Engaging Raving Fans Through Value Realization

In 2019, we launched ARG’s value realization process. The process builds on the business value identification in our consulting process and carries it beyond deployment to ensure that our clients fully implement and operationalize the benefits of new technology. A year following the value realization rollout, we sat down with ARG Chief Experience Officer (CXO), Heather Campbell, to see what impacts this initiative has had on our clients. With over 23 years of experience in all facets of a technology agency business, Heather has met with thousands of companies and hundreds of service providers. She’s seen what works, and what doesn’t, and put that knowledge into play as we rolled out the program.

Why Value Realization?

Providers profit the most from “as-a-Service” technology when they leverage service models such as do-it-yourself installation, training documents, portals, FAQs, and online troubleshooting libraries. However, these cloud-based solutions can drastically impact the user experience. Technologies like Virtual Desktop and Unified Communications can significantly change the way that users access and complete their work on a day-to-day basis. Unfortunately, service providers rarely give these disruptions the attention they deserve.

At ARG, we know that helping users adjust to new technology is critical to the deployment and overall success of our clients’ business. While self-service methods of support are acceptable to many users, these techniques don’t address the entire workforce. As we refined our client experience organization, we spoke to clients about what would help them be more successful and then applied that feedback to our process. We added human contact where the providers push automation and built our team’s KPIs on the activities that yield success for our clients.

What does Value Realization look like?

ARG’s value realization process goes beyond on time, on budget, and on punch list management. It ensures that we have met all the client’s success criteria for the project. After the new solution “goes live”, our dedicated Client Experience Managers (CXMs) are onsite with our clients to help field questions, coordinate training and wrap up loose ends. Value Realization also incorporates end-user training and scheduled user adoption check-ins. Once the dust settles, we follow up for executive confirmation that the business is fully realizing the desired benefits. We also schedule regular meetings and touchpoints to roll out additional features to help enhance the client and end-user experience at a digestible pace.

What’s next?   

We launched the process with a focus on the solutions where we saw the biggest disruption to end-users – Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and Desktop as a Service (DaaS). Since rolling out value realization, we have received glowing feedback from clients on the positive impacts of their technology deployments. We are excited to expand the process to cover additional products and services as we move forward.

Hand in hand with our value realization process, we work closely with service provider partners to quickly resolve any issues that arise and to continually improve the deployment experience. Our team works closely with provider partners to quickly resolve any issues that arise. We also push to understand if the underlying problems are avoidable knowing that if the fundamental causes go unaddressed, the cumulative effect will be decidedly negative for that client and the next.

Our goal is not to create satisfied customers, but to turn satisfied customers into raving fans by delivering as many “wow” moments as possible. We are able to achieve this by always challenging whether we could have prevented an issue from occurring as well as by striving to improve our process to control as much of the client experience as possible.

If you’d like to experience value realization, email us at info@myarg.com or click below.