People often underestimate the power of the back office, instead preferring to focus their attention on the front. Yet for forward-thinking businesses, the front office is just the tip of the iceberg; with its vast scale and scope, the back office actually offers the greatest opportunity for improvements that can result in faster services, cost effectiveness, business sustainability and a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
Although businesses have been improving the function of back offices for the past 20 years, not many developments have been made.<\/strong> Companies are still struggling to deliver real-time insight into day-by-day activity, meaning that managers are still unable to make fact-based decisions in order to improve productivity and efficiency. A new approach to back office management is needed – and it is here that the behind-the-scenes back office can take more than a few hints and tips from its customer-facing front office counterpart.<\/p>\n The link between front and back office operation when it comes to customer satisfaction and loyalty is staggering: 30-40% of the customer centre workload is generated by the back, while the front office reciprocates by generating 20-30% of back office work.<\/strong> All waste that can be eliminated. With customer loyalty being the aim of the game in today’s increasingly competitive market, it’s clear to see how important it is that both front and back work together seamlessly.<\/p>\n Yet, in comparison to the forward-thinking focus given to the front office, the back office processes remains dated. Issues with processing, siloed departments and conflicting data means that opportunities for improvement are frequently overlooked because the data is not transparent . In order to make noticeable improvements, managers need to be able to access real-time data to create a framework to understand and compare performance between functions and generate meaningful, actionable reporting.<\/p>\n\t Here is a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get.<\/p>\n