A good organisational process delivers customer value. So it is advisable to connect the customer process with the organisational process. Those who do not put the customer at the centre of the process are missing the point. This is a new insight for many organisations: people (too) often only describe organisational processes, with the customer or citizen playing a marginal role.
In my earlier blog post Trends in digital process management, I mentioned the connection between customer and organisational processes as one of the key
trends.
Bringing separate worlds together
Organisations are increasingly focusing on processes that directly affect customer experience and satisfaction. Business process management (BPM) is used to identify and streamline these processes, leading to a better customer experience.
But the customer must then be put at the centre of the process, from start to finish. This can only be done by bringing together everyone involved in the 'end-to-end' process: the process actors, process analysts, process managers, service design specialists and other specialists. Together, they can optimise the entire process.
The people who analyse and optimise organisational processes cannot be out of touch with the people who analyse and optimise customer journeys. Unfortunately, this is still often the case in practice, with negative consequences.
Those who focus only on the customer process miss the 'hard core' organisational processes that are badly needed to make the whole process work well. Those who focus primarily on the organisational processes and 'add' the customer will never achieve an optimal customer experience or may even deliver little or no value for the customer.
Truly 'end-to-end' thinking
An example from government of truly 'end-to-end' thinking is the UK government website GOV.UK. The people behind this website - or 'services platform' as they prefer to call it themselves - explain how they see an 'end-to-end' process.
In the article What do we mean when we talk about services, they describe a 'whole service' as "an end-to-end process from start to finish, front to back, across all touch points."
The illustration above shows the 'whole service' from start to finish and with all processes and across all channels. "From when the user starts trying to achieve a goal to when they finish.
In the article Building end-to-end services into GOV.UK, you can read how they approach this new thinking in practice. "We have just launched our first service page - for learning to drive. Now we plan to use this approach for other services on GOV.UK as well. This is how we embed end-to-end service design in GOV.UK - the home of digital government."
What's in a name
What doesn't help is that everyone gives this idea of connecting customer processes with organisational processes a different name. For instance, you might also come across the name 'Service Blueprint'.
The Service Blueprint (service blueprint) is an applied process map that shows the service delivery process from the customer's perspective. The service blueprint is one of the most widely used tools to manage service operations, service design and service.
The commercial world has long embraced the concept of 'Service Blueprint'. The illustration below visualises the process from a customer wanting to attend an event to the customer leaving the event.
Meet the trends in BPM training
Want to know more about the role of BPM in digital transformation and connecting customer processes with organisational processes?
Erik Hartman gives a 4-day BPM training course on 16, 17, 23 and 24 April. Here, you will get all the tools, methodologies and best practices to optimise the value and efficiency of your processes and then automate them.
The training is practice-oriented; starting from the first day, you work on your own case. On the fourth day, you present the case using everything you have learned. The following week, you can immediately start working with this case in your organisation.
Subscribe today! (10% off with the code 'NEWSLETTER-24')
