in touch with customers,
company is in its customer-centric thinking, the the support functions may well have become
more likely it is that the determinants of employee increasingly disconnected from them and developed
satisfaction will evolve from basic courtesy by their own purposes and motivations, detached
the staff to the availability and timely delivery from the company’s. To refocus support functions
of information and, finally, to an enjoyable and on the customer, organizations should mobilize a
seamless experience resolving problems and issues range of outreach efforts. These include creating an
on the first swipe. understanding of and a commitment to the need to
increase internal-customer satisfaction; reinforcing
internal-customer-satisfaction mechanisms,
Key success factors for conducting an including customer-feedback loops and incentives;
internal-customer-centric transformation building the skills and capabilities required to
As with any customer-centric transformation, an deliver services for internal customers; and modeling
internal-user-centric one requires organizations to desired behavior by the heads of support functions
put in place design and governance prerequisites: to demonstrate the importance of the internal-
customer experience.
One is establishing the right overall architecture—
setting a clear and aspiring vision, including a A bank, for instance, tried to encourage a customer-
change story; drawing up a governance blueprint; centric transformation of its support functions
drafting an initiative road map; and aligning the without stimulating this kind of cultural transition.
organization on metrics and objectives. In addition, By failing to create a sense of common purpose
to change mind-sets and behavior and to ensure and aspiration, the bank also failed to engage its
that the whole organization works to give internal employees. The result was only small-scale progress.
customers an outstanding experience, the company
must develop and implement purpose-driven Building strong links between the support units
change-management principles defining a new way and the business to ensure alignment of interests
to work. and close collaboration. One manufacturer
pursued a customer-centric transformation of the
Another prerequisite is setting up cross-functional information-technology department by putting
transformation teams representing all functions in place intermediary roles between IT and the
and departments involved in internal-customer business, to serve as an interface between them. The
journeys. To be autonomous and to test all relevant result: the IT teams became disconnected from the
ideas in a risk-free environment, the teams must run business, while the intermediaries didn’t convey
the transformation by defining their own rules and messages from the business to IT and vice versa
scoping out activities they could not undertake if effectively. By removing these roles, reestablishing
operating in a regular day-to-day environment. direct links between the two entities, developing
tools better suited to the needs of employees, and
Besides the traditional key success factors including them at all stages of product development,
encountered in customer-centric transformations the company significantly increased the satisfaction
generally, our experience running internal- of the business and IT operators alike.
customer-centric transformations has highlighted
factors specific to them:

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 Customer Experience 2017
Customer Home
Exhibit 3 of 3

Exhibit 3 The more advanced a company's customer-centric thinking, the more satisfied its employees
will be.

5 steps to increasing internal-

5
A seamless My issue is
customer satisfaction
experience resolved the
first time
around.

4
Minimal My issue is
delivery resolved with
time an acceptable
delay.

3
Minimal The level of effort I
effort to have to go
complete through is
task acceptable.

2 Clear and
available
information
I receive
clear and
transparent
information.

1
Courteous, The staff I am
helpful, and interacting with is
available courteous, helpful,
staff and available.

Source: McKinsey Customer Experience Survey 2016

Giving support units direct contact with internal Companies hoping to tap into the competitive
and external customer feedback relevant to advantages of a superior customer experience would
their actions. A private bank ran the customer- do well to look inward as well as outward. Including
centric transformation of the frontline and support employees in a culture of customer-centric thinking
functions in parallel. Employees of the support is a powerful way to build not only organizational
functions attended “client arenas,” where clients loyalty but also effective outreach to end customers.
shared their experience of and feelings about their
relationship with the bank. During these meetings,
1 Based on self-assessment of employees before and after
clients complained about constraints on activities
transformation efforts. Customer-satisfaction improvement
(such as making some transactions) because of
scores range from –100 to 100.
multiple restrictive compliance requirements. This 2 Based on several surveys on internal-customer satisfaction

was a decisive moment for the compliance function, conducted in past years across representative samples of more
which had resisted interacting with clients in the than 10,000 employees in each organization.

past. By standing in the shoes of the clients, the

Sylvie Bardaune is a consultant in McKinsey’s Paris
compliance team changed its purpose from acting
office, where Sébastien Lacroix and Nicolas Maechler
solely to protect the bank to providing a smooth
are partners.
customer experience while continuing to play its
protective role.
Copyright © 2017 McKinsey & Company.
All rights reserved.