Today, service operations are tougher than ever. Although the old expectations of year-on-year cost reductions and increased customer satisfaction remain, as products commoditize in many sectors, the focus for differentiation is shifting more strongly than ever to service. Even for the most skilled, consistently delighting the customer in an omnichannel and 24/7 world is hard. And in the age of the internet, word of failure can travel fast.
Our experience across service businesses has shown that overcoming these challenges is possible but requires the ability to adopt a broad suite of tools. In Oliver Wyman’s new publication Rise of the Chameleon: Service Operations in the New Front Office, we present our experiences of how Operations leaders have managed the key challenges facing their organizations. Our article introduces six moves all operators should consider, to both adapt to today’s challenges but also remain flexible for continued changes in future. We share the very different behaviors that will be needed by operators and present the key questions every COO should ask assess their own performance.
• Authors:
o Narayan Nallicheri, Partner, Service Operations Practice Lead
o Christoph Knoess, Partner, Global Head, Strategic IT and Operations
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