Organizational alignment is essential to the success of any business. After all, you can’t fully harness your team’s collective expertise and effectiveness if each department is pulling in a different direction.
In fact, if your team is frequently struggling to deliver quality work on scope and on time, there’s a very good chance that a lack of organizational alignment could be the culprit.
A lack of organizational alignment not only renders your team less effective; it also fragments the customer experience.
In siloed organizations, departments fail to share critical information with one another. The outcome is isolated teams working with incomplete data sets – and a disjointed customer experience.
Alessandra Gyben lists the benefits of a well-aligned organisation here. As Gyben explains, well-aligned teams communicate well and are better able to collaborate on both ideas and processes. When data is kept up to date in one centralized place, strategic decisions can be made quickly and reliably. Plus, when each team member understands their individual role and the importance it plays within the bigger picture, teams enjoy greater engagement, transparency, and accountability.
When your organization is aligned and working as one efficient, well-oiled, cohesive super-team, your customer experience likewise improves.
So, what can you do to improve alignment within your organization? Here are four essential steps:
1. Establish your organization’s vision and goals.
Before you get into the nitty-gritty of fine-tuning your processes and operating procedures, you need to step back and have a good think about what your company’s overall vision and goals are. Then, make sure that these are clearly communicated to every single team member and employee, from the very top to the very bottom. After all, your team can only start working together towards common goals when everyone understands – and buys into – those goals.
2. Make sure that every single team member understands their role and responsibilities.
Obviously, for an employee to perform well, they need to properly understand the various tasks assigned to them. However, you need to take this understanding one step further, by making sure that each and every team member not only understands their own role, but also understands how their work impacts other team members. When everyone sees their own work as a critically important cog in a moving machine, a much higher level of accountability – and therefore quality – is achieved.
3. Encourage open communication and transparency.
Organizational alignment can only be achieved in the context of a non-hostile environment of open communication. From the moment a team member is hired, encourage them to ask questions, share information, and offer feedback as often as possible. When teams value open communication, data is readily and easily shared between departments, resulting in greater team efficiency and a smoother, more coherent customer experience.
4. Invest in technology that both facilitates alignment and improves the customer experience
A traditional CRM system is a useful tool for fostering team alignment. CRM systems allow your team to store customer data in one centralized place, thereby keeping everyone in the marketing and sales teams on the same page. What CRM systems don’t do, however, is manage the customer experience.
Morphed’s Customer Portal works hand-in-glove with your CRM system to manage the customer experience. Prospects and customers are invited into the portal to engage with your brand, purchase services, and make payment, all in one intuitive, frictionless experience.
When your team is internally aligned and your prospects and customers are given the right tools to engage with your brand, your customer experience will raise the bar.
Curious to see the Customer Portal in action? Watch this video to see our technology in action or schedule a demo with a team member.
