Customer Experience in A/R – Do You Offer Buffet Or À La Carte?

“Customers want to be in the driver seat. Customers want to be able to access information real-time, and be able to log in to their system.”

-Tracie Duncan | Senior A/R Director, Adidas

The foundation of any successful business is great customer experience. Good reviews from customers lead to great branding. Ergo, understanding what the customer needs is indispensable. This could be accomplished in alliance with some change management and transformational technology.

The scope for improving customer experience

In the order to cash cycle, there’s an abundance of opportunities to enhance a customer’s experience such as:

• Invoicing Correctly: Invoicing is one of the most crucial aspects of the order to cash cycle. Hence, revolutionizing the invoicing process by offering online and real-time presentment of invoices and payment choices could have a positive impact on the supplier-customer relationship.
• Making A User-Friendly Process: The advent of artificial intelligence and transformational technology has made every nook and cranny of the world easy and friendlier. Hence, customers would warmly welcome a user-friendly process that is central to having a positive user experience.
• Easing the Execution for Payment: Talking about a user-friendly process and enhancing the invoicing process, the next step would be to optimize the payment process. An easier mode of payment with a variety of options is not only more efficient but hassle-free as well.
• Getting Feedback From the Customers: Feedback from customers, in turn, could help in understanding their pain points. Hence, it is essential in giving a customer the gratification of the seriousness regarding their concerns.

What are the biggest hurdles?

Hurdles are the stepping stone of any path we choose to walk. Nevertheless, hurdles in the O2C cycle could occur in the following areas:

• Building trust with the customers
• Accurately curating the invoices
• Getting IT support & other resources

In a heavily fragmented company, silo-mentality and cross-team collaboration with friction are some of the biggest hurdles. Building interdepartmental synergy and a proper flow of communication among the employees is the first step towards the ladder. Moreover, breaking the silo-mentality in the order-to-cash teams could help in achieving the common organizational goal- Revenue Growth with Minimum Risk Exposure.

What are the low hanging fruits in the field of customer experience?

The world is beautiful in all its tainted glory, but there’s always room for betterment.

Starting from chargebacks, communication, onboarding new customers, or providing a single platform for invoicing and payment processing, when we see things with that of a bird’s eye view and then look closely, we can find scopes that could be improved with AI. Keeping that in mind, some of the key points essential in enhancing the customer experience are as follows:

What are some of the best proctices in implementing change management and transformational technology?

“Be informed about what is available to help your organization. Understand the gaps in your organization and become more educated about the solutions so that you can make much more informed decisions.”

-Jason Herrington | VP, A/R, Shared Services, Employee Bridge

Apart from gathering information and staying aware, companies also need to focus on putting together some really solid plans and making sure that the agenda and objectives are well communicated among co-workers and FTEs. Maintaining transparency throughout the presentation and execution of a plan eases things out.

Are there any unexpected benefits?

There’s always a cherry on top and icing on the cake.

Reduced stress and working hours change the quality of life. It increases the capacity of FTEs to focus on key tasks such as dealing with client problems and going into depth. As a result, it changes the whole culture.

“Automating the cash application process leads to a quality of life change and a positive return of investment.”

-Jason Herrington | VP, A/R, Shared Services, Employee Bridge

How to deal with people aspect of change management, outside of the technology?

Well, of course, different sets of people will have different kinds of reactions. Some will adapt, while others will resist changes.

However, they have to see the benefits for themselves. Proper communication and intense training could improve their understanding of the “why, what, and how” behind the change. Companies could also work on phase implementation to gain confidence and build trust with their internal colleagues.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, improving customer experience improves the overall line of work, and there are huge scopes to achieve this provided one understands the customer’s pain points. From automation to a single platform for data or even real-time access, every big and small change adds up to one big USP, Customer Satisfaction. While Jason Herrington believes that fulfilling one’s commitment and sticking to their word builds better customer experience, Tracie Duncan’s faith lies in self-driven and real-time automation. What do you think?